Rebuilding What Was Broken:
Designing a Trauma-Informed Financial Platform For 23.5 Million People In Addiction Recovery
Client:
TrueWorth
Project:
App Design
Role:
UX Research
UX Design
Visual/UI Design
Interaction Design
Sector:
Fintech, Healthtech, Social Impact
Target Users
Individuals in recovery from alcohol or substance abuse seeking tools and guidance to address the financial consequences of addiction.
Tools:
Figma, FigJam, Adobe CC, Useberry, AI Image Generation
Deliverables:
User Interviews, Affinity Clustering, Stakeholder Map, User Matrix, Persona, Journey Map, Competitive Analysis, Sitemap, Card Sorting, User Flows, Sketches, Low-fidelity Wireframes, Prototype, Design System
The Financial Reality Many Individuals Face After Active Addiction
The Problem
For many people in recovery, the journey toward stability includes much more than putting down their drug of choice. It includes rebuilding their financial lives. Periods of active addiction often leave behind serious financial consequences—poor credit, missed payments, legal fines, DUI costs, unfiled taxes, and gaps in employment. Traditional financial tools often fail to account for these complex circumstances, leaving many individuals without the guidance and support needed.
Data highlights the scale of this issue: 60% of people in recovery report struggling to manage their finances, 70% need to take responsibility for past financial harm, 65% owe money to creditors, and 30% need to improve their credit history. These realities show that while recovery programs often provide strong emotional and behavioral support, many individuals still lack the tools to rebuild their relationship to money with confidence.
User Research Revealed A Hidden Barrier: Shame Around Past Money-Related Mistakes
11 qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals in sobriety ranging from 9 months to 37 years. The conversations explored participants’ financial histories, emotional relationships with money, and the challenges they faced while rebuilding their lives post-addiction.
The interviews revealed strong patterns: 10 participants described experiencing shame or trauma related to past money decisions, 10 needed to actively rebuild their financial lives, 10 owed at least one financial amends, while 9 acknowledged stealing or lying to support their addiction, and 6 expressed feeling judged for their financial situation, highlighting the emotional sensitivity surrounding financial recovery. These insights underscore the need for a trauma-informed financial platform that provides guidance, accountability, and support without reinforcing stigma.
Interviews
11 qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with a trauma-informed research approach
Participants
Individuals in recovery with 9 months to 37 years of sobriety from alcohol and drug abuse
Research Insights
10 out of 11 interviewees had significant economic wreckage due to active addiction
Personal Finance Education And Support Emerged As An Urgent Need
Affinity clustering helped to reveal clear patterns: many participants had experienced substantial financial disruption as a result of active addiction. For many individuals, financial mismanagement continued into recovery due to low self-esteem, difficulty trusting their own decisions, and unhealthy behaviors towards money. Interviews also revealed participants had strong feelings of shame and negative beliefs about their financial situations, which often prevented them from seeking help or building healthier financial habits. Notably, seven participants expressed a desire for financial guidance or education, highlighting an opportunity to design supportive tools that help users develop better financial decision-making skills.
Mapping the Ecosystem of Recovery and Financial Behavior
The stakeholder map (left) illustrates the broader network of people and organizations that are affected by addiction and financial instability. At the center are individuals in recovery along with close support systems like spouses, family members, and sponsors. Surrounding them are professional support networks, addiction counselors, psychiatrists, case managers, and financial literacy educators. The outer layer expands to institutional stakeholders such as government agencies, employers who hire people in recovery, banks serving underserved populations, and recovery-focused programs. This layered view highlights how recovery and financial rebuilding are supported by a network of personal, professional, and institutional stakeholders.
The user matrix (right) maps research participants across two key axes: financial literacy vs. economic hardship and personal growth vs. shame. Many participants cluster in the lower quadrants, indicating high financial hardship combined with feelings of shame or limited financial knowledge.
Why Financial Recovery Needs Its Own Additional Support System
While programs like AA provide essential emotional and behavioral support, they often lack structured financial guidance. Although sobriety fosters awareness and accountability, it doesn’t necessarily equip individuals with financial literacy or long-term planning strategies. Identifying this gap highlights the need for additional resources that support financial recovery.
A competitive analysis was conducted on organizations focused on recovery and financial rebuilding, evaluating their educational resources, counseling services, program structure, cost, and accountability systems. Findings revealed a gap in personalized support, particularly in helping individuals take ownership of financial decisions and rebuild stability through guided practices.
The Complex Journey From Active Addiction To Emotional And Financial Sobriety
The journey map and persona illustrate the emotional and behavioral progression of a person moving from active addiction toward financial recovery. In the early stages, addiction often leads to job loss, strained relationships, and mounting financial troubles. As debt and legal consequences accumulate, individuals frequently experience guilt, shame, and overwhelm, which can lead to avoidance and delay in addressing financial problems.
During early sobriety, individuals begin rebuilding their lives through treatment, recovery meetings, sponsorship, and support networks. While hope and accountability begin to emerge, many lack the financial knowledge and confidence needed to repair past financial damage. This becomes particularly evident when individuals identify financial amends but lack the framework to manage debt or repay it effectively.
Financial recovery is rarely integrated into the stages of sobriety, even though it remains a persistent challenge. This presents an opportunity to design supportive financial tools that combine education, mentorship, and responsibility to help individuals confront economic hardship alongside recovery.
Guiding Users from Financial Burden to Economic Empowerment
So, how might we empower individuals in recovery to take control of their finances with confidence? The solution is TrueWorth, a nonprofit mobile app designed to support in-person mentorship with accountability, compassion, and personalized guidance.
The MVP includes three core features: Mentor Matching, Financial Dashboard, and a Rewards System. Mentor Matching pairs users with trained financial mentors based on their goals, needs, and life/recovery circumstances. The Financial Dashboard offers visibility into financial progress, goal tracking, and actionable insights that help users build stability over time. The Rewards System reinforces positive behaviors by celebrating financial milestones and progress. Through behavioral incentives and opportunities to give back—an important element in many recovery programs—the feature encourages long-term engagement and a sense of purpose.
MVP Solution
TrueWorth, a nonprofit mobile app designed to support in-person mentorship with three MVP features
-
Mentor Matching
-
Financial Dashboard
-
Rewards System
Impact
Savings driven by improved financial decision-making
-
$11.7B+ in annual collective
-
$10,000/year average is spent by families supporting someone with addiction (legal fees, healthcare, and debt related to using.)
Structuring The TrueWorth Platform Around Clear User Needs
Interaction design and visual UI were led with a strong foundation, beginning with the development of a sitemap to organize content hierarchy. The sitemap is structured around four primary user pillars: Financials, Resources, Mentor, Profile, and Rewards. Each branch represents a mental model and logistical framework that helps users manage money, learn, get support, track progress, and reach milestones.
Mapping User Mental Models to Simplify Trueworth’s Navigation
To better understand how users naturally categorize information, closed card sorting exercises were conducted to evaluate whether the initial information architecture aligned with their expectations. The results revealed several mismatches between the sitemap structure and how participants intuitively grouped features. These insights guided refinements to labeling, navigation, and feature placement to create a more intuitive experience.
Milestones
"Milestones" were associated with progress instead of monetary rewards. Responses were evenly distributed across Profile (33%), Financial Overview (33%), and Mentor Portal (33%). To align with this perception, the feature was renamed "Rewards", reinforcing the motivational aspect of reaching financial goals.
Upload Documents
No participants placed “Upload Documents” within the Financial Dashboard. Most categorized it under Profile, suggesting users viewed document uploads as part of account management rather than financial activity. Based on this insight, the feature was relocated under Accounts as an Add New action.
Tasks to Complete
Only 17% of participants placed “Tasks to Complete” within the Financial Dashboard, while 67% associated it with Profile. Although users perceived tasks as account-related, the feature was intentionally positioned under Plan within the Financial Dashboard to support financial goal tracking.
Structuring the User Experience Around Support, Accountability, and Progress
To translate MVP features into interaction design, three core user flows were developed.
User Flow #1: Onboarding & Mentor Matching
This flow collects financial, emotional, and logistical information to enable accurate mentor matching. The sequence follows users’ natural priorities, addressing debt first, then emotional stress, then future goals, which creates trust while guiding users to personalized support.
User Flow #2: Financial Dashboard & Task Completion
This flow centers on the financial overview, focusing on key areas such as Goals, Plan, Debt, and Budget. Users can view, prioritize, and complete action items, reinforcing accountability and making progress visible and actionable.
User Flow #3: Rewards System
This flow introduces behavioral incentives where users earn points for taking positive action, which can be redeemed for personal use or donated to a newcomer, strengthening motivation and community engagement.
Evaluating Layout Concepts To Improve Flows And Interactions
Early dashboard sketches explored different ways to structure financial information to reduce cognitive load and encourage confident decision-making. The concept on the left focuses on goal progression, using a linear list with completion indicators. Replacing generic labels with specific, action-based language improved clarity, while task-based navigation aligned with user mental models. However, a clearer hierarchy between Plan, Goals, and dashboard elements was needed to reduce redundancy and guide next steps.
The concept on the far right used a modular grid (Goals, Debt, Plan, Mentor, Credit, Budget) to support quick scanning and equal visibility across categories. Progress indicators like “3 Active” or “2/10 Complete” helped reinforce achievement. To further improve usability, the design called for surfacing urgent items and clear next action steps, shifting the dashboard from passive status display to guided decision. The final screens evolved from the modular grid concept, which best balances clarity, structure, and actionability.
Transforming the Dashboard into a Guided Financial Recovery Tool
Early wireframes for the financial dashboard included a supportive message, “You are Worth it!”, which offered encouragement but did not provide direction. In the final design, this was replaced with a personalized Debt Priority Strategy card, which highlights the highest-priority task, helping users immediately understand their most critical financial focus, estimated time, and benefit.
Upcoming payments in the wireframe displayed only dates and amounts, lacking context about consequences or outcomes. The high-fidelity adds a Benefits section that explains how completing tasks helps users avoid penalties or improve their standing. Providing this context strengthens motivation and supports better decision-making. The original wireframe did not include indicators of progress. The final interface introduces status metrics such as active goals, completed tasks, and overdue items, providing feedback and reinforcing accountability.
Creating a More Human-Centered Onboarding Experience That Reduces Emotional Friction
Early onboarding wireframes presented user goals within a compact dropdown list with radio buttons. While functional, this structure compressed multiple options into a single container and required users to expand and scan through items, increasing effort. It also only allowed for one answer per question. In the final design, each option is presented as an individual card-style selection with larger tap targets, clear spacing, and grouped sections. This layout improves readability and gives users the option to select all answers that apply, giving more content to the mentor matching.
The language evolved to better reflect users’ emotional mindset during financial recovery. Initial labels such as “Pay Down Debt” and “Pay Back Amends” were clear but felt somewhat transactional. Phrasing shifted toward more supportive and recovery-aligned, empathetic language, which helps users feel understood rather than judged.
Early wireframes relied only on back and forward buttons for navigating the questionnaire, giving users little sense of where they were in the process. The final design adds a progress bar and step indicator at the top of the screen. This small addition shows users how far they’ve progressed and how much of the onboarding experience remains.
Establishing The Design System Foundation For A Consistent And Accessible Interface
Token Structure
Tokens are organized into four core categories: surface, border, icons, and text. This structure creates a consistent visual language, improves accessibility and contrast control, and streamlines collaboration to scale efficiently. These tokens map the core color palette to specific UI roles, enabling the interface to adapt seamlessly across light and dark themes.
Responsive Typography Variables
To maintain readability and visual hierarchy, the design system uses responsive typography variables that control key typographic properties—font size, line height, and paragraph spacing—for both desktop: 1440px and mobile: 440px. Each text style dynamically adjusts to maintain proportional hierarchy across screen sizes.
Typographic Hierarchy
The system defines a full typographic scale using semantic styles for headlines and subheads.
These heading levels scale down slightly on mobile to maintain visual balance. Multiple paragraph sizes support different information hierarchy: large paragraph, medium paragraph, standard body text, small paragraph and extra small paragraph. Font sizes scale down on smaller screens while line height and paragraph spacing adjust accordingly for readability and accessibility.
Solution Related Outcomes
-
$2,500–$4,000 average debt reduction per year for active users
-
Users can increase their savings rate by 8–12%
-