The Problem
The main challenge is creating a user-friendly and intuitive mobile app to be used by young professionals who are using a shared bank account with their partner. Using a modern interface, similar to most banking / finance apps available on the market, the users will be able to jointly manage their account from one place, tracking their spending and view their transactions, checking their credit score and sending messages to each other via the app.
The Product
Dime Money is a fictional expenses management app, built for young professionals who are using a shared bank account, wanting to easily track their budget with their partner and make better decisions on how much they spend. The goal is to create a simple and straightforward product solution to track spending for joint accounts.
The Goals
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Create a modern and clean user interface (high-fidelity design) for mobile use
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Create and provide a simplified user experience to be used jointly by the target audience
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Create usable prototypes that can be tested by the users and improved based by their feedback
The Design Process
I've started the design process with analysing similar expense management apps players on the market and the user journeys for each use case. Then, I've combined these insights with some customer feedback from users who were using similar apps, discovering some of the pain points and their experiences. Based on this information, I have started putting together the user flows, replicating the process into the creation of the high-fidelity designs and the prototype. Lastly, the prototype was tested remotely through 5 usability testing sessions to observe how the users interacted with the app and to get their feedback on this experimental solution. The general feedback was good in the sense that users embraced the idea of having a one-stop-shop to view transactions and manage spending from a joint account, however they have suggested a couple of improvements and recommendations.
Discovery research - user interviews
I have interviewed five users using similar expense tracking apps such as Honeydue, Mint or Goodbudget via Teams in order to collect real-time insights on the feedback they have while they have used these applications.
Below are a few sample questions used in the interviews:
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How often do you use the app to track your spending for your joint account?
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How simple it is to use this mobile app?
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What do you like about this mobile app? Any specific feature / functionality?
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Have you faced any challenges while using the app? If yes, can you name at least one?
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Do you think the current app you are using needs further improvement?
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Would you use a different mobile app in the future?
Takeaways
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It is inconvenient at times that the transactions are not showing up instantly so we have to wait a couple of days for the app to show those properly
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Some users mentioned they have to manually add their purchases as the app does not link to their joint bank account, which is time-consuming
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The users mentioned they would've preferred to have the option to schedule payments or to have reminders for their upcoming payments to make sure those are paid on time
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A feature to 'leave a message' within the app to the other user has been mentioned as a nice-to-have feature
User Personas
User Flow: Check transactions & send message
User Flow: Schedule payment & budget planner
User Interface
Log in screen
View transaction
Budget planner
Schedule payment success
Choose profile screen
View full transactions
Schedule payment
Credit score check
Home screen
In-app chat
Scheduled payment visual confirmation
Main menu options
Prototype
Check transactions
Budget planning & schedule payment
Usability testing
I have run 6 usability testing sessions (moderated) using the high fidelity prototype. The users were asked to complete the following tasks:
First task
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Open the app and choose which account you want to log in as (SSO enabled)
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Once you've logged in, browse around and see how you can view your detailed transactions for each category
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Check the full transaction details for one of the category of your choice
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Find the in-app chat/messaging function and see if it shows an option to send a message to your partner
Second task
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Open the app and choose which account you want to log in as (SSO enabled)
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Once you've logged in, from the burger menu in the right-hand side, find the budget planner
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Once landed on the 'budget planner' screen, try and use the slider to change amounts for each expense category
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Click on the arrow next to a category and try and schedule a payment
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Schedule the payment successfully
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From this screen, go back to the budget planner and from the hamburger menu at the top, check your credit score
After the tasks were completed, I asked each user to provide feedback in terms of their experience in using the app. The purpose was to allow me to assess the usability of the solution implemented compared with the current app. Below are the set of questions asked:
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What was your overall experience while using the prototype app?
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What did you like most about using the app?
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What did you like least about using the app?
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How would you compare this prototype to the similar expense management apps currently on the market?
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Did you feel the user journey was intuitive and easy to understand while doing the tasks?
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Would you use this app version instead of the current one if it was to be released? if not, why?
Answers:
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I felt this is a one-stop-shop for everything expense-related. Straight to the point and easy to use. Compared to other apps out there, what I like about this is the way it incorporates a simple way for 2 people to use.
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I liked the fact that it's minimalist and super easy to use. I was looking for something to be able to manage my joint account. One thing i would suggest to be more efficient, would be the ability to add your other accounts in here (like link other bank accounts).
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I think it's simple enough and it does exactly what is needed. Compared to other apps where sometimes you have to add the expenses manually, this one shows them automatically which is great. The budget planner and the AI functionality that suggests how much to put aside to make payments based on previous trends it's really cool. I haven't seen this anywhere else as part of expense management app. However it might be a costly functionality to add which would make the app probably more expensive.
Interactive prototype
Conclusion
To conclude, the project was positively received during the usability testing. The prototype proved to be easy to use and and proved to deliver the required/expected needs in terms of the app's purpose. When recreating the user flows and user interface I focused on simplifying the journey for 2 users to be able to use it jointly. There are quite a few expense management apps on the market but not many focusing on a joint account. Being able to categorise expenses automatically or schedule payments instantly were set to be default functionalities as found in my user research. However, as part of the feedback from the user testing, for the AI functionality to be integrated, might raise the costs of the app itself which might be a show-stopper and would discourage people to use it as price is an important factor. Another thing to consider was being able to link more bank accounts or credit cards as part of the app to have all of them in one space and users not having to juggle between separate apps. All in all, the prototype and product was well-perceived with a huge potential for success if implemented and released for real.
