CASE STUDY: Fullsharing · Easily track all your shared expenses
To read this case study in spanish please visit this link:https://laracordobapuerto.medium.com/case-study-fullsharing-registra-f%C3%A1cilmente-todos-tus-gastos-compartidos-43888d95128a
In week 4 of the bootcamp it was time to do our first individual project (yay!). Our main purpose was to come across a problem statement related either with finances or wellness. From our problem statement, we would have to conduct a research to determine which was the main problem that we had to solve firstly (UX) and we’d design a user-centered solution to our main problem according to the insights of our research (UI).
🙋🏽♀️ TEAM
Individual
⏰ TIEMPO
2 weeks
❓ PROBLEM STATEMENT
Young couples that live together need an easy and efficient way to share their expenses and pay without having to open a shared bank account.
UX
Empathizing
In this starting phase of the research, I began by conducting a series of guerrilla interviews and surveys with couples of my environment to find out what were the most common dynamics and behaviors regarding the organization of their finances: whether or not they shared expenses, what kind of expenses they shared, if they somehow tracked their expenses… Once I gathered certain information, I launched the final surveys and interviews in order to collect as much useful information as possible.
Finally I got 22 surveys and 7 interviews, which, having in mind that it was the fourth week of the bootcamp and my first individual project, was quite acceptable. As for the insights from these surveys and interviews, they were very interesting and gave me many points to start from with my project. On the one hand, 100% of the interviewees shared expenses with their partners, which is interesting considering the number of people who were interviewed individually. The main benefits associated with sharing expenses mentioned by the users interviewed/surveyed are savings and comfort. In addition, they mentioned flexibility as a very important added value, since 63.2% of the couples studied did not contribute the same amount each month, but rather their contribution was measured according to their individual economy, which allowed the couple to live more comfortably.
As for the disadvantages of sharing expenses, users mainly mentioned the lack of control and the difficulty of saving at the end of the month. Since they did not have a shared bank account, they pointed out the difficulty of tracking down how much money they spent per month in total between the two of them, as well as generating certain statistics on fixed expenses such as electricity, water or their flat rent. This situation of lack of control meant that, on the one hand, they ended up spending many months more money than they expected and, on the other hand, it made it impossible for them to save in most cases. These two disadvantages frustrated users a lot, although they never weighed as heavily as the advantages of sharing expenses.
When asked about how they tracked their expenses, only 15% of the users interviewed and surveyed tracked their expenses, but none of them in detail. The way of tracking these expenses was checking once a week their bank accounts or entering certain important expenses (electricity, water or rent) in an Excel table.
Defining
Once I had written down all the insights from the previous stage, I was able to fill in the Lean UX Canvas with all the information, which gave me a global vision of my project and the areas which could grow in the future. The next obvious step was to draw a User Persona to be able to empathize more easily with the user of my product and develop a User Journey with which to identify the weak points of the expense-sharing process where my potential solution could fit.
As shown in the User Journey above, based on the insights obtained from the surveys and interviews, my product had to interfere, mainly, in the way in which couples track their expenses and how they organize themselves to be able to save at the end of the month. With this tool along with the Affinity Diagram that I created afterwards, I was able to determine which features had to be developed in my MVP.
However, there were some features that came up from the research conducted and that were discarded thanks to a MoSCoW analysis like a debts and benefits system whereby the app would inform each member of the couple who owes money to whom, an option inside the app where the user could pay their debts to the other member connecting with Bizum or just adding a payment method of their preference, a piggy bank system and, finally, push notifications to remind the user to track down their expenses. In order to choose the features that were finally going to be developed in the MVP I addressed the main requirement of the users, which was to have a better control of their shared finances.
Ideate
In this stage of the project I developed the Affinity Diagram where I brainstormed possible solutions to all the problems that had appeared in the previous research. As I mentioned before, and thanks to a MoSCoW analysis, I decided to focus on the two main pain points that usually come up in young couples who share expenses: the difficulty to save at the end of the month and the lack of control over the money they tend to spend.
For the first pain point I decided to propose a solution that would include monthly and yearly statistics and charts of the couple’s expenses, both individually and jointly, so that users could see the money they spend per month and compare it with other months, as well as detect if they are managing to save or, on the contrary, they must reduce expenses in future months to reach their goal.
On the other hand, to get more control over the money they spend and keep track of it effectively, the solution I chose was a system for tracking expenses that would be recorded in a monthly history, where the user could add the expenses made per day (supermarket, delivery, electricity…). These expenses could be repeated over time (such as a Netflix subscription, which is a recurring expense every month) or a one-time expense. This way, the couple could add the expense at the time it occurs, indicating when it was made, who of the two members carried it out and the concept of the expense so it was easier for them to remember it.
Once I planned the main features, I started working on the architecture of the information of what would be my finance app by defining the Sitemap and, later, the Userflow of the two main parts of the MVP.
Finally, I started to draw the first screens of my prototype with the help of a Crazy 8, which laid the foundations for what would later become the Low-fi.
Prototype + testing:
From the Low-fi and the first testings with several users, I began to outline the Mid-fi prototype. In this prototype I started to define the spacing of the expense cards, as well as the shape of the main buttons. In addition, I was able to determine the number of elements that the tab bar of my digital product would have. Once the Mid-fi was finished, I tested the product once again and was surprised to find out that most of the users performed the tasks with almost no complications.
UI
The second week of the project was dedicated to the UI of the MVP I would have to present, starting by sketching a moodboard that reflected the values and the look and feel of my product. In a desirability test that was carried out with the moodboard images the users came up with the most significant characteristics of the brand: functional, creative and reliable.
Afterwards, I began to explore color palettes that matched the brand I had created and would be reflected in the final product. Of all the options I considered, I finally chose a palette that included black and white as the main and secondary colors, and a bluish tone as an accent color. This palette turned out to be quite functional, as the accent color stood out well among the black and white and fulfilled its main function, which was to guide the user through the flow.
Once I had defined the colors and typography, I started testing them out on the Mid-fi to define certain graphic elements such as shadows, tab bar symbols, font size for each section and spacing between texts, among others. This way I was able to simultaneously draw a small Style tiles with the graphic elements of the app.
Having almost all the screens of my High-fi prototype ready, I could finally put together the UI Kit of the project. I worked with light shadows and spacing in Base 8, and, by designing the whole project in Figma, I created a design system that made it quite easy for me to compose the screens.
Finally, and reaching the tenth and last day of the project, I managed to put together an MVP, Fullsharing, which allowed young couples to record their day-to-day expenses to keep track of them, as well as access statistics and graphs of expenses on a monthly and annual basis to control their finances easily and efficiently.
Learnings
This first individual project made me realize how important it could be to have a team behind to support and help us make the most important decisions and get out of “blocker” moments. During these two weeks, I missed all the colleagues I had had so far.
However, having recognized the value of a team of designers when developing a product, in this first project I also learned to know myself better and organize my timings. During the whole process I found myself quite comfortable working individually, which also made me value my effort and my work.
In addition, I would like to highlight the timing organization as a key learning for this project. For me it was very important to determinate which hours of the day I was going to use as a resting time and which times would be working time. This timing was essential to reach the last day of these two weeks and be able to present a complete and realistic M.V.P.
