UX Designer | UI Designer | UX Researcher | Information Architecture
Visual Prototype | 6 weeks
I was taught a lot of things while growing up, but not how to track my finances. I used to think that it would be too tiresome to keep track of how I spent my money, but once I noticed that I was running out of cash quickly every month, I knew something had to be done.
At my current stage in life, I can see that financial management is an essential life skill because it keeps you ahead of the game. Keeping track of your expenses can be boring but is a vital habit to develop if you want to make smart financial decisions.
The internet has made payment for goods and services a simple experience, thanks to smart cards and contactless pay, it's so easy to spend over your limit. The truth is we aren't interested in devoting the time and effort required to track our finances, and as a result, don't make well-informed financial decisions. As a designer, my goal is to create a digital, user-friendly product that will encourage people to develop a habit of tracking their expenses.
CurrentSee is an app created to help people keep track of their money flow and stay on top of their expenses
I began my research by conducting a competitive audit on 4 financial applications to see how easy it was to log expenses and whether they connected to the user's bank account information.
I evaluated their main features and noticed that the majority of these apps are geared toward budgeting rather than tracking your cash flow. They are also linked to the user's bank account, leaving no room for those who are hesitant to connect apps to their bank accounts directly.
The Five Cents app made it easy to manually document expenses in the least time possible, and there was an effective outcome because that information wasn't dependent on the user's bank information.
I realized that several of these apps could help individuals manage their finances, but none of them was integrated with smartwatches.
I interviewed 11 people who have stable sources of income, within the age range of 18-45 to gather crucial insights on their spending habits, how they document their expenditures, their current finance tracking app, why they use it and their frustrations.
I discovered from my research that there are 3 typical kinds of people when it comes to money spending and management
These people have a conservative attitude towards money and believe that they should only spend on the primary things they need and nothing outside their budget.
The minimalist is most cognizant of their money flow.
These are people that enjoy buying whatever item attracts their attention. This could also mean buying the latest gadget or things they don't necessarily need.
They have an obsessive drive to spend their money and they could go as far as exceeding their budgets just to satisfy their desires.
Consumers find it hard to keep track of their expenses
These people have learnt how to easily separate their wants from their needs and so they are more likely to buy only what they need. They may indulge in occasional overspending, but they are aware of their financial situation and would search for the best offers.
The thrifty strive to remain on top of their finances, yet they frequently lose track of their expenses.
.png)
%20(1).png)
The add transaction page is set up so that you may enter the amount spent, choose a category, date, and card, as well as add any other notes. All of this is done on a single screen, and the details can be entered with just one hand.
The dashboard displays the monthly expense and the daily transactions. Once a transaction is added, the dashboard automatically updates the list of daily expenses.
A summary of the expenses is displayed in a chart. This chart can be viewed at different time periods - yearly, monthly, weekly and quarterly. The top spending category of each period is also displayed so each user would know exactly how their finances went in one glance.
It is possible to make an artificial credit card that simply asks for information about the bank and the credit card processor - Visa, Mastercard, Verve, and so on. This would allow users to keep track of their spending across multiple bank accounts without having to link their account details.
The purpose of the card is to help users summarize their expenses on certain credit cards.
The CurrentSee app is connected to the smartwatch so you can input your expenditures anywhere, anytime in less than one minute.
Working on this project taught me how to validate every design decision I made and to build solutions that are centered on the users. This was my first digital product in the finance space, and I aim to solve further fintech problems.