Xflow
A mobile-first website designed to simplify your expense-tracking process.
Project Type
End-to-End Mobile First Website
Duration
Feb - April 2023 (7 weeks)
My Role
User Research
UX/UI Design
Interaction Design
Overview
Driven by a strong dedication to advocate for financial literacy, I initiated an exploration into the intricacies of expense tracking challenges. My particular interest lies in addressing the stress experienced by the younger generation while navigating these financial hurdles. To counteract the intimidating nature of expense tracking, my goal was to propose a solution that simplifies the process, motivates users, and features a modern and interactive interface.
The Problem
Expense tracking is a stressful chores
Expense tracking poses difficulties due to its time-consuming, tedious, and overwhelming nature, often resulting in low motivation and abandonment.
Research & Insights
Gaining insights into the problem realm
The research objective is to uncover the underlying motivations and barriers that influence users' commitment to expense tracking. Prior to conducting user interviews, I aimed to delve into secondary research data to obtain a comprehensive perspective on the financial literacy levels prevalent among younger generations.
84%
of Gen Z relying on family members for the “how-to” of money management
43% Gen Z
48% Millennials
answered financial-related questions correctly.
66% Gen Z
73% Millennials
are living paycheck to paycheck
Competitive Analysis
To gain market insights, I analyzed several expense tracking apps. My objective was to uncover how these apps encouraged users to improve financial literacy, streamline expense tracking, and make the process less burdensome. My research identified a market gap: none of the existing solutions incorporated a rewards system to incentivize effective expense tracking and alleviate the stress often associated with financial tasks.
User Interview
In order to gain further insights into user pain points and overall experience regarding expense tracking, I recruited 5 participants for user interviews. Through the interviews, it became evident that users found the expense tracking process overwhelming, primarily due to its tedious nature and the demand for unwavering consistency.
User Persona
Two Distinct Personas Emerge
From insights gathered during user interviews, two distinct personas emerged: Kaitlyn, the occasional tracker, and Lucas, the beginner. These personas guided my design decisions throughout the project to ensure alignment with user needs.
The Occasional Tracker
Kaitlyn is a digital nomad working and traveling around the world. She tried tracking her expenses to manage her money better while traveling but was unable to keep up with the tedious process.
Goals
Simple and easy way to track expenses
Track both credit cards and cash payments
Understanding her spending habits
Frustrations
Inconsistency in tracking
Unable to keep track of her receipts
Highly anxious because is more work and stressful
The Beginner
Lucas is a new graduate and recently started his new job as a financial analyst. He thinks tracking expenses is a good habit to start developing when he is young but does not feel motivated enough to do so.
Goals
Start building the habit of tracking expenses
Find ways to categorize his expenses
Frustrations
Not knowing where and how to start
Busy between work and social life
Do not have major financial goals
User & Task Flows
Optimizing time spent on expense tracking
Leveraging research insights, I created user and task flows focused on the key pain point - finding expense tracking overly time-consuming and stressful. The optimized flows aimed to transform expense tracking into a straightforward part of financial management.
Wireframe + Testing
Crafting the wireframes for testing
Guided by the flows, I built clickable wireframes for users to navigate key features like adding transactions, engaging with the rewards system, and accessing spending analyses. The goal was to prototype flows into an interactive wireframe for eliciting user feedback.
User Testing Feedback
I conducted usability testing with 5 participants - 3 remote sessions and 2 in-person. During each test, participants were asked to complete the following key tasks:
Add a new bank account
Scan and upload receipts
Manually add transactions
View weekly or monthly spending reports
Claim an exclusive badge
Redeem points for a gift card
5/5
participants completed all six tasks successfully
5/5
participants completed all task flows within 30 seconds.
4/5
struggled to find the add button
5/5
participants found the website intuitive and tasks were seamless.
Time to iterate based on user feedback
Final Design
Bringing everything together, here is the final prototype
Takeaways
Thoughts & Lessons Learned
Gaining Invaluable Insights through Real-Life Research: Conducting firsthand user research was challenging yet invaluable. Through this process, I learned that quality design requires connecting to real user behaviors and motivations through research. While difficult at times, starting with genuine user insights enables designers to develop more comprehensive, meaningful solutions.