SPLIT
Allows users to facilitate the task of splitting bill costs for reoccuring payments for entertainment services, living utilities, rent, etc.
UX Team Members
- Javier Santillan - Javier collaborated on the creation of research method questions, the user-research report, the wireframes and the interaction design report, created usability test protocol and conducted usability tests.
- Marco Garcia - Marco created the personas and scenarios, collaborated on the user-research report, worked on wireframes and prototypes, worked on the interaction design report, conducted usability tests, and collaborated on usability test report.
- Wataru Oshima - Wataru conducted user interview, collaborated on the user-research report, worked on wireframes and prototypes, created usability test tasks, and conducted usability tests.
User-Centered Design Artifacts
- Personas and Scenarios
- Wireframes
- Prototype - Draft
- Prototype - Higher Fidelity
- Usability Test Protocol
Phase 1: Requirements Gathering
Executive Summary
This application’s goal is to make it easier and more convinient for people who split monthly bills or payments. People with roommates or even sometimes siblings share the costs for things like rent, utility bills, or streaming service subscriptions. In this requirements gathering phase, we explored our major target audience, colleges students, and what kind of issues and desires they might have regarding this problem space.
We surveyed and interviewed college students to understand their preferences and concerns
- 32.3% of participants forget about payments people owe them.
- 77.4% of participants are already comfortable/satisfied with other finanical apps like Venmo
- 80.6% agreed that auto payments make their lives easier
- 35.5% stated they are strongly concerned with sharing bank/payment information within an app
We interviewed college students to understand the specifics between their monthly shared bills
- 100% stated that they share the cost of utility bills with roommates and the compensation of their portions is done through Venmo
- 50% stated that they share a video streaming service subscription with someone else and share the total cost
- 50% stated that they often forget about payments that others have not made to them and would have liked for them to be reminded without confrontation
From the requirements gathering, we identified common user needs
- Users want a way to be notified/reminded of pending payments that people have not compensated them for
- Users are neither comfortable nor uncomfortable with confronting others for payments that are owed to them, so this app idea in general would solve the problem space for those that find it uncomfortable.
- They are already satisfied with other payment app features and interfaces so tailoring our app after such apps will provide them with a great deal of familiarity and learnability.
- Security and data privacy is a big concern so that should be a big focus in the development of this app
Phase 2: Interaction Design
Executive Summary
The goal of this design phase was to create advanced interfaces based on user research such that they would meet users’ needs and mental models for the application Split. To do this we created wireframes because they allow us to visualize the layout of where the content should be as well as solidify the features that are going to be available. In addition to wireframes. we created a click-through prototype because it creates a strong idea of how the application should react when particular items are interacted with. This creates flows that users can or should follow to avoid them running into errors.
Main Focuses:
- Identify the most important features to meet user’s needs
- Keep interfaces simple and efficient by creating a minimalist design
- Foster familiarity through the use of conventional icons and common component placement
- Limit user confusion and errors
Breakdown of Interfaces:
- The main navigation tool that allows users to visit the different features of the application, is the toolbar at the bottom of the screen
- The first one is the login/registration component. If the user has not previously made an account, we have a button to redirect them to the registration page.
- The home page displays a calendar in which a user can see upcoming payments that they are due to pay or receive. Users can navigate to different months in the calendar view to see previous or upcoming months’ payments.
- The group page can be visited at any time using the toolbar, which is used to view, edit, and delete groups. A group can be defined as a collection of people who share a recurring cost for a service, and are assigned a percentage of that cost, which is to be paid monthly.
- The account settings page is available to view user account information, view currently available payment methods, add payment methods, configure notification settings, and log out.
- All main application pages have a notification button where users can see any groups that they have been invited to, upcoming payments, late payments, or any other app-related notifications.
After creating these design artifacts, we have a firm idea of how we want to continue the interfaces of the application. Our goal now is to create a more detailed click-through prototype that contains more style and interaction with the controls that we are providing.
Phase 3: Usability Evaluation
Executive Summary
Our goal in this phase was to get participants to test out our higher-fidelity, click-through prototype by conducting usability tests. This was done with the intent to further improve our design and the app’s user experience. We created a usability test protocol and asked the participants that included a couple of tasks on which we observed and noted their process and exprerience with. We then prompted them to give us feedback on their experience of attempting to achieve the tasks. Lastly, we analyzed the usability test results to extrapolate trends and patterns.
Background Questions:
- How did you go acbout making or receving a payment to someone with whom you share a monthly service or payment, such as entertainment subscriptions, utility bills, or rent?
- If you have used similar apps to Split, are there any features you would like to have to help manage, automate, or remind you of monthly recurring payments?
Tasks Conducted:
- Create a group and add 3 other members to it.
- Add someone new to an already existing group and individually change the portion of the bill they are responsible for.
After reviewing the results for the usability test that we conducted on five participants, we are able to deduce some conclusions.
- 100% go about paying or receiving a recurring monthly payment through apps like Venmo, Zelle, Cashapp, etc.
- 75% fully succeeded in creating a new group and adding members to it.
- 100% were able to add a member to an already existing group.
- 60% correctly edited a specific group member’s financial contribution to the group payment.