Divvy

Project type: Passion project

Timeline: June-July 2024

Team: Solo

My role: UX researcher, UX designer

THE PROBLEM

It’s a hassle to keep track of who owes who, and what.

I noticed this at several group dinners where bills can’t be paid individually, and as a roommate in a house of six where groceries and bills are split differently.

I’ve seen people forget about paying, argue over costs, and in general: lots of questions in group chats.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Having used Splitwise for almost a year with five roommates, and conducting competitor research with Settle Up, I noticed several issues with these apps:

  1. Calculating different costs within groups is stressful on the app and requires user to do their own math

  2. Finding previous transactions is difficult with the lack of filters and organization

  3. Basic tools are restricted as users can’t upload receipts, add comments, or get reminders

USER INTERVIEWS

To further understand users’ pain points and UI features, I recruited 5 individuals who have experience with group finance apps.

  1. What kind of communication tools do you utilize when splitting payments?

  2. What do you look for when using apps that deal with money and personal finance?

  3. What are some common frustrations you encounter when dealing with group expenses?

Interview questions

Tasks that users were asked to complete:

  1. Creating new groups

  2. Charging only specific people within a group

  3. Charging different rates for people within a group

  4. Finding a specific transaction

  5. Identifying how much they owe to a specific person

Usability testing

Several themes were created throughout the interviews, but these were some main takeaways I noticed from people’s discussions about their experiences and reactions to completing tasks:

MAIN INSIGHTS

With users’ pain points now scoped out, I transitioned onto the designing brainstorm process to see how I should formulate a new product.

USER PERSONA

Users mentioned several things that they enjoyed or looked for when dealing with group expenses:

  1. Different colors for what’s owed

  2. Ease of automatic even-splitting

What to keep

DESIGN PROCESS

  1. Easy classification system that clearly shows where money is owed

  2. A way to better calculate specific expenses & discuss expenses on app

  3. Making the app feel friendly — this would be the main challenge

What to consider

Sample mockups

Originally, the second screen was the home page, but users commented that felt too compressed of an overview

FINAL SCREENS

FINAL PRODUCT: TEST IT OUT!

KEY FEATURES

Expense categories and two-split view

  • Users on Divvy can categorize their bills for better organization such as “groceries” and “bills”

    • The filter button can utilize categories for more specific searches of previous transactions

  • The two-split view [right] shows how a user owes another person vs what is owed to them

    • Rather than taking simply the net amount, this better displays the breakdown of costs

Upload receipts & built-in calculator

  • No more “Can someone send the receipt in the groupchat?” since other apps make this feature premium

  • Unlike Settle Up where the calculator is not collapsable, the Divvy calculator function pops up upon request––only when the user needs to do harder math

In-app comments

  • Rather than resorting back and forth from texting, users can clearly communicate on Divvy about their needs

  • Users can also nudge (check out the prototype) their friends, so the app will remind individuals about payments before users have to talk to them directly

    • This will hopefully reduce users’ stress in balancing the right approach to giving reminders

NEXT STEPS

As I continue to work on this app, there are a few things I would like to work on:

  • Conduct UX research on Divvy to gain feedback on how features can be improved

  • Elaborate on how the filter feature can be used, incorporate search feature for transactions

  • Incorporate visual accompaniments, such as pie charts or icons to help users who benefit as visual learners

    • Add trackers such as “not paid” or “paid” for more collaborative freedom in groups

  • Create screens past the Divvy app, such as its usage with Venmo and other payment methods