A Nation in Debt

According to the Federal Reserve, US consumer credit is over 1 trillion dollars in outstanding debt.  Overall, the national average credit card unpaid balance is $6,569. This is partly due to the recent bout of inflation. The price of gas increased 25.6% affecting the price of transportation, food, and most shipped goods. This puts an immediate strain on the average consumer's spending habits. Tempting them to reach for a credit card to pay later for the goods and services used now.

Research

• 670 people were surveyed via Google Forms.
• Over 80% of people who impulsively purchase all the time have credit card debt. 
• Over 30% of whom have 3 or more credit cards.
• We can also distill the data between Low Income* vs. High Income individuals.
• 66% of High Income earners use a budget app on a regular basis.
• 33% of Low Income earners do a mental budget without actually writing anything down.
• Over half of High Income earners have $10,000 or more in Credit Card Debt.
• 77% of those with debt are willing to sacrifice immediate pleasures for long-term gains.

Key Insights

Over half of those who would be willing to put aside short term pleasures for a longer term gain go out to eat often. They would be open to change this habit to benefit themselves in the future.

Nearly all of individuals who use a Budget App or an Excel Spreadsheet impulsively purchase at least once a month. Most of this group would be willing to change this habit.

Most of those who spend as least half of their income on rent make less than $45,000 a year.  9 out 10 high rent spenders also have outstanding debt up to $10,000 or more. The already rent burdened have more debt with a limited income stream to get out.

Persona Example

For a persona example, we have Samantha here. She likes Hanging out with friends, hiking, cooking, traveling, and shopping. Her goal is to become financially independent and needs better organization to make that happen. Her pain points are feeling overwhelmed by bills and the pressure from her work life. (Note: The optimal viewing experience for the persona above is from the desktop verson of this site.) 

Problem Statement

Young to middle-aged working adults need a convenient and seamless solution to organizing their finances.

Minimum Viable Product

Develop an app that improves how users manage finances through, organization, banking integration, and timely finance notifications.

Site Map

I wanted to stream-line simplicity as much as is possible with a complicated industry such as finance. Believe it or not, the original iteration of this system was 3 times as complicated as it needed to be. I stripped the site map into 3 main sections. 

1.  Home Page - This shows your account balances as well as your credit scores, financial goals, and a featured section for any additional features that could be added in the future. 

2.  Budget - The heart and soul of OinkApp. Here you can fully dive in to what you are spending in each category. For example, this section allows for a user to see if they overspent on eating out as opposed to cooking at home. 

3.  Settings - With a financial app this important,  a settings page is essential. This is where the user can link thier respective banking institutions to automatically have their up-to-date balances, manage/update pins, and Face ID verification settings.

 (Note: The optimal viewing experience for the site map above is from the desktop verson of this site.) 

User Flow

The overall goal of this user flow is to see how much the user spent on groceries that month. Keep in mind, everything from "Entry point" to "Sign in page" can be skipped once a log in is saved via Face ID or pin. 

 (Note: The optimal viewing experience for this user flow above is from the desktop verson of this site.) 

Wireframes

Conclusion

Research is a key component to development of a solution for your users.  You must know what problems they have and how they feel about their issues.  My absolute favorite was designing wireframes and presentations. Artistry is my key skill. I can spend hours on a project and not even feel like I spent 15 minutes on it.  My least favorite was the research. However, now that I know how important it is I will strive to improve this area.  If I had more time, I would revamp the research to include multiple interviews and refine my wireframes to include every possible app situation.