Paṇam
Split bills with ease
Duration
2 weeks
Role
UX Research, UI Design, UX Design, Visual Design
Type
Personal
OVERVIEW
Paṇam is an app that makes the process of splitting bills easier. You no longer have to spend your time getting out calculators to see how much each person owes on an outing. Having a built-in feature to remind people, makes it less awkward to ask or remind people of the money that is owed to you.
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The Scenario
We have all gone out with our friends, be it a nice lunch or dinner, or catching a movie at the theatre. Many a time, we would not have been paid back for the items.
Requesting money after the event is over is an awkward situation for most of us. Sometimes we may leave a message or maybe decide to let it go because its not worth the awkward confrontation.
DESIGN PROCESS
Understanding the problem
In order to get an empathetic understanding of the users, one-on-one interview was conducted and I learnt about their experiences with bill splitting and requesting for money. I also did a user survey with the help of google forms, which was circulated among people of ages 13-40 to understand my target audience better.
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From my research, I aimed to find the biggest problems or hurdles that people face in terms of splitting bills and the process of requesting money after the event is over.
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A few of the questions which were asked:
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1. How often do you go outside with friends/family?
2. How do you usually settle the bill?
3. Which of these events do you experience most splitting of bills?
4. Rate the above process in difficulty to split bill.
5. What apps or helping accessories do you use to make the process of splitting easier?
6. How long does it take on average to split the bill?
7. How do you go about requesting the candidate for the money that is owed to you?
8. On a scale of 1 - 10, rate how uncomfortable you feel it is to ask for money that is owed to you.
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What are others doing?
I started out by doing basic research into the topic- money and money management. I looked at the UI's of money transaction apps + money management apps.
I made a list of pain points that exist in the current situation or process of requesting money and splitting bills from friends or family from my previous experiences.
I listed down a few features I would wish the app to have and categorized them as wants and needs.
The principles that helped guide my design process were - Trustworthy
- Transparency &
- Confident
What are we trying to do?
The goal was to create user-friendly solutions to improve the experience with bill splitting. To create a bill-splitting app that makes the process more time-efficient and less awkward
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How can the practice of splitting shared expenses be made more accessible and hassle-free?
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How can this app help in removing the apprehension and discomfort from the process of reminding friends to pay their due amount?
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What did we find?
From the interviews conducted in my primary research, I noted down the following insights and pain points.
USER FLOW
Open app
Split bill
Scan bill
Scan bill
The finalized flow for the task of splitting a bill that has a physical receipt.
Confirm bill details
Drag and drop items to split
Add contacts to bill
Request split
WIREFRAMES
Low-fidelity wireframes to help form the interface of the app.
Impact
- Users like the lock feature and the option to split the remaining amount.
- Users felt more comfortable using the notify feature and confirmed the new flow did not make them feel awkward in reminding the members of the payment that was due.
Future Scope
- I would like to explore the concept of creating groups and having a chat or community feature within the app.
- Exploring the FTUE to explain the functioning of the app would help users understand how to use the app.