Pay My Way

Pay My Way!
Final Prototype made with Figma
Rough Prototype
Brainstorming Ideas
Brainstorming....
A Graph Comparing the Correlation Between Age and Financial Dependency

Inspiration

Being college students, it is not an uncommon sight to see our own peers struggle to manage their finances. Sometimes, we may even have to cancel plans due to our own financial uncertainty. We wanted to create a product that would help students and young adults become more financially literate, independent, and confident.

What It does

Pay My Way serves as both a financial hub and learning tool. Its simple, easy-to-follow user interface eliminates the confusion and stress that often comes with managing money. From the app, you can set budgets, monitor cash flow across platforms, get reminders on payment deadlines, and learn about financial terminology. It is easy to track all of your money in one place.

How We Built It

In order to find out what people would want in a personal finance app, we needed to reach out to them. We conducted a Qualtrics survey where we asked participants about their financial habits as well as an open ended question regarding their thoughts on banking. A common grievance among those surveyed was that banking was inconvenient or difficult. we were able to create an initial design and plan of functionality. From that, we used Figma, an online prototyping software, to create our final design.

How We Tested It

To test our initial design, we drafted a full paper model and gave volunteers tasks to execute while using the model. During this process, we recorded how easily they could complete the tasks, as well as their thoughts on the design after using it. Participants were also asked for their thoughts on how likely they would be to utilize the features presented in the app.

Challenges We Ran Into

Our initial problem was deciding what features we would and would not implement in our app, as well as the level of detail for each. We knew that we wanted the app to be simple, but that it shouldn't be too limited. When we began testing the paper prototype, we discovered that users were having difficulty navigating through the app due to misleading labels. We then used their responses to help shape the next iteration of the design.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

We were very proud to have been able to go through the entire design process from start to finish. For this project, we had to identify a problem, collect field data, brainstorm designs, perform tests, receive feedback, and polish our design. We also used Figma, software for mobile prototype building, for the first time to create our final design.

What We Learned

We learned a lot about the design process - from what makes an app look appealing, to interacting with peers for feedback, as well as learning how to use a new piece of software. We had a lot of fun! :-)

What's Next for Pay My Way

While Pay My Way is an app designed for the purpose of facilitating financial transactions, we originally wanted to implement an option to have an interface for more advanced users as well. However, due to time constraints, we decided to focus more on the beginner version of the app. In the future, iterations of the app will become more versatile to allow a wider range of users to Pay Their Way!