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Intro:
MoneyScents is a mobile application for iOS devices that helps individuals make educated decisions regarding finance related matters such as what type of bank account they should open, and where they should bank to get the most interest. It incorporates videos, simulations, notes, and a Chatbot that can answer many finance related questions and provide immediate responses. We worked on the project at UofTHacks.
Inspiration:
The inspiration for the app was a significant increase in the number of teens and young adults who were not confident in their financial knowledge resulting in them making poor decisions (over 50%). We, as high school students ourselves, believed that we could fill this gap and sought to build this app. We hope to start making an impact in the lives of students and the younger population with MoneyScents.
What it does:
It is essentially a mobile application (currently only for iOS but Android is coming!) that allows the user to learn more about finance through interactive methods such as simulations, video tutorials, notes, and more. This will allow the user to make educated decisions relating to their personal finance. In addition, our app is also meant for people who want to learn more about finance without having to read a long textbook or take a college course.
How I built it:
To start off the development process, we used Sketch 3 to design the UI after attending a UI workshop at UofTHacks. After completing the UI and getting some feedback from industry experts, we uploaded the UI onto Invision and added hotspot buttons in order to have a prototype that we could iterate from. Then we moved on to transfer everything into an Xcode file. We used Apple's Swift language to do the majority of the coding along with some Objective-C as well. We used APIs from companies like VISA as well throughout the development process, especially for calculators.
Challenges I ran into:
This was the first mobile app for iOS that I've developed in such a short timeline of only 36 hours! The whole project quite a big challenge but it was also a great learning experience at the same time. The biggest challenge was definitely integrating the VISA APIs into the backend of our app to help users with doing some quick calculations for things like their average mortgage payment.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of:
Making my first mobile application for iOS in 36 hours is definitely something that I am proud of. Additionally, winning at my first official MLH hackathon is also something I'm proud of. Out of 120+ teams at one of Canada's largest hackathons, our team being the youngest team, managed to place in top 10% overall, win the prize for the best finance related hack, and win the prize for the best pitch! As a result of this, we got to meet several executives such as the Chief Innovation Officer at Deloitte, and had the chance to pitch our app / idea to many others as well. We also got some cool prizes like Amazon gift cards and Google Chromecasts.
What I learned:
I learned how to build a complete mobile application including things like designing a beautiful yet simple User Interface, coding complex things in Swift and Objective-C, integrating APIs, setting up a server, and learning how to make a killer pitch!
What's next for MoneyScents:
We are not going to stop, but continue and continuously improve and seek the advice of industry experts at companies like Deloitte Digital, Pivotal Labs and more. We are extremely passionate about MoneyScents and believe we can take it to the next level. Potential additions for the future include but are not limited to an Android application, a cool and intelligent chat bot that users can communicate with, and getting sponsored by a company!
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