My Trip Pocket
Mobile App Design
Helps travelers to Find the right budget for their upcoming trip and keep track on their expenses easily
Personal Project, 2022
RESEARCH
UX
UI
PROTOTYPING
THE PROBLEM
Budget isn't enough
When traveling, people make a rough costs estimation when planning their budget. In some cases the planned budget is not enough and doesn't fit the costs of the country they are traveling to. As a result, people get "stuck" without enough money while traveling. This causes them to experience stress and frustration.
Expenses are all over the place
There isn't one app that track your cash withdrawal and also your credit charges, so the expenses are never concentrated in one place.
Adding expenses manually is tiring
Today, the only option in traveling apps is to add expenses manually, which makes it difficult for travelers to track their expenses. Travelers are wasting valuable time on writing their expenses and calculating their remain budget instead of enjoying their trip.
GOALS
Help Users plan a suitable budget for their trip
Make it easier for users to keep track on their trip expenses
POSSIBLE SOLUTION
Budget planning - calculating a suitable budget based on existing databases of users who traveled to the same destination on the same time period
Budget management - tracking expenses by linking the user's credit card and bank account to the app, displaying only the expenses from selected and dates destination.
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RESEARCH
In order to validate the problem ,I'd conducted a user research whice includes a survey on 50 people, and personal interviews.
What did I find?
Exceeded their budget
Plan their budget before traveling abroad
Claimed their financial situation plays a major role when choosing a trip destination
Believe that being aware of their spending rate would make them spend less money
Are tracking their expenses while traveling
Would allow an app to connect to their credit and bank data
What people are using today to plan their budget?
How travelers track their remaining budget and money spending?
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What are my insights?
01
Most of the people don't plan their budget in accordance with their trip plan
02
The financial aspect plays a major role in planning a trip
03
The Lack of a convenient and efficient way to track expenses during a trip causes unnecessary waste of money and might spoil the traveling experience.
04
It seems that there is no one solution for planning or tracking the travelers budget
PERSONAL INTERVIEWS
I have interviewed 5 people as part of my research. From those interviews I've created 2 user personas to help me decide how to design the app and which features to include in it.
USER PERSONAS
Oriya, 28
"You come back after a long day of travelling and you don't always remember what you spent on, and you don't have a place where everything is organized, you have to write it down physically and it's hard."
Pain Points
-
Organizing expenses in one place.
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Tracking expenses.
-
Sticking to the budget
Goals
-
Control and track expenses
-
Keep track on remaining budget
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Ben, 32
"I got to the point where on the last day of the trip I ran out of money. I estimated the budget I would need per day, but apparently my destination was more expensive than I thought and I didn't put money aside for emergencies."
Pain Points
-
Fear of exceeding the budget
-
Finding information about budgeting a trip to a certain destination
Goals
-
Getting precise information about the budget needed for various trips
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Planning a trip according to budget
MARKET RESEACH
As part of my research, I explored the different websites and apps that exist today for traveling-budget management. In the next table it becomes clear that none of the apps includes the needed features all together.
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My Finanda
Leap
Trail Wallet
Travel Expenses
ARCHITECTURE
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
USER FLOW
The app focuses on two main features - budget planning and expenses tracking. Therefore, I created two main user scenarios which map the decision path of the different personas presented earlier.
1. Budget Planning
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2. Tracking expenses and managing your budget
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As part of the expenses tracking scenario, i have also created a user scenario which maps the user's account linking process. This is necessary because the user needs to connect their bank/credit account in order to track their expenses.
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WIREFRAMES
Launching & Registration
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Account linking process
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Homepage
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Budget Planning
Profile
Expenses
Notifications
FINAL DESIGN
Launching & Registration
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The user starts by launching the app and going through a login/registration process. This process is necessary because the user will insert confidential information later on, in order to link their credit card and bank account.
Account Linking Process
The user connects to their bank account/credit card through a login process. Now, the user will be able to see all the expenses in the specific account he added while traveling (more explanation will be given in the expenses scenario section).
Budget Planning Feature
The user taps on "Plan your Budget" button, and starts a scenario of budget planning.
In the "Budget" page, the user defines an average budget in the budget range bar. the bar updates to the cheapest and most expensive budget according to the details entered in the previeous pages, and databases of other users who traveled to the same destination.
The user can also include additional expenses that will affect the average budget they will need.
In the "Results" page the user can see the general trip budget they will need and also an average daily cost.
Now, they can choose to add this trip or to press on the "Cost Information" button for more details about their budget.
By pressing "Cost Information" they can see exactly what the average costs are for the expenses included on the "Budget" page.
By pressing "Add Trip" the user can add the current trip and track their expenses. In addition, the user can change the entered details such as dates, budget, etc.
Adding New trip instead
In case the user already has a budget for their trip, they can tap on "Add New Trip". In this scenario, the user inserts the details of their trip so that they can track their expenses.
In both budget scenarios, the user ends up in the homepage
In the homepage the user can see their latest expenses, accounts, statistics about expenses and travel history. In addition, as soon as the user adds a new trip, the home page is updated and shows activities in their area.
Expenses Tracking feature
After adding a new trip, the user can now track their expenses. In the "Expenses" page they can see a list of latest expenses, a bar of updated remaining budget and other information updated daily like money spent, money saved, and remaining budget for the day.
The user can also filter their expenses by different periods of time, sort them and choose to see only cash or credit card expenses.
Other "nice to have" features:
The user can edit the price of their expenses if the payment was for several people, edit their destination and dates and share the expenses with other people.
Notifications
The user receives notifications for every credit issue or withdrawal from the bank. They also receive a daily summary during the trip about their budget status.
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