MMO Bank
MMO is a financial bank app that is ideal for teenagers and young adults who are in need of help with managing their expenses and transactions, and wish to save up by budgeting and tracking their spending.
Project
UI/UX Design (Redesigning school project)
Time Duration
Oct 2020 - Dec 2020
Role
Main Designer
Problem
I personally struggle with not knowing how much I spend weekly or monthly, since it’s so easy for people to overspend with technology available today. Based on the people in the similar age group I interact with, I know this is a problem. I have tried using a habit spending app with the current bank I’m with, to see what I liked about it, what I didn’t, to help create my own financial bank app.
Design Question
How can we improve a banking app to allow users to set budgets and be aware/limit spending habits with ease?"
Solution
Introducing MMO Bank, a personal bank expenses app that allows users to view previous transactions as a chart, budget monthly spendings into different categories, set personal goals where money would automatically transfer. It will also include features that shows the users upcoming bills/subscriptions, a suspicious spendings alert, and a splitting bill feature, all to make sure the user is kept up to date with where their money goes.
User Research
I initially looked into my own experience and found issues that I had encountered. However, as the main goal of this project is to redesign for other users other than myself, I took into account of what others had to say, by asking 5 users who are in university or have just graduated.
I learned that:
4 out of 5 users did not have any financial plannings done for themselves, whether through the app or on their own
2 out of 5 users are not aware of what they spend the most money on
1 out of 5 users faced complications with savings apps and abandoned them
I also scrolled through the reviews of TD MySpend, as the app review averages to 2.7 out of 5 stars, which is fairly low. I wanted to see the main problems that users had to say, by checking the most recent comments.
Competitive Analysis
I mainly analyzed “TD Myspendings” as I am currently with TD Bank, and took into account of what I thought worked well, and what I think needs to be improved, or can be taken out. I also tried to look at other banks, but obviously since I do not have an account with them, I can’t analyze how it works as much, but did some research as to what they do, or what their goal is overall.
User Requirements
After looking at the reviews, I was able to grasp a better understanding of what I needed to include in the app. From then, I created a list of goals that I knew I wanted to incorporate, to make the user’s experience more enjoyable and beneficial for them.
Bank app + management app all in one
To track and view expenses (daily, weekly, monthly)
Categorize transactions/spendings into categories
Create custom categories
To be alerted for suspicious transactions, or reminders
To view monthly, weekly, daily insights/spendings
To create a savings goal/wishlist with automatic transfers, and know the expected date of the goal being reached
To set monthly or weekly budgets
Design Process
MOCKUPS
REVISIONS
USER PERSONA
WORKFLOW
Final Design
APP FEATURES
Constraints
I think the biggest constraint was that I don’t use all the features on a bank app, so I created screens and designs of what I thought the targeted user would use and focused on those features/screens instead. The app would have other features that banks typically have as well, but not every screen was created (ex, investing/stocks), as that was not the purpose of highlighted feature of the app.
Reflection
This was the very first app I designed on my own, so it was tough but I definitely learned a few things that will be practical for me to know for the future.
Don’t just focus on the UI
As a designer with a graphic design background, it was to keep in mind about the UX behind the screens, as I came into this project focusing on the UI at first. I have to keep in mind and really plan the flow of the screens rather than just trying to make it look appealing.
Projects will not always go as planned
Throughout the project, I had to remind myself what the purpose of the app really is, and had to think about what I wanted to focus on and prioritize. I also realized the scope of the project could change at anytime really.
What would I do differently?
As it is a budget app, I would also want people’s money to grow without having to invest in it. This could happen by letting it grow on its own with interest (ex. 4% growth by just by having money).