[3] Visual Variables, Existing Systems, Future Directions
April 11th
Visual Variables
Scale: small but accumulative
Weight: bold (for excitement)and medium
Constrast: high
Color: Vibrant
Texture: smooth (for a friendly feeling)
Line: curvilinear
Position: middle, centered * for colorcode portion: bottom up
We added new visual representations for the word “exciting” and “collaborative” to our wall.
Our group started off our discussion by re-thinking our context answers. We believe that the environment should be where people are handling money (atms, stores), thinking about their future (personal spaces, anywhere), and visible to a wide group of people (the cut).
Then, we shared the catch phrases we wrote out in class. Our catch phrases were mostly related to investments and future-oriented goals. Sherry brought up a couple of existing apps that help people manage money and get them started in investing. For example, Acorn rounds up every purchase and saves the extra cents for an investment. WealthSimple helps users find the best portfolio of stocks.
Here is an example of an existing app that keeps track of your expenses, and possibly helping people save a small amount day by day. This is a very comprehensive system, but here are some highlights that we think could learn from this app: 1) it clearly shows how much you spent recently once you entered your app (left picture). There’s no threshold for this (except entering a password when you open the app). 2)You can see how much you spent on each store and filter the data (middle picture) 3) it is easy to set up a saving routine, as shown in the picture on the right, and you can choose what to save towards.
We decided to back-track and refocus ourselves on the user and what their challenges are with managing money. Our main audience is CMU students who have fluctuating finances. The critical issues we listed out includes: not seeing a tangible benefit of saving when faced with an immediate reward of spending, losing track of money, and not having a routine of saving up.
Amber got us thinking about what CMU students spend their money on the most and how our project can fit into those contexts. The list of expenses include: groceries, going out, recreational activities, vacations, tuition/loans, and more.
As a result, we decided that our solution should help students not only manage the flow of money on a monthly/weekly basis, but also show their gradual process of saving up and achieving their goal. This led us to think of calendar-based tracking, subtle indicators of spending, “climbing a mountain” graphic of saving up, and group/social saving for vacations/recreational activities.
