Xpence

Mid 2018 — Early 2019

Duration: 6 Months
Platforms: Mobile
Role: Project Manager & UI/UX Designer
Team Size: 4

Project Overview

Problem

During DGM 2250, We were assigned the challenge “Create a solution for a problem in the real world” In order to create a solution we had to go out and find a problem that was happening that needed to be solved. There were a couple of options to pick from that the teacher already thought of however, he said that we can pick our own problem if we found one. One of the big new things at the time was an app called Venmo an easy to use money transferring app, the app was on the rise and doing great however some of the aspects were missing and making it hard for people to do split transactions and money transfers. So we decided to look into that problem of the app and find a solution that would help remove the stress of multiple transactions with multiple people at once.

The study above shows the majority of people’s transactions on Venmo was Food & Fun or Rent and Utilities these two are both big topics that lots of people contribute to make one most of the time. The poor Layout of Venmo prevents easy one transaction to serve all the splitting up of money so all of the users needed to send there half in multiply transactions to the person that paid for the group expenses.

Solutions

There are many mobile payment services such as PayPal, Cash, and Zelle out there that exist like Venmo, they all help people share money to one and another however they all are missing the multiply transfers to people in one transaction. Some have tried to make it work unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work out since it's over complicated and they get lost on what is going on and who there paying.

Welcome to the Xpence app, we created a sustainable way to handle complicated transfers and help users to easily slip up and organize large group spending’s.

Our solution became an app similar to what others offer. However, the way our solution works is our app gives the user the option to send different amounts to multiple users within one transaction instead of multiply single transactions.

First, the user will create an account just like any other app but we require that they have a default image instead of it being blank like others for error prevention.

The user will have their own personal profile that they can go back and check on there recent and pending transactions and account information.

To start a new transaction they can simply click the plus button on the home page to add people to the new transaction. Once everyone you need is in the group it opens like a group chat where you can message all of each other and then can make money transfers by clicking on the money button in the bottom navigation to see your options of types of transfers you want to use that fits your situation the best.

Challenges

Development / Environment
Being that we were an intro class to the UVU digital media course there where tons of people that still didn't know if they where designers, developers or even project managers. As for our team we where a well developed team from the start and each one of us knew what we where great at and needed improvement.

Our team

Project Manager: Shawn Bigbie

Designers: Shawn Bigbie, Ryan Cluff, and Rachel Rasmussen

Research: Moses Lotulelei

We all had very limited skills and abilities when it came to app development but knew lots about common layouts for mobile applications and design. I and one other had high level of experience in web development, but since we knew we not going to make an application we where all focused on the design of the app.

Results

Unfortunately, though we have a good idea of the effect it could have we don’t have any authentic results from the app being used in the real world. However, our team conducted hours worth of interviews and tests with users on the idea and a prototype.

These tests show extremely promising results and we believe the usability of the app puts it in a very good place to fulfill the needs of people that want to have more the just one on one transactions.

Shawn Bigbie is a student in the Digital Media program at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He is studying Web Design and Development. The following article relates to Interaction Design-Design Principles in the DGM 2250 course and is representative of skills learned.