SpendSage
Expense Management Application
Course Project
Overview
Overview
💰 Effortless expense tracking, insightful budgeting.
SpendSage is a mobile app that simplifies personal and business expense management by providing categorization, real-time insights, and a seamless user experience.
Digging Into the Problem
Unique Features
Sketches/Low-fidelity Wireframes
Figma Board
User Flow Diagram
High Fidelity Screens
To design a solution that resonates, I first needed to understand why existing tools weren’t working. I conducted:
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5 user interviews with students and early-career professionals who had tried budgeting apps like Mint, YNAB, or PocketGuard.
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A survey (15 questions) to surface behavioral patterns and drop-off reasons.
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Competitive analysis of the top 3 apps on the market.
I categorized pain points into four key themes:
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Cognitive Overload: Too many charts and unfamiliar terminology.
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Lack of Personalization: Rigid budget categories that didn’t reflect real habits.
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Delayed Feedback: Users weren’t getting real-time cues on how they were doing.
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Low Engagement: No motivation to keep logging expenses or revisit the app.
Impact
Testing & Iterating
I conducted usability tests with 4 participants, assigning them tasks like:
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Set up a monthly grocery budget
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Categorize a recent transaction
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View weekly spending insights
What didn’t work:
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2/4 users felt that manually entering each expense was time-consuming
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1 user felt that the navigation to advanced insights was buried
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Some users felt that the text was too small on mobile
What I improved:
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Added automatic expense logging to reduce friction and ensure consistent tracking
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Reorganized the navigation into progressive disclosure
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Applied WCAG standards to improve contrast and readability
