FairShare
Simplifying Bill Splitting
& Group Expenses
FairShare is a mobile application designed to simplify group expense management. Users can easily scan receipts, split bills among friends, and even connect their banks to track transactions—all in one seamless platform.
My Role & Responsibility
As the project lead, I managed the app's design from concept to execution, prioritizing a seamless user experience. I conducted research to understand user needs and pain points, which guided the design direction. I developed wireframes, progressing from low to high fidelity, and conducted iterative testing to optimize the design based on user feedback.
I facilitated collaboration with the development team by scheduling and leading meetings, ensuring that design objectives were aligned with technical feasibility for effective implementation.
PROBLEM STATMENT
The Challenge:
Simplifying Group Finances
Understanding User Pain Points
Managing expenses and splitting bills with groups remains a frustrating experience for many young adults, especially students.
Current apps often have uninspiring designs, confusing interfaces, and manual processes that make tracking expenses feel like a chore. Users struggle with staying consistent, prefer flexible solutions for managing personal and shared expenses, and want tools like receipt scanning and personalized budgeting options.
There's a clear need for an intuitive, engaging app that simplifies expense tracking and group bill-splitting while adapting to diverse user preferences.
"Users want a solution that simplifies group expenses, tracks spending effortlessly, and adapts to their unique financial goals"
RESEARCH
Research Phase
Uncovering User Needs to Inform Design Decisions
Key Survey Findings
We surveyed a group of young adults, mainly students and peers to gather insights on pain points and preferences when it comes to expense tracking and splitting group bills. This is what we found.
1. Frustration with Manual Expense Tracking
A significant portion of respondents (over 60%) expressed frustration with manually entering expenses. Users were looking for an app that could automatically track spending through features like bank account integration or receipt scanning.
2. Need for Personalization
More than 70% of respondents mentioned that they would prefer the app to offer customizable budgeting tools, such as envelope systems or visual spending analysis, to cater to their unique financial habits and preferences.
3. Importance of Group Bill-Splitting
50% of survey participants highlighted difficulties with splitting group bills accurately, especially when sharing expenses with friends. Simplifying this process was a critical need for users, as it would save time and reduce confusion.
Research Phase
Competitor Analysis
We analyzed popular expense tracking apps (e.g., Mint, Ramp, QuickBooks) to identify common features and shortcomings. This analysis highlighted opportunities for our app to offer a more user-friendly, flexible solution.
User Personas
Based on the survey responses, we created three distinct user personas to represent the needs of our target demographic. These personas helped us better understand the frustrations, motivations, and goals of our users, guiding our design decisions:
User Persona: Primary
User Persona: Secondary
Design & Ideation
4 key features to address user pain points
Turning Research Insights into a Seamless User Experience
- Automated Expense Tracking (bank account linking)
- Group Bill Splitting (easy division of shared costs)
- Seamless documentation uploads (receipt scanning)
- Notifications and reminders for repayments
Wireframing & Interaction Design
We created wireframes to visualize the app's structure and ensure intuitive navigation. These wireframes served as the foundation for the app's interaction flow.
You will notice the apps original wireframes focused more budgeting and expense tracking features. Something that would eventually become secondary to bill splitting features in later iterations.
Visual Design & Style Guide
The Style Guide ensures a consistent visual identity across the app. The simplified version includes key elements such as the color scheme, typography, and guidelines for the logo and wordmark, maintaining a cohesive and professional design.
Site Map & User Story Map
The Site Map helped us structure the app for clear navigation and organization, while the User Story Map allowed us to prioritize key features like expense tracking, bill splitting, and goal setting. This ensured a smooth and intuitive user experience.
Site Map
User Story Map
FINAL PROJECT
App Overview
Bringing the App to Life: A Polished, User-Centered Solution
The final implementation showcases the app's key features and design elements, bringing the concept to life. These features were identified and prioritized as mandatory elements to solve our users' problems, ensuring the app effectively addresses their needs.
Implementations
# 1
Automated Expense Tracking
Users can easily track their expenses by connecting their bank accounts, allowing automatic updates of transactions within the app. Alternatively, for those who prefer not to link their bank accounts, the app includes a receipt scanning feature, where users can take a photo of receipts and have them automatically categorized. This ensures a seamless experience, reducing manual input and offering real-time insights into spending.
Implementations
# 2
Group Bill Splitting
Simplifying shared expenses, the app allows users to split group bills easily. It calculates how much each person owes and ensures everyone pays their fair share. Whether it's a dinner with friends or a shared household expense, this feature reduces the headache of tracking who paid what and who owes whom.
Implementations
# 3
Receipt Uploading by Photo
The app makes expense tracking even easier by enabling users to upload receipts simply by taking a photo. The app then scans the receipt, automatically extracting the relevant information, such as the amount and date, making it a quick and hassle-free process for users to record their expenses.
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