My group and I took on the project, to design a

budgeting app that is targeted towards the young, on the

go consumer, someone who may be managing their own

finances for the first time in their life.

We decided on focusing on a re brand of the existing

platform, Intuit’s Quicken personal finance software. At

the time, Quicken’s product line did not include a mobile

app, something that the younger user would no less than

expect from any type of personal budgeting software.

We are not the generation that is willing to sit down to

figure out our finances. We had the goal of transforming

Quicken into the go to finance software and all age

ranges but with a focus on those recently graduated and

at the beginning of their careers.

Gianna Do

Mary Varano

Dylan Demanski

PROJECT BRIEF:

Gianna Do

Mary Varano

Dylan Demanski

RESEARCH:

Mary conducted three distinct methods in her one on one

interviews, the first was the traditional face to face interview.

Through this style of interview Mary discovered the pros and cons

of such a format. The pros with her one on one interviews were

the ability to have full attention of the interviewee, ability to

engage in insightful conversations, limited distractions and the

opportunity to record the interviews through video.

Mary also used Facebook and Skype to conduct her one on one

interviews. Although less intmate than the traditional one on one

interview and each with their own set of pros and cons, they were

equally invaluable to our project.

GIanna conducted the focus group gathering together a diverse

group of ten people. She was able to devide the group into two

disctint groups, mobile finance app user and non users. With

thesetwo defined groups she was able to lead a tailored focus

group. Armed with a stack of post it notes and a simple and

effective chart she had the focus group participate in an excercise

in which the participants wrote down their feelings about the

usuability and experience of mobile banking and budgeting

expressed through pros and cons.

I developed the survey, our research method that needed to

reach the largest amount of people. Playing off the imperonality

of surveys, I had originally intended the survey to be answered

solely by Y/N answers. I had wanted to get as much data as I

could and though this approach might also increase chances of

people actually participating in the survey. After a trial run, I

realized this was not the case, people had a lot to say!

I immediately went back and reformatted the survey, this time

mixing the question format while some still could only be

answered Y/N, I included questions with space for short answers

and comments. I distributed the survey through the

Facebook Survey App and while the response was not as great

and myself and the team had hoped, enough data was collected

to be able to compare and contrast against Mary’s and Gianna’s

research. Through this we were able to pin point related factors

and issues surround the mobile budgeting apps that arose in

each of our approaches.

ONE ON ONE: FOCUS GROUP SURVEY:

Our research phase was implemented in Noember 2012.

We coducted three primary research approaches:

One on One Interviews

Focus Group

Survey

INSIGHTS:

After we completed our research phase, Mary, Gianna and myself, data sat down and began to sort through all of the data that we had collected. Through this we were able to categorize the issues and desires that apotential user would want to see in a mobile budgeting app which fall into three distinct areas.

DESIGN EXPERIENCE FEATURES +

-Lack of design in standard banking./financial apps

-Must communicate a strong corporate identity to leave the user comfortable with engagin with a third party application

- Many app use a very corporate, cold look, not appealing to the younger user

-Design while important, still must come second to the functionatlity of a finance app, this is people’s money.

-Must be simple and highly visual

-Inclusion of interactive features in design is a +

-The app should be informative, interesting and even a little entertaining.

-The app should give the user a broad overview of their financials through strong visuals and features and must leave the user comfortable and interested in taking an active role in his or hers finances.

-Must include a robust alert system-Must include budgeting options, set by user/set by Quicken-Must have option to directly contact bank-Partnering with local businesses to offer small rewards, incentives, to stay engaged with the ones financials

-Must include a robust alert system-Must include budgeting options, set by user/set by Quicken-Must have option to directly contact bank-Partnering with local businesses to offer small rewards, incentives, to stay engaged with the ones financials

EXISTING INTERFACE AND LOGO:

DEVELOPING THE NEW VISUAL IDENTITY:

Developing the new visual identity for Quicken Mobile, the group and myself began by picking colors. The coors had to be current and clean. A balance between professional and casual and a mix of cool and warm temperatures. The logo and button must also exude this new Quicken personality, playing with flat colors, opacity and glass effects we decided that the logo button will feature a glass gradient effect and updated typeface, simply the letter “Q.”

QUICKEN APP BUTTON:

Developing the new visual identity for Quicken Mobile, the group and myself began by picking colors. The coors had to be current and clean. A balance between professional and casual and a mix of cool and warm temperatures. The logo and button must also exude this new Quicken personality, playing with flat colors, opacity and glass effects we decided that the logo button will feature a glass gradient effect and updated typeface, simply the letter “Q.”

Q Q Q

QUICKENM O B I L E A P P

SCREEN 2SCREEN 1 SCREEN 3

QUICKENQ

SPENDING//

$$

SAVINGS

CREDIT

QUICKEN

SCREEN 4

Q

PRIMARY CHECKING: ****6384

HOUSEHOLD

FOOD & BEVERAGE

CLOTHING

CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE:

YOUR SPENDING, MERCEDES

$$

2323

QUICKEN

MERCEDES BEACHBROOKLYN NEW YORK

QUICKENQ

ACCOUNT BALANCES//

$5,560

$12,560

CHECKING

SAVINGS

CREDIT CARD

QUICKEN

PERSONALBUSINESS

USERNAME

PASSWORD

Q

$$

CHECKING

2323

SCREEN 2SCREEN 1 SCREEN 3

QUICKENQ

SPENDING//

$$

SAVINGS

CREDIT

QUICKEN

SCREEN 4

Q

PRIMARY CHECKING: ****6384

HOUSEHOLD

FOOD & BEVERAGE

CLOTHING

CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE:

YOUR SPENDING, MERCEDES

$$

2323

QUICKEN

MERCEDES BEACHBROOKLYN NEW YORK

QUICKENQ

ACCOUNT BALANCES//

$5,560

$12,560

CHECKING

SAVINGS

CREDIT CARD

QUICKEN

PERSONALBUSINESS

USERNAME

PASSWORD

Q

$$

CHECKING