Bread – Making money management more simple and approachable.
THE PROBLEM
Does budgeting work?
Budgeting has been a proven strategy to gain financial responsibility, even more so with lots of apps and systems developed to make personal budgeting easier. However, most of these apps don't address the other side of the coin.
What about those who think budgeting doesn't work for them, who are too afraid to get started, or are too overwhelmed?
Doing the math in my head on how much I'm spending on groceries
RESEARCH
Difficulty budgeting
Why is it so hard to start baking a budget? To find out why I conducted surveys and interviews talking to a range of people from students to financial experts. Why is it so difficult to consistently budget? These were the top reasons:
No Self Control
The prevalence of over-consumptions and convenient online shopping has become the new normal. 87% of American's overspend on their budget.
Financial Literacy
We learn most of our financial habits by observing how other family members treat their money, and that can be both good and bad habits.
Overwhelming Info
Sometimes it can be scary to look at your bank account after a shopping day, especially if you look at all of your expenses for the entire month.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Taste testing competitors
Budgeting apps that are out there today actually seem to work for a lot of people. So what is it about these products that made those new to budgeting stop using them or not use them at all? What's missing?
Looking at the competition I found two features that were on a couple apps and one stand-out feature that wasn't available on any them: Gamification.
Gamification
Rewarding users for reaching goals has been proven to be successful in other products like Duolingo and Headspace.
Insights
Getting insights into your financial habits especially as a beginner is helpful in learning your spending habits.
Personalization
Money can feel personal for some people, and the act of customizing it to your own liking can be more effective.
GOAL
After finding the missing pieces of features, I found my goal for the project. Addressing the other side of the coin: people who find budgeting boring.
How can we change boring budgeting to something approachable, rewarding, and fun?
UNDERSTAND
Perfecting the recipe
Now that I know what direction I'm taking, it's time to draw out the steps I need to take to reach that goal. Reference my research, drawing out graphs, and sketching the identity to help myself stay on track.
DESIGN
Baking the budgeting system
Unfortunately I didn't have time for the Tips page…
Budget
Money more personal
To avoid overwhelming users, I opted for a more simple and visual way of looking at your budget. Only the most important information's there: what you have left to spend, and the totals you spent. Secondary info like specific transactions are just a tap away.
Each category can be made your own, customize the colors, icons, and emojis to make your money more personal.
Receipts
Weekly summary
To help make budgeting more insightful I designed Receipts as a story-esque interaction, so users can understand and learn their spending habits more effectively than plain graphs. Celebrating the small wins can lead to consistent practice. A little playful roast could help too.
Awards
Of course you need something for the bigger wins too. Inspired by Duolingo's success in gamification. I designed the Awards to feel like stamps you collect. Receive all 3 stamps to complete them and pin them to your profile, show them off to friends if you're feeling competitive.
Shout out to Animal Crossing for the stamp inspo!
DESIGN
Behind Bread
Coming up with the theme and name 'Bread' was fairly simple. The goal was to make budgeting more approachable and fun, it was a no brainer to choose Bread. Using nomenclatures of things related to baking bread made the brand identity and tone straightforward from the start.
In reality it took several tries to get to the final branding..
To go with the whimsy, I illustrated simple icons to help drive the theme. Using them for contextual imagery, empty states, and marketing.
REFLECTIONS
Baking it better
This project took the entire semester of my busy senior year and there's tons of things I wish I could have done better with more time. Addressing edge cases, testing my prototype on more people, and implementing ideas from feedback I received from my presentation.
At the end of the day I'm ultimately proud of what I made and I hope this inspires people to think about budgeting on deeper (and funner) level :-)
Picture proof of my senior capstone presentation