Zeit ist Geld und Geld ist Zeit
Time is money and money is time, this interplay of the two terms is the core idea of LIQIDI – a watch for your finances.
The focus of the app is not to maintain a precise financial plan but to keep track of important recurring or upcoming expense and income streams.
In order to improve the user’s financial situation the app will provide contextual advices for upcoming issues or detected expense or income patterns.
According to Aviva’s Family Finances report of 2015 the average debt per citizen of the UK stands at £13,520.
In a modern economy individual debt is a fact of life. Student loans, credit cards, mortgages and other forms of debt are mostly not avoidable or even necessary to live the way of life you pursue.
The app helps to keep track of those and other expenses in order to enable well-informed decisions and eradicate bad money habits.
This is addressed by visualising the user’s financial balance and deriving advice from it as well as general training about financial literacy.
Why you should have it.
Its simple idea combined with contextual adaptability is what makes LIQIDI work for a wide range of users: from young adults to seniors.
Open the prototype here:
http://invis.io/UZA1L49FY
When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.
Research Focus
According to Thomas S. Monson quantification of yourself is critical for success and therefore is the core of the app. But tracking yourself is a chore: it takes discipline to do what is demanding and perseverance to continue doing it.
Finding ways to reconcile these contrasting parts were the guiding questions of my research.
Interface
An important concern was therefore to provide as much ease through the set up flow for financial events as possible.
Iterations
Early designs followed the mental model of planets orbiting around a center. The circle's size indicated an amount of money.
This method of data visualisation was sub-optimal. Doubts about circles go all the way back to Willard Brinton's 1916 book “Graphic methods for presenting facts”. Therefore I removed this model in further iterations which resulted in more space and allowed a higher density of information.
Through user tests I discovered that while interacting with the calendar immediate results get hidden by the user’s hand so I moved the top bar to the bottom of the screen.
Notifications
Instilled within interfaces are messages that frame how users perceive a product.
The aim is to capture people’s attention and leave a positive lasting impression. I asked myself the questions: how, when and – since the app deals with partly confidential or sensitive data – what to notify about?
Loss aversion
People are statistically more likely to act to avert a loss than to achieve an equal gain — a phenomenon known as loss aversion.
When presented with two scenarios of either losing £100 or gaining £100, the psychological pain of losing tends to far outweigh the pleasure of winning.
Personalisation and curiosity
Users will always appreciate relevant information, that seems specifically directed towards them. This can be paired with questions that target the user’s curiosity.
Ease
The lower the friction to reach a goal the more likely it can be reached.
Benefits
Lastly humans can always be lured with benefits.
Social norms and social proof
Humans with their desire of being considered “normal” within a group or society take many of their behavioural cues from social norms. Knowing that you are saving less money than your neighbours is a powerful motivator.
Similar to relying on social norms people tend to trust authorities that have a certain level of social proof.
Scarcity
Scarcity can be illustrated by the relation of supply and demand. Scarcity increases an item’s perceived value and makes it more desirable.
