Designing an innovative split billing feature that allows users to easily track and manage their shared utility bills.
Sept-Oct 2020
(6 Week Sprint)
noobill
Solution (Website)
Solution (App)
Research Artefacts
Concept & Mockup
UX/UI Design
UX Design Lead
UX Research & Synthesis
Workshop Facilitator
User Flow
Information Architecture
Branding
UX Copywriting
Prototyping & Testing
Adobe XD
Figma
Photoshop
Miro
Zoom
noobill is an Australian fintech startup based in Melbourne that is applying mobile and AI technology to redesign how people receive and manage their utility bills.
noobill approached my team with a brief to design a split bill feature that would work in co-ordination with its price comparison tool and utility provider transfer service. My role on this project was as lead, working alongside three UX Designers to deliver the project.
The split bill feature would allow users to allocate a percentage of a utility bill to individuals within their household, and enable users to pay portions of their bills at frequencies they choose (as noobill would pay the bills upfront).
The primary deliverables were to identify users, their needs and frustrations, their current methodologies and to deliver a split billing prototype.
The team began by reframing the information the client provided regarding what the perceived needs of users were. We hypothesised the following problem statement.
To begin our research, the team decided on an online survey as it allowed us to gather information at scale. The survey was designed to collect quantitative data on users habits and experiences paying for ongoing household bills, particularly in relation to their shared rental and utility bills. In total, we collected 57 survey responses within a five day period.
While awaiting survey responses, the team conducted a competitive analysis of the market. We analysed four major noobill competitors, documenting their standard and auxiliary features, strengths, weaknesses and any gaps/opportunities that we could address with our design solution.
The team also conducted seven interviews to collect qualitative information on users split billing methodologies, behaviours and experiences.
Once the team had collected a sufficient amount of responses, we cumulated the information to group and examine key themes, documenting our findings in an affinity map. The affinity map helped the team to accurately identify our target users, their frustrations and the needs that were not being addressed with their current split bill methodologies.
The team categorised findings into an empathy map. From this map, we were able to empathise with our users and gain a clear picture of our their demographics, behaviours, needs and wants, and environment. Most importantly, the empathy map enabled us to create well-developed personas to design our split bill solution for.
Based on our research, we confirmed that the client's target age group was 18 to 26 years old and went on to develop two personas that represented users bill splitting behaviours, attitudes and actions.
Next, the team developed a customer journey map for each persona. These personas enabled us to better understand our users' experiences with their current methodology for tracking and splitting shared bills. The visual representation of each touchpoint also allowed us to identify the points along the journeys that required improvement.
During the discover phase of the design process, the team determined that the original problem statement did not properly reflect the real issue users were facing. We concluded that awkward conversations about money were not the problem. Instead, users were experiencing difficulty and frustration with accurately tracking shared bills and expenses and lacked visibility over reimbursements which resulted in manual and time consuming follow-ups.
Housemates who feel unsure about the management of shared household bills want more visibility and control over the process but do not yet have a method that is easy and fully customisable to their needs.
Further to this, the team developed two 'how might we' questions that would facilitate our collaborative ideation sessions.
The team used the HMWs as foundational questions to begin ideation. Using brainwriting and crazy eights techniques, we developed 36 possible solutions, placing each into an MVP Matrix to assess which would deliver the brief while also meeting the 1-month development time constraint. The team decided on nine solutions to present to the client via low fidelity designs, and, after a collaborative feedback session, moved forward with eight ideas that required modifications to align with noobill's current function and flows.
As the split bill feature had to slip seamlessly into the noobill app, it was critical for us to document and understand all existing user flows before determining the flows for our design solution.
Once the team had clarity on the existing flows relevant and connected to the split bill feature. We designed three flows that went through an iterative process before determining the final version. The team designed a split bill flow for the primary and secondary users, as well as a user profile flow to present the gamification, rainy day round-ups and customisable notifications features.
Using Figma, the team designed a high fidelity prototype. To assess its usability, the team conducted moderated user testing with seven participants. Tasks and questions were drafted for the participants to action, and where difficulty or confusion arose, the team documented our observations (see below). Our observations were then examined to pin point the usability problem and prioritised so that critical issues were addressed first.
View the final high fidelity prototype provided to the client, or watch the prototype video below.