...
From housing bills and utility bills to bar taps, taxi fares, and movie tickets, Sally and her roommates constantly struggle to figure out how much each person owes another in total. Between her and her roommates, they find themselves either not remembering an amount of debt, disputing an amount of debt, or disputing a debt completely. One of Sally's roommates, JackieSamantha, had once tried to take up the task of keeping track of everyone's debt with a personal finance application on her iPhone, but this task proved to not only be too cumbersome for not only JackieSamantha, but she found it impossible to track all of the roommates down at once to settle debts since they all have different schedules (and don't want to settle debts when they're going out!). With her busy schedule, Sally would really love to be able to have a system that allows her and her roommates to keep track of their mutual debt, dispute any debts that are questionable, and review all of their transactions at the end of the month when they pay their bills. Notably, Sally would like to be able to easily add new transactions (when she foots the dinner bill for a group of friends), easily view all transactions posted, and also flag a bad post if she wants to dispute an faulty transaction.
...
Imagine that Sally has just opened up the PennyPincher website...
FIGURE 1
Figure 1 displays the home screen of the application for Sally Smith. In this screen, she can see a list of all of the people she has a PennyPincher connection with. Each row itself is a link to a screen displaying all debts for that particular person (Figure 2). On each row, three main user interface devices are shown. On the very left, there is a checkbox used for selecting the user when Sally wants to delete a connection with that particular user. To the right, there is, on some rows, a button with a label representing the number of disputes that particular user has with Sally. Next to the disputes button, there is a convenient "add" button that will bring Sally to the pop-up add screen (Figure 3). On the very right, there is a value of how much money that Sally owes or is owed by that particular person. (Negative sign (-) means Sally owes the person, and positive sign (+) means that the person owes Sally).
Imagine that Sally has pressed the row with "Roommate #1"
FIGURE 2
Figure 2 displays a screen displaying all of the debts between Sally and Roommate #1. The layout of Figure 2 is consistent with Figure 1, with the difference being listing debts instead of people. Just like before, checkboxes are on the very left of each row to perform row selection for the "delete", "nudge", and "dispute" functions located at the bottom of the screen. On the right side of some debts, there is a dispute flag, indicating a dispute on the debt. On the right side, the amount of debt is once again shown, using the same (+/-) system to indicate the direction of the debt.
Imagine that Sally presses the Add button on the bottom left of Figure 2.
FIGURE 3
Figure 3 displays the add debt pop-up screen. The idea behind that idea of an add "pop-up" is that users can add a transaction from home page (Figure 1) as well as a user's page (Figure 2). This duplication may seem ineffective, but since "add" is such a commonly used function, users would appreciate not having to go back to a certain screen to "add." The add pop-up itself is pretty simple, with three main fields: name, date, and amount. The user can simply click on the field to bring up a suitable keyboard (on touchscreen phones) or simply click the field to gain focus to type. At the bottom, there is a simple add button to submit the debt. After this is done, the pop-up simply disappears.
Imagine that Sally is on Figure 2 (the page displaying all of Roommate 1's mutual debts), selects two items (checkboxes on the left are checked), and presses the dispute button on the bottom right corner. This would send a dispute in the system to Roommate 1.
'
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 6
So now, imagine that you are Roommate 1 and you are looking at the Penny Pincher application. On your home screen (Figure 4), you see that Sally Smith has disputed 2 items based on the red button next to her name. You can simply tap that button which will bring you to Figure 5. On this page, you see the items that Sally has disputed. Here, you have the option of settling the dispute (button at the bottom). This will lead to Figure 6.
...
Figure 6 shows the "settle dispute" pop-up menu. In this pop-up menu, there is a "new amount" field that is defaulted to $0.00. This default has been chosen to make it easy for users to accept disputes (clearing the debt). This type of menu also makes it easy for the two users to agree on a new amount of the debt if they choose so. if the new amount is set to $0.00, the debt will be automatically deleted on both of the user's accounts.
Analysis: Dimensions of Usability
...
PROS
...
Learnability:
- Simple, table style interface.
- No “settings” menu to complicate things
- Large, easy to hit buttons (on touch screen phones)
- Consistent, clean layout
...
- Deletion and Dispute functions execute immediately, with no easy way to undo the action
- Deletion action is available for debts, so technically, someone could just delete all debts even though he/she has not repaid the lender
- “Disputes” button is on each person’s row in the main screen. This can be accidentally hit when a user tries to just click on a person’s row to see all of their mutual debts.
Design #2 Storyboard
Note: For some reason, the image link does not work. However, you can right click and click "view image" to get a larger view.
Upon logging in, the user will be greeted by the Home Page. At the top, there is a bar with the PennyPincher logo and three menu buttons to be displayed on all pages. A the home page specifically (which can be accessed by clicking on the PennyPincher logo at the top), the user will see a quick overview of the current “what is owed” status from the most recent closed transaction period. Reds (as taken from the term ‘in the red’) shows what the user owes other people, whereas Greens (for ‘in the money’ where green symbolizes as such) shows what other people owe the user. The Reds and Greens can be expanded and contracted as needed and will show the transactions under each with additional granularity.
Clicking on the transaction button will lead to a page where new transactions can be added. In this example, Eunice would like to add a transaction where she paid for dinner for a group of friends (with Adam W and Madeline J). Although she would have been fine to split the bill evenly, Madeline insisted that she pay a larger portion since she ordered a more exotic dish and have Adam and Eunice split the difference. After selecting the people involved in the transaction, specifying custom payments, and adding a quick description, Eunice posts the transaction. 
Clicking on the summary button will load a new page that shows a list of compiled transactions. This can be filtered by transaction period, and further by date posted, by counterparty (who the transaction was with), by amount, by transaction type, etc. Clicking on the information icon will lead to a transactions description page.
With the transactions description page, details about the transaction are shown. Eunice sees that this transaction is faulty and decides to dispute it by clicking on the Dispute button. This leads to a new page that where she can add a quick memo/message about the dispute before submission. When the dispute is posted, the counterparty (Matt M in this case) will be notified for settlement.
...
Safety: When there are faulty transactions, users have the ability to post a dispute for mistaken transactions. (Although not shown here in this design, the original poster of a transaction should have the ability to cancel it).
CONS
Learnability: While there are many features here that are commonly found in some well-known applications, it may be unclear what a transaction implies (as in, who is allowed to make a transaction and type of transaction). Since our implementation involves only one-way directional transaction relation, this may be difficult to learn or understand for users.
...
Suppose Sally wants to dispute a transaction with Bob, she can do so by viewing the details of her transaction with him. This will lead to a page that shows the total that she owes Bob, or however much Bob owes her. This also shows a list of dates and money amounts for every past transaction she has had with Bob. Next to each transaction where Bob claimed that Sally owes him money, Sally can click the “Dispute” button if she disagrees with that transaction. The “Done” button brings the user back to the home page.
Analysis: Dimensions of Usability
...
PROS
...
Learnability:
- The buttons are clearly labeled and accessible from the home page.
- All pages have buttons to easily return to the home page.
- The dates for transactions are listed so that the user can recall certain transactions.
- There are only five distinct pages that the user will see, making it simple for the user. The main page is the home page, and from this page the user can get to any of the other four.
Efficiency:
- There are no dialog boxes that pop up to confirm if a user wants to dispute or settle a transaction.
- The list of current transactions on the home screen shows that total amount of all transactions with another person. The user can choose to view more details by just clicking a button.
- The home page shows the total amount across all transactions that the user owes other people or that other people owe the user.
- Past users that the user has had transactions with are listed in a drop down menu so that it is easier for the user to add a new transaction with them.
Safety:
- All pages have buttons to easily return to the home page.
- The user can view the details of every transaction to double check for correctness.
- The user can dispute transactions that the claimer may have claimed incorrectly.
...