Splitwise App
Unsolicited redesign to simplify complex bill sharing experience
OVERVIEW
Splitwise simplifies managing shared bills, yet many users experience confusions in splitting expenses. The confusions have led to a growing number of low ratings. Motivated by this challenge, our redesign aims to improve the app's usability and user satisfaction, making financial tracking within groups effortless and intuitive.
Problem
Current user flows raise challenges in setting up new expenses to share among friends, resulting in a frustrated user experience.
Role + Process
I conducted research on the expanding market for expense-sharing, with a primary focus on the bill-splitting process of Splitwise, a leading budget-tracking app. During the process, I developed personas, user journeys, flowcharts, and UI designs, iterating based on testing insights to finalize the design. Additionally, I served as the project manager, coordinating meetings, communicating with team members, and ensuring efficient achievement of project goals.
Target Users
Friends who share bills when going out
Potential Impact
Intuitive flows could increase customer satisfaction and reduce bounce rates
Team
Edward Tsai, Coco Fan, Nicole Su
Disclaimer: This is a personal project. We were not commissioned by Splitwise to redesign their app.
OUR FOCUS
How might we reorganize the process of splitting bills to design a seamless flow where users can easily share expenses with friends?
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
1. Split a New Expense
Original
? Inconsistent navigation, causing confusion when creating a new expense to split
? Non-intuitive hierarchy, unclear form fields and the lack of clear CTA leads to a frustrating experience
Redesign
✅ Consistent navigation with a clear icon to reflect the concept of splitting bills, creating a coherent and intuitive user experience
✅ Intuitive hierarchy, coherent layout and a clear CTA let users easily complete their task
2. Split Equally
Original
? Counterintuitive switcher placement and lack of CTA create visual confusion
? The shared amount for each person at the bottom of the page is hard to notice
Redesign
✅ The full page is updated to a bottom sheet to keep this step seamlessly integrated into the flow of splitting a new expense
✅ Put the switcher on top and display individual and total amount, forming a clearer interface
✅ For personal preferences, we reimagined some visual elements for a coherent design
3. Split by Exact Amount
Original
? Unclear form fields for entering amount and the lack of CTA causes confusions
? Users must manually calculate taxes and tips, making it hard to settle these charges
Redesign
✅ Updated form fields with a clear CTA establish a more intuitive flow
✅ Introduce form fields for taxes & tips while displaying the amount after tax for each member to ensure a clear distribution without manual calculations
So, how did we get there?
RESEARCH + ANALYSIS
To empathize with users, we conducted various research methods, including survey, interview and market research.
Market Research
Competitor Ratings
Splitwise
Tricount
Settle Up
Splid
Source: Google Play Review
Splistwise App Review
Source: Apple Store Review
Advantages from Competitors
Common Disadvantages
Is Splitwise's unclear debt overview and limited customization truly the cause of lower ratings, despite its large user base? Or are there other issues within the app?
Thoughts
Surveys + Interviews
Frequency of Usage Since Download
Complex Features
Insight
Based on our research, many participants discarded the app or found it hard to use due to its complex bill-splitting process.
Defining
From the insight, we developed the persona and user journey map, specifically focusing on the bill-adding experience to better understand the target users and to define the main problem.
How might we reimagine the process of splitting bills to design a seamless flow where users can easily share expenses with friends?
Focused Problem (HMW)
Persona
Sarah, a 35-year-old foodie who enjoys weekend dining with friends.
Goals
Sarah wants to easily split and track bills with her friends when they dine out. She also wishes to eliminate the hassle of manual calculating uneven bills, including taxes and tips.
Pain Points
Inconvenience of splitting bills between multiple or new friends
Difficulty in calculating expenses with taxes and tips
Scenario: Split bills of a day out among three friends for the first time where the bills were paid by different people.
User Journey Map
IDEATION
User Flows
We began to ideate by understanding and reorganizing the bill-sharing process. While the original flows seem concise, there are inconsistencies and unclear interface, resulting in a need of redesign.
DESIGN DECISION + ITERATION
After designing the initial wireframes, we conducted user testings and iterated a few versions to reach the desired results.
1. Split a New Expense
Testing Insight
❌ Unclear hierarchy
Hard to notice splitting methods and members in the table view.
❌ Lack of CTA
Users had a hard time completing the task due to the lack of CTA.
Improvement
✅ Organized sections with clear hierarchy
Users can easily complete the flow with the distinct modals for each task.
✅ Prominent CTA
Users can seamlessly proceed to the next step with the CTA at the bottom.
2. Split by Exact Amount
Testing Insight
❌ Unclear tab indication
Users lose focus due to uncertainty about their current page.
❌ Incoherent layout
Varied form layouts create visual confusion.
Improvement
✅ Update page indication
Users can clearly view the current interface with the new tab and content titles.
✅ Align form fields
The organized layout allows users to smoothly enter each share while checking the total amount
VISUAL REIMAGINE
We aimed to redesign Splitwise with a modern look while retaining visual elements inspired by the app's fondness for gemstones and elephants.
FINAL DESIGN
CONCLUSIONS
This Splitwise redesign is a collaborative effort to enhance user experience with appealing visuals and smooth expense-handling flows.
🧠 Learnings
I learned that error states are crucial to design for user feedback and guidance.
I also learned to implement Gestalt principles to group similar content.
💎 Prospective Business Impact
While being unsolicited, this redesign aims to boost user satisfaction and retention by reducing bounce rates, increasing engagement, and encouraging repeat visits with intuitive flows and user-friendly designs.
⚡ Next Steps
Due to time constraints, we couldn't address all identified issues. Moving forward, here are the key areas that could be further improved:
Seamless group management to keep users stay connected and track debts
Intuitive notification system to enhance user engagement
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