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payment, and users can adjust the length and number of reminders to their preference. For users who do not have unlimited text services, email alerts are an alternative option. Built-in alarms and calendar notices are out of scope and not a part of this specification. However, they may appear in future versions of the application. MoneyManager will prompt first time users to create an application-specific account that is separate from their bank account (with unique usernames and passwords) so that their settings can be retrieved even if their current device gets lost, damaged, or stolen. By doing so, users will also be given an option to set up direct deposit and auto-pay systems that will allow for bills to be paid directly from the application. For example, users can set up an automatic payment rule on their bill balance to be paid automatically on the day that the bill is due (Alexander, 2010). A contracted agreement between participating banks will allow certain features of the third-party application to access sensitive information from the banks database. This is how the application will determine the deadlines and the amount the user owes for each upcoming bill. The data for each account is securely transferred and stored on a remote server maintained by the application development team. The physical server can only be accessed by them while user data remains completely private (Ober, 2011). It is important to note that this mobile application assumes that users already have a bank account. However, users do not need to create a bank account nor connect their account to the application they can still use the notification features of the application to set reminders manually. Data on the device itself is encrypted using two layers of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and can only be accessed after the user enters their Personal Identification Number (PIN). If an invalid PIN has been entered ten consecutive times, the data on the device will be destroyed to protect the users bank information (McCaffrey, 2003). This login restriction is already standard practice for the iPhones enabled passcode lock featurestandard iPhone factory settings are defaulted to ten incorrect attempts before erasing all data. The application can sync with multiple user bank accounts (including credit, checking, and savings), but the application will ask the user to select a default bank account to auto-pay bills. Though the application is a financial tool, it has a narrow focus and is not meant to be used to forecast trends in budgeting and investing. Anything related to the banks own interface and security is considered out of scope. MoneyManager will not incur any hidden charges on any of the users bank accounts. MoneyManager is targeted to appeal to a young, college-aged demographic. The application is designed for college students who have no vision, motor skill, or hand-eye coordination impairments. The users device must have an active Internet connection, either through wireless access points or a cellular network connection, to download the application, sync with user accounts, keep a log of bill payment reminders, and auto-pay
bills online. Recent records are cached within the application if the user does not have an active Internet connection and will be synchronized the next time the user connects.
Assumptions
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Banks provide an application programming interface (API) for 3rd party developers. Security (encryption, for example) is handled by the iPhones operating system and bank APIs. Banks track and permit automatic payments for recipients. The setup of account synchronization is handled elsewhere; login as well. Notifications themselves would be handled by an outside system. Bills are to be paid via the associated synced bank account.
Profiles
Sarah Kane
Sarah Kane Sarah Kane is 23 years old and is half Korean. She is about to graduate from the University of Washington with a degree in Journalism. Sarah has a credit card, checking, and savings with Bank of America. She lives with a few friends on campus in a house, where rent and utilities costs $750 a month. She studies as a full time, in-state student ($3,000 per quarter, or $1000 per month) and works part-time as a waitress at The Pink Door near Pike Place Market. In terms of income, Sarah earns $20 an hour (including tips) and works 25 hours per week ($2800 per month). She is very sociable and has stated many times that she cant live without [her] phone. It is no surprise that Sarah is a frequent text messenger. As a student adept with current technology, she is very familiar with mobile applications and has over 50 applications installed on her
iPhone. Sarah uses her phone as an alarm clock, watch, and even as a planner. At times, Sarah can be known to procrastinate, and she has a tendency to ignore important tasks until the last minute. She does not like money leaving her account prematurely and receives no financial support from her parents. Sarah has a difficult time keeping track of personal finances and remembering when to pay her bills. Due to her living situation, mail is often mixed up and difficult to keep track of in the community living space. The bill notices arrive early and Sarah often is in too much of a hurry to write them down before they get lost. She has often paid bills late, resulting in extra fees. Sarah wants to be more proactive in the way she keeps track of payment deadlines and bills owed. She recently downloaded MoneyManager, an application for the iPhone, and synced it with her consistent monthly and quarterly payments. This application will alert her of amounts due at set intervals via vibration/beep (defaulted 24 hours in advance, and at three hour intervals, and an hour before the cut off until the bill has been paid). Sarah still needs to remember to enter variable payments like water and utilities into the application as soon as she receives notices in the mail so that the application can remind her to pay such specific bills on time.
Jonathan Winn
Jonathan Winn is a 19 year old Computer Science major at the University of Washington. As a sophomore, Jonathan has a credit, checking, and savings account with Wells Fargo. He lives in his apartment off The Ave with his friend Gary, another Computer Science major who pays monthly subscription fees to games like World of Warcraft (both of them play online games extensively). This is Jonathans second year living away from home. His rent is $600 a month and utilities are paid to the suppliers monthly. He studies as a full time student and his tuition is paid by his parents. He works part-time as a teaching assistant for introductory computer programming classes. Jonathan earns $11 an hour and works 15 hours per week ($660/month). He receives $200 for food from parents each month. Jonathan is known to be social with friends but he generally avoids large parties. He would rather hang out to study, eat, or play computer or board games. Jonathan has owned an iPhone since its initial release and is familiar with mobile applications. He is by nature a very well organized person and tends to pay bills as soon as he can to avoid late penalties. Jonathan is an out-of-state student who has only lived away from home for just over a year. He was in the dorms his first year and didnt like the small living space and lack of
privacy (plus, it was too loud). His parents were opposed to his idea of living in other quarters but agreed to let him if he paid for it himself (they offered to give him an allowance of $200/month for groceries). He was recently accepted as a teaching assistant for the computer science department and will be helping with CSE 143 this quarter. This is Jonathans first experience with managing his own money and paying bills. He recently downloaded MoneyManager, an application for the iPhone, and synced it with his monthly payments and bank account to keep track of both his allowance and income. This application will alert him of upcoming bill amounts through an incoming text message.
Hypothetical Scenarios
The aforementioned users are both undergraduate students and are familiar with mobile applications. Sarah represents the financially independent student who generates his/her own income and uses it for all expenses. She has numerous types of bills which can be synced to the application or inputted manually. She also has an independent stream of income. Jonathan has multiple sources of income, both of which can be tracked by MoneyManager. He represents students who are not necessarily 100% independent or self-sufficient. His monthly allowance is a direct reflection of an interviewee who mentioned this type of cash flow. The following scenarios are examples of how MoneyManager can come into play in their lives.
a couple weeks before they are actually due. To her, the MoneyManager application sounded like a concrete solution because she wanted to centralize the method in which she tracked bill payment information, rather than using her paper planner. Sarah loved using the applications syncing capabilities, and was impressed with the seamless integration between different bank accounts. Overall, MoneyManager put her worries of forgetting to pay prematurely received bills to rest.
The following script was read out loud to the users who were separately tested in a closed and quiet environment. All users were given high-fidelity prototypes of the working application, which was tested through a provided iPhone 3G device. Everyone involved in the testing process was capable of reading, writing, and speaking English as their primary language. Our design team was responsible for administrating the user tests and recording user observations.
Thank you for completing the usability study. Your responses will be used for research and development purposes and shared only between group members and class instructors. We appreciate your time and contribution.
Test Observations
Randy Feldon
Description of Users Thought Processes and Actions
The gear was very intuitive for the user to find. The user enabled notification by checking box. Saved phone number in field. Randy first clicked on Bills from the home menu, and then easily saw Upcoming Bills. User then clicked on Credit Card because it was the next payment due on the list. Clicked on Pay Now and paid the bill. The user was slightly confused on how to add a new bill into the system. Eventually figured out to click on the plus + sign, though it was noted to be too small. Once that was solved, creating a bill was simple because a new formed opened on the screen.
Assigned Tasks
Enable Notifications
Execution Time
16 seconds
Pay a Bill
7 seconds
30 seconds
According to Randy, adding a bill was confusing because there was no text that indicated how to do so. However, paying bills through the application was very intuitive for him because all she had to do was click a box. He verbally stated that some home menu titles did not really make sense at first; i.e. Account. Randy has expressed some overall interest in the application, but he feels that he can resort to other methods like a notebook organizer to manually keep track of bill payments and deadlines. However, he did note that the time it takes him to manually insert bill information (refer to the above charts Execution Time column) is significantly less than the time it takes for him to retrieve his pocket organizer and handwrite the information. Randy was a bit put off by the amount of time screens took to load and by the amount of work it took to input new bills into the application database. He also has difficulty in trusting his private information on a student-made product. Randy believes that the MoneyManager application, at its current state, still needs to be polished before he can fully invest his time and trust into it. Ultimately, though, Randy was impressed with the application and believes it has potential.
Ryuji Maung
Description of Users Thought Processes and Actions
The user selected Account from the main menu. He then looked at the page and realized it was a dead end. The user saw the more button but assumed it would be more account information. The user navigated back to main, selects bills scrolls down, knows hes looking for a settings type menu but cant find it. Goes back; sees settings button, but it was hard to find. The user finds the correct screen and selects SMS notifications; inputs phone number, then selects save. The user selects bills and then scrolls to upcoming bills. The user gets confused by the different sorting categories. Selects credit card, the top bill due in the fewest number of days compared to others shown due in the amount of $100, selects pay now. The user selects bills selects add bill button (found it quickly because of the previous encounter with the settings button but otherwise it might have been difficult to find). He then entered the name of the bill, amount, selected calendar date, and selected save.
Assigned Tasks
Execution Time
Enable Notifications
24 seconds
Pay a Bill
15 seconds
28 seconds
Per Ryuji, the most confusing aspect throughout the application was the location of the settings buttonhe claimed that it was too hard to find. However, Ryuji did say that the icons on the screen made it easy to differentiate what text was interactive and what text was static. He was also impressed to see how easy it was to make payments online through auto-pay. It is important to note that Ryuji did not link his actual account with the application; instead he used a dummy account that was automatically programmed into the application for testing purposes. Ryuji firmly stated that the concept of paying bills through the application was very clear for him, and that all tasks took less than a minute to complete (refer to the Execution Time column above). When asked if he would use the application himself, Ryuji said that he felt optimistic. He realized that there are other similar iPhone applications already out in the market, but likes the look and feel of MoneyManager. Although he probably wont use the finished product on a daily basis, he stated that he would keep it in his iPhone anyways. Ryuji noted that users like him who get bored easily will stop using the application after a week or so.
Screen 1
a. Decision: The creation of the home landing page serves as primary navigation into application features. The landing page color scheme set the tone for the rest of the application. Rationale: Originally there were two color schemes; one was lighter with a white base (refer to the Prototype 1.0 to the right which resembles the satisfactory default background color scheme of the iPhone) and the other was darker with a black background (which was simply derived as a darker variant of the preexisting default color scheme). Based on user feedback, five out of the six testers suggested the darker color scheme should be chosen for aesthetic appeal because its colors stand out more and the contrast is pleasing. b. Decision: The settings icon is placed in the upper right corner of the home page as a gear icon. Rationale: The icon itself is familiar to iPhone users as its published user guide specify how applications commonly have a settings button. The gear icon is indicative of settings and will mostly remain in that location throughout the application (Apple, 2011). c. Decision: The number of pending bills is displayed directly on home page in a rounded text box halved in yellow (upcoming bills) and red (overdue bills). Rationale: People want access to the most pertinent information as quickly and easily as possible (Emerson, 2007). Thus, the number of upcoming and overdue bills is displayed on the home page instead of a separate menu because this display prevents users from navigating through superfluous screens. Homepage notifications indicate the status of looming bills. In American society, the color yellow is symbolic of caution for upcoming bills and the color is representative of priority with overdue bills being red and upcoming bills being yellow (Henderson, 2008).
Prototype 1.0
Prototype 2.0
Prototype 3.0
Screen 2
d. Decision: The header of the bills screen will be the darkest part of the screen. This important area of screen real estate will also function as a navigation bar (McPherson, 2011). Backward navigation is needed to return the user to the home landing page. Subheadings will prioritize bills as overdue, upcoming, and recently paid, in that specific order. Rationale: Tested users expressed that the heading of the page clearly indicates the current section of the application (we noticed an upward shift in the movement of the eyes of all six users upon them accessing this specific screen). This informs users on where they are in relation to other screens and will provide them the opportunity to return to the homepage. In terms of rank precedence, overdue bills are listed at the top because they are presumably the most urgent and interest is being accumulated on them. Next are upcoming bills because they require attention in the future. Recently paid bills are less urgent because they were taken care of already and exist only for reference. e. Decision: Bill sorting options are ranked in order by the users preference. The current selection has been defaulted to due dates as priority. Bills can also be classified by alphabetical order or by their respective amounts. Rationale: Allowing users to customize how they want their bills to be displayed will help them make decisions on which bills to pay first. Four out of the six testers found the due dates as the most important mode of ranking bill payments. Moreover, this portion of the screen displays a listing of overdue, upcoming and paid bills in an easy-to-read format. Long lists are allowed to be scrolled across the screen with a simple flick or drag of the users finger. All colors on this and following screens have been selected with C notion of how color can affect mood.
Prototype 1.0
Prototype 2.0
Prototype 3.0
f. Decision: In addition to the back, button, a new button will allow users to input new bills into the MoneyManager database. This is also where users can record variable bills (like water and utilities that vary in cost from month to month) manually. Rationale: The new bill button is placed in the upper right corner of the bills page (where settings was originally located on the home page). In the second prototype, the icon was simply a plus sign in black and white. This concept needed to be changed because testers could not find the button immediately to add a new bill. For the most recent prototype, the color of the new bill button has been changed to yellow. This allows for a strong contrast against a black background so that users can instantly find where they can add new bill payments. The word new was accompanied next to a plus (+) symbol to further indicate the buttons purpose of adding a new payment. According to one tester, this button also makes the screen title more symmetrical, and thus more balanced and sexy. g. Decision: The name of each bill displayed will be listed in accordance to the users preference (by due date, by amount, or by alphabetical order) and each bill in its respective text box will be clickable with the users finger. A full display of the bills information will pop up on the screen from a listed format and will illustrate complete details of the bill upon the users click. Rationale: On the bills page, each bill has its own bar type button with a title and number of days until it is due. Two of out of six testers expressed a preference for the button to show the actual due date of the bill rather than days until it is due but this advice was disregarded. However, this small minority of testers was not enough to convince the design team to change the existing format. Currently, displaying the number of days until a bill is due gives a better sense of timeline proximity than the numerical due date. If the due date was used instead, the user would have to compare it to the current date which requires more thought and effort. In addition, due to the size of the screen resolution, there was simply no room to have the bill display the entire due date in addition to its name on one single line in a listed format. However, if the user selects an individual bill, its actual due date will be shown, so this information is still readily available. The full view display for each bill includes its title, recipient, due date (with days until due next to it), amount due, and options to pay now or pay later. All other payment information will be co nsidered out of scope. The full view contains more information about the bill under the assumption that the user might want to see it before paying. After much thought and discussion, this seemed like the most reasonable place to place the option to pay the bill (assuming that the user has a bank account to directly sync up auto-payments).
Screen 3
h. Decision: The bill payment modal screen is displayed to indicate a new message. This title is not at the top of the screen, but rather in a new popup window. Rationale: A popup screen has been chosen instead of a regular one (such as those similar to the first two screens) because popups focus the users attention. Popup screens blanking out the background and use very clear calls to action (Keen, 2011). When a user is making a monetary transaction online, its important to focus all attention on the transaction and not on all other information present on current or past screens. i. Decision: The alert message will include the details of the bill, including the due date, the bill amount, and who the payee is. Rationale: All six of the testers agreed that accessible bill payment information will help them to assess the severity of the bill, allowing them to make a better decision in comparison to other bills that need to be paid around the same time frame. All users of the application could customize the sound of alerts by choosing from the iPhones default alarm rings, or from a song listed in the iPhones iPod library. Decision: The popup message will include interactive buttons for paying the selected bill immediately or at a later time. The pay now button will be highlighted with yellow to grab the users attention. Rationale: The application does in fact support scheduling payments to occur at later times. All users viewed the account page in the main menu and were aware of how much money they had in their account to prevent them from incurring any overdraft fees. A check sign was placed next to the pay now text to validate the users choice in paying the bill. Once a payment is made, the popup automatically closes and a confirmation message appears. All copies of autopay transactions are emailed to the users account.
Prototype 1.0
j.
Prototype 2.0
Prototype 3.0
Screen 4
k. Decision: This diagram displays a different screen that can be selected from the main menu. The account information screen is consistent with the layout of the bill paying screen. Rationale: This screen remained anchored on the homepage. Four out of six users found this to be one of the most used features of the application. Because of its difference in nature from other screens, it has its own page separate from the bill payment section. l. Decision: A current account balance for the selected account is displayed on the upper area of the screen. This allows for the user to view how much money is in their account and to help determine if the user should pay certain bills now or later (Lei D'Anna, 2010). Rationale: This screen displays the most text out of all screens in the application. Because of this, it was very important to use color to differentiate the varying values. In agreement with McPherson, the color green was chosen to represent how much money the user has remaining, while red represented the withdrawals from the account for payment of bills and other items.
Prototype 1.0
m. Decision: By default, the application displays the users most recent transactions for the past month; this length can be adjusted in the settings menu. Rationale: Five users felt that maintaining an account history of more than one month was not important for a mobile application. In depth details can be better investigated on the users own banking website. n. Decision: In initial sketches of the application, the users bank was linked at the bottom of the screen. This linked has been omitted in the final version. Rationale: The linked has been removed because the screen is already inundated with a long list of transactions. Two users already expressed the same sentiments. Any further interaction with the users banking site is out of scope for the application.
Prototype 2.0
Prototype 3.0
Please contact any member of Team 9 if the application does not work.
Bibliography
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