SLICE
Slicing your bill in 3..2...1
Slice is a new interactive app that will help you manage the financial outlay of your restaurant outings . Say bye to the hassle of splitting & collecting.
Background research
Before starting on the design I thought I should do some research instead of just relying on my imagination to get me through the project. So I went to hunt around the App Store to see whether there was already people in the market doing something similar. get some responses from the ground on some issues that came with trying to split a bill. In the midst of my research I came across a few apps, but the one that caught my eye was " SPLITWISE'. Interestingly the responses that came back were some what unexpected.
Honestly, while I suspect the application is useful in managing all the multiple bills we are juggling. It did seem rather complicated for a first time user, and not something I would have taken to especially if I was looking for a quick solution to split a tab I just paid for.
Beyond that, the app is actually pretty nifty once you get a hang of all the features.
Research Methodology
For this project, I decided to do a quick survey 0n 10 individuals, age: 25 -35. This survey was done to see how did my target group usually split their bills and what was their pet peeves or pain points when it came to bill splitting. The results of this research really surprised me, simply because it was so different from my initial assumptions I had going into this project.
The initial thought process was that most people wouldn't care so much or wouldn't be so particular about what they pay if they went out to eat as group. But the first survey results came back and showed that at least 50% of people who took the survey were splitting their bills based on their orders vs just paying equally.
A bigger issue was actually highlighted during this survey, bill splitting wasn't the pain point of many users, rather, it was the issue of people making back payments to individuals who had generously paid for the group upfront. As the results show below, most people after being that standout individual usually face problems when collecting money back, finding that they had to chase or ask individuals for their money back, which in our asian culture, can be a rather uncomfortable experience for most people.
Just in case, you want to pay for someone else
A bill will most likely be obtained through the scanning of a QR code.
Wire framing for the application.
Originally, the application was called cut, the idea behind the name was how the logo would highlight the apps ability to cut the bill up. Eventually the name was changed to slice, the idea that everyone had a slice of the bill. The name also retains the initial idea of cut.
SLICE: Application Design
The log in page was kept simple, with no account to create, a user can simply start using the application. This decision was made to reduce the barrier an entry a user might face if they have to divulge personal information to create an account just to use this simple app.
The idea here was to ensure that firstly, there is a history of transactions so that the user can look back at the various dates and recall past bill payments that were made through this app. This tracking feature will also encourage the user to use the application.
The design took into account if a user wants to remove the previous bill he scanned or if he wanted to add a few more bills because he had been paying for several bills for the night.
Instead of putting the burden of splitting a bill to the guy who paid. This app aims to split the responsibility to all parties involved.
Slicing equally is the easiest function of the app, where it will automatically split the bill based on the number of the people who scan the QR code produced by the application.
What the other people without SLICE will see after scanning the QR code.
They will see a mobile friendly webpage which simply tells them how much they need to pay.
Sometimes we would want to pay for a friend, therefore the app allows the user to indicate if they would want to pay more. Selecting that option would let them determine how much more they want to pay beyond the stipulated amount.
Taking note that we would also want to push this application to new users, there is an easy way here for a non-user of slice to become one :D
Not forgetting as well that there are many ways people can determine to pay back, sometimes not immediately, hence there were also available options if some one decides to pay back another day or in cold hard cash.
What users of SLICE will see.
Our users will be able to see who has paid them as the in-app notifications appears when a payment is made. If they ever wish to revisit other payments there would be an easy route for them to do so.
