Research: Our concept was a lightweight, one-time use app where the choice of the spending categories would make or break the design. We ran a workshop with permanent tsb to come up with common spending categories based on criteria like discretion, frequency, ease of calculation and whether it was a potentially provocative topic. 

Interaction design: We used simple equations to make calculation easy, by using the Madlibs style form-filling pattern to make the experience more akin to a conversation than filling in a boring spreadsheet.

We also needed to integrate the bank's services within the app, specifically savings accounts. We designed two options for the savings call-to-action: one above the fold; the other integrated into the results screen.

Content: We kept the content very succinct, but casual and personable at the same time. Each category had just one line description, to gently nudge the user through all 11 categories.

Visual design: We crafted completely novel illustrations for each of the categories, and applied this casual, sketchy feel through the entire site: the images, the borders, the font, the bars in the results graph, all the way down to the drop-down menus.

Social media: We designed the results page to allow users to compare their results with others and to share their results on Facebook. Most of that design focused on the data itself; we operated on the notion that the more people engage with the data, the more likely they are to share it.

Learn more about it

• Have a read through Brian’s blog post to get more details on the design thinking that went into this app.
• And you can also have a look at the case study presentation Brian gave about this app at the 2010 EuroIA conference in Paris. 

Why not give it a try yourself?

• www.spendometer.ie