Introduction

Side Hustle Internship 5.0 — UI/UX Group 25 Capstone Project.

For our capstone project, we were tasked to identify a problem plaguing our environment that we could solve digitally. After brainstorming and suggesting several cases, we voted on tackling the issue of managing and tracking money — income, expenses, budgets. The following article elaborates on the problem, research objective, research methods used, results and proposed solution.

Problem Statement

A brooding issue among all Nigerians is handling their finances effectively. Whether it be allowances from guardians, salaries, wages from freelancing or gifts from friends, people receive and spend money on a daily basis.

Oftentimes when people receive money it’s directly to their bank accounts, and a transaction is recorded with the history available to view. When they receive cash however, it is left to them to manually record this income in some way. The same goes for spending; When spending online, automatic receipts are sent to emails or phone numbers for records. When spending offline, some shops, usually supermarkets and big establishments issue receipts for purchase, while others don’t. The inconsistency of records disables people from easily tracking and managing their finances without much stress.

Background

Past researches draw the understanding that saving ability could be involved from children’s preschool age. These financially related abilities share a significant association with a family background in both saving and spending behaviours (Akinyede, Owolabi and Akinola, 2017).

Research conducted by various banking organizations suggests that many young people in Nigeria are concerned about their financial habits and future. With people between the ages of 18 to 25 having less than N30,000 in their bank accounts an accessible means of money management must be made available.

Further research on saving patterns in southwest Nigeria indicates the self-awareness of young people on having these habits denoting that it could become a more significant problem when they can not actualize an actual savings plan.

These researches highlight the difficulties and lack of financial ability to manage money because of ignorance of the concept of money management. In homes and local groups, many people find it difficult to account for amounts of money that have been kept in their possession and equally that which has been used.

User Research

The purpose of the research is to examine proactive engagement plans to promote money management in our environment. It will distinguish the concerns, habits, and money-saving systems through surveys and interviews designed to observe the impact of a Nigerian-centric money manager application.

We initially conducted brief interviews and created a user persona based on the responses we got.

Proposed Solution

The digital solution we suggest is a “Money Manager” mobile application. This application will essentially allow the user to input and track finance records (income and expense), manage budgets and accounts and be able to save money seamlessly.

MVP Features

• Accounts Creation — Given that many people have several accounts i.e. bank accounts, savings accounts, fintech app accounts etc., this feature allows the user to actualize their reality on the application and track how much they have and use from each account.
• Manual Entry (Typing & Voice Input) — The addition of voice input to record transactions provide a quicker and seamless way for users.
• Links to Bank Accounts for automatic entry — This would prove as a critical feature for when transactions are made through banks, there would be an automatic entry into the app with all necessary details.
• Budgeting — Budgeting is an important stable in handling finances and the app would allow users to create budgets and track their progress.
• Savings vaults — This feature will help users save with discipline. The vault will enable users to save a certain amount for a certain period and provide interests for complying and penalties for withdrawing early.
• Capturing Receipts — Users will be able to capture offline receipts that they receive as added backup to their records.
• Tracking & Analysis — This essential feature tracks the users transactions and performs analysis on their spending and saving habits.
• Transaction History — A history feature that gives record of all transactions.
• Daily Reminders — This will be a push notification that prompts the user to record any manual transactions throughout the day. It can be set according to user’s preference.

Future Additional Features

• Price Comparisons— This feature will give users access to price differences for varying products and different providers (supermarkets, ecommerce, marketplaces, online stores etc.)
• Investments — The capacity for users to invest in different opportunities.

Measurement of Solution Impact

Research has shown that people stop using money managers because it becomes tedious .The best way to measure success and garner impact would be to track those that continuously use the application for a full month and how they make use of it. This will allow the designers to tailor the app accordingly and possible create incentives for usage.

This concludes the report for this project! Thank you.

Contributors

Elizabeth Ekefre — SH-IT-0077251 | Anthonia Abraham — SH-IT-0026436 | Karen Bossey — SH-IT-0012772 | Adeboye Bamkole — SH-IT-0022929 | Kelechi Dike — SH-IT-0040793 | Chinedu Nzekwesi — SH-IT-0048943 | Oluwatobiloba Bada — SH-IT-0056098 | Chidinma Alichi | SH-IT-0076071 | Felicia Opeyemi Akinjisola — SH-IT-0089598 | Nnam Isaac — SH-IT-0137983