Piggy PRODUCT DESIGN
TIMELINE Fall 2024 (6 weeks)	ROLE Sole Designer	TOOLS Figma
A 0-1 concept for a social expense splitting app. 'Piggy' is centered around capturing people, places, and experiences, while having functionality within reach. You can alternatively look through the slideshow here.

Project Overview COLLEGE & MONEY
Money has become relevant to almost everything that we do. In college, money is more abundantly intertwined with our social sphere. Oftentimes, these notions of ‘sharing’ are overridden by the typical end-of-the-day conversation of “who owes who what?” and the inevitable misery of transaction.	From this, we're prompted with the problem space How can we camouflage the sterile experience of an expense splitting app with one that is social, memorable, and flexible?

Project Overview

COLLEGE & MONEY

Money has become relevant to almost everything that we do. In college, money is more abundantly intertwined with our social sphere.

Oftentimes, these notions of ‘sharing’ are overridden by the typical end-of-the-day conversation of “who owes who what?” and the inevitable misery of transaction.

From this, we're prompted with the problem space

How can we camouflage the sterile experience of an expense splitting
app with one that is social, memorable,
and flexible?

Problem Space EXISTING SOLUTIONS
Current avenues of splitting payment and easing this tension of ‘friendly debt’ include the more commonly known Venmo and Zelle. For group expenses, Splitwise is the most widely used.	Splitwise Painpoints Cold and numerical transactions. Cognitive overload with calculation methods. Friction with usability becomes severely noticeable in rushed interactions.

Problem Space

EXISTING SOLUTIONS

Current avenues of splitting payment and easing this tension of ‘friendly debt’ include the more commonly known Venmo and Zelle. For group expenses, Splitwise is the most widely used.

Splitwise Painpoints

Cold and numerical transactions.

Cognitive overload with calculation methods.

Friction with usability becomes severely noticeable in rushed interactions.

Understanding the Problem USER RESEARCH AND WIREFRAMING
When Venmo initially introduced its global feed—a feature displaying transactions between complete strangers—it reflected a broader trend of companies integrating social media elements into diverse digital experiences, even in unexpected spaces like financial apps. During COVID, everything was about the internet. As we’re entering our fourth-year pandemic free, more of us are shifting towards a need to be grounded in the real world. Do we really need another aspect of our lives to be a public marker of who we are?

Understanding the Problem

USER RESEARCH AND WIREFRAMING

When Venmo initially introduced its global feed—a feature displaying transactions between complete strangers—it reflected a broader trend of companies integrating social media elements into diverse digital experiences, even in unexpected spaces like financial apps.

During COVID, everything was about the internet. As we’re entering our fourth-year pandemic free, more of us are shifting towards a need to be grounded in the real world. Do we really need another aspect of our lives to be a public marker of who we are?

Translating Insights into Action

GOALS FOR THE PROTOTYPE

A cold, calculated interface that
needs visual excitement.

CHALLENGE 1


Piggy’s core goal was to make trips as the focus when sorting expenses, not the money itself. In their various states, Trip Cards hold all entry points to interact with a user's expenses, progress, and friends. Interactions are designed to be visually tactile, emulating the idea of ‘sorting through our memory’. Enabling personalization allows uers to maintain sentimental associations with their shared experiences.

Piggy’s core goal was to make trips as the focus when sorting expenses, not the money itself. In their various states, Trip Cards hold all entry points to interact with a user's expenses, progress, and friends.

Interactions are designed to be visually tactile, emulating the idea of ‘sorting through our memory’. Enabling personalization allows uers to maintain sentimental associations with their shared experiences.

Simplify entry points. Enable flexibility and
accessibility when managing expenses.

CHALLENGE 2

Contextualize payments through live
collaboration and personalization.

CHALLENGE 3

When accountability is only achieved with the
threat of shame, the entire experience sours.

CHALLENGE 4

Reflection CREATING 'SIMPLICITY'
Sometimes, the simplicity of the end-product feels like it undoes all the thinking you've done for its conception. And that's something I had to reckon with in this project. I used to think that our work will always be representative of all the hurdles you've had to jump through to get to the final point, but I found it to be quite the opposite with this project. Because if I'm always working to SHOW myself, to PROVE the process in the end result, then in a way that's selfish work. In the end, my work isn't about proving myself (a trap I've found myself falling into quite often over the years), but about understanding that simplicity is just a distilled form of complexity.	Intuitive design is a result of deep empathy, and a willingness to step beyond our own set of eyes. This project has allowed me to loosen my grip on how controlling I am of the outcome, and to trust that the work will speak for itself. And that has felt quite liberating.

Reflection

CREATING 'SIMPLICITY'

Sometimes, the simplicity of the end-product feels like it undoes all the thinking you've done for its conception. And that's something I had to reckon with in this project. I used to think that our work will always be representative of all the hurdles you've had to jump through to get to the final point, but I found it to be quite the opposite with this project. Because if I'm always working to SHOW myself, to PROVE the process in the end result, then in a way that's selfish work.

In the end, my work isn't about proving myself (a trap I've found myself falling into quite often over the years), but about understanding that simplicity is just a distilled form of complexity.

Intuitive design is a result of deep empathy, and a willingness to step beyond our own set of eyes.

This project has allowed me to loosen my grip on how controlling I am of the outcome, and to trust that the work will speak for itself. And that has felt quite liberating.

Piggy

PRODUCT DESIGN

TIMELINE

ROLE

TOOLS