Mint Event

Your transactions, your stories.
Winner of Rapid Design for Slow Change (RDSC) 
InnovateMap Design Challenge 
(1st out of 13)

This was an one-week project (Sept 14 - Sept 18, 2015) sponsored by InnovateMap in the course “Rapid Design for Slow Change” at HCI/d, IUB. I teamed with Prafulla Badeanahalli and Jiaxin Liang to revitalize Mint.com, pitched our design to InnovateMap and won the project.

INDEX
1. MY ROLE
2. THE CHALLENGE
3. THE APPROACH
4. THE DISCOVERY
5. KEY INSIGHT
6. THE VISION
7. THE DESIGN
8. DECISIONS
9. THE EXECUTION
10. REFLECTIONS
MY ROLE
Understanding the Client
I partnered with two other designers to conduct interviews and uncover motivations and expectations of our client.
Problem Framing & Vision
I explored the design space, defined our focus and vision. This helped to evangelize ideas, gain alignment and drive decision making.
Planning & Ideation
I set the timeline and milestones of the project together with our team. I translated concepts into features that met our vision.
Design Execution & Presentation
I executed wireframes, high-fidelity mockups and the final pitch deck.
THE CHALLENGE
Revitalizing Mint.com
Mint.com is a personal financial management service, which helps people effortlessly manage their cash flow, budgets, and bills from one place. However, it’s languished for too long and needs a boost.
We were asked to revitalize Mint.com with any ideas to help Mint.com compete with the growing number of personal finance apps. And we need to pitch our design to gain buy-in from the VP of Product alongside all the other teams vying for resources.
THE APPROACH
Challenging the Boundary
Embracing Compelling Ideas
From the interview with the client we learnt that the project was not about redesign, and we did not need to follow the current design style as it is already outdated. They were expecting totally new and innovative ideas. This gave us much freedom to think outside the box and focus more on generating disruptive ideas.
Selling the Future
When pitching our design, we focused on the vision and simplified workflow, rather than describing the workflow in exhaustive details. We showed happy perfect paths, not worst case scenarios. Because at this stage, the focus was to gain buy-in from stakeholders, not to solve usability issues. All the details can be worked out later.
THE DISCOVERY
Current Transaction Data Does Not Tell the Whole Story
This is how transaction data is shown today.
It informs you when and where you spent the money.
But it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Exploring the Design Space
From the interview with the client we learnt that the project was not about redesign, and we did not need to follow the current design style as it is already outdated. They were expecting totally new and innovative ideas. This gave us much freedom to think outside the box and focus more on generating disruptive ideas.
KEY INSIGHT
"Every transaction connects to those elements in your life."

Life is full of stories.

Think about those beautiful memories of family trips.
Think about the crazy moments you and your best friends in bars.
Think about what your loved ones said to you when you buy them a gift.

When you spent money, you also shared love, fun and happiness, etc.
Every transaction connects to those elements in your life.
They entails the meaning of life.

THE VISION
Bringing Meanings to Transactions
Our vision for Mint.com was that by bringing meanings and representing transactions in a more contextual way, people can have a deeper understanding of their previous spendings, and better manage their future spendings. We could even arouse their memories and cherishment of the past.
THE DESIGN

Mint Event

A new way to view your transactions.

Group transactions
based on events.

Transactions can be grouped automatically based on the location, category, or distinctive features. You can also create any special events by manually setting specific filters.

Represent transactions in timeline.

Transactions are represented in the form of a timeline. Your transactions, your stories.

Bring context
to each transaction.

Contextual information are displayed with each transaction, such as the photo you took or the people you were with at the place of the transaction.

And there is one more thing…

Magic Moment

When you are making a purchase, your wearable will detect your heart beat.
And later when you tap and hold on that transaction,
your wearable will give haptic feedback of the heart beat when you made the purchase.
Bring you back to that memorable moment.
DECISIONS
Following the Vision
Throughout the whole design process, many decisions we made were based on whether or not they would meet our vision, which is bringing meanings to transactions.
During the brainstorming session, we came up with a lot of potential concepts that would inform our final design. When translating these concepts into features, we only kept those features that would add meanings to each transaction.
How to represent the heartbeat?
When talking about heartbeat, our team all agreed that it would definitely add meanings to each transaction as the heartbeat is both personal and unique to the moment when a purchase was made. It would also be fun to feel your previous heartbeat and generate emotional response.
The problem was, how do we represent such heartbeat in a meaningful way?
Rather than displaying the heart rate in numbers, we decided to provide haptic feedback on people’s wearables. We believe that heartbeat, as a carrier of emotions, should not be quantified for people to see. It should be presented in its original form, as close as possible, for people to feel.
THE EXECUTION
From Sketches to Mockups
Sketch Ideas
Wireframing
High Fidelity Mockups
REFLECTIONS
What I Learned
Defining Hero Screens
For a design pitch, the idea itself should be compelling, so should the interface. A hero screen should be the one that can speak the most of your design. It should be inspiring enough that make others want to use or invest in it.
Designing for Opportunities
Design does not always start from a clear problem. Sometimes it starts from striving for new opportunities. Our client just told us Mine.com needs a boost. They did not say anything was wrong, but they were still trying to do something to improve it. Therefore as a designer, besides solving problems, it is also our responsibility to help our clients identify new opportunities that can benefit both business and consumers.
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