Ledger is a personal finance management app that enables users to log and track their income and expenses. Users can create entries by specifying the transaction type (income or expense), amount, category (e.g., groceries, salary, entertainment), and date. The app includes a summary screen for a quick overview of finances and a detailed transaction list for reviewing all logged entries. Users can edit or delete entries as needed, ensuring accurate record-keeping. FinanceFlow helps users stay on top of their budget with a clear and organized interface.
The database structure consists of two tables: entry and category. The entry table stores individual records with fields like `entryid` (`primary key`), ` name`, ` amount`, ` date`, and `categoryID` (`foreign key`), while the category table stores categories with fields like `_id` (`primary key`), ` categoryName`, and ` icon`. The `categoryID` in the entry table is designed to link entries to specific categories, enabling categorization and organization of data. This structure ensures efficient data management and retrieval based on categorized relationships.
- Issue: Users may not be immediately aware of changes to their balance after adding or editing a transaction, as there is no clear feedback.
- Recommendations: Implement a visual or auditory feedback system (e.g., a confirmation message or animation or redirect to the Balance overview) to inform users when their balance updates.
- Issues: Users may need to remember details about past transactions, such as categories or dates, which could increase cognitive load.
- Recommendations: Display a detailed transaction history with categories and dates visible at all times, reducing the need for users to recall information.
- Issues: Users may find it time-consuming to navigate through multiple screens or steps to perform common tasks, such as adding or editing transactions.
- Recommendations: Ensure that all frequently used actions, like adding or deleting transactions, can be completed in as few steps as possible, with clear and accessible buttons for quick access.
- Issues: The interface might include too many visual elements or colors, which could distract users from focusing on their primary tasks, such as managing transactions or checking their balance.
- Recommendations: Ensure that the design remains clean and focused by using a limited color palette and removing any unnecessary decorative elements, keeping the interface visually simple and task-oriented.
- Issues: Help and Documentation may be important and nice to have but out of scope for this version of the design.
- Recommendations: For now, focus on maintaining the clarity and simplicity of the current help documentation. If these advanced features are considered in future updates, ensure that corresponding help resources are developed to support them.
- Participant 2 gave a lower score of 5, which aligns with their feedback about difficulty finding categories and longer task completion times.
- The chart reinforces the overall positive perception of the app's usability but highlights the need to address specific pain points for users like Participant 2.
- Four out of five participants found the categories and rated their usefulness highly (scores of 4 or 5).
- Participant 2, who did not find the categories initially, still rated their usefulness as 4, suggesting that they recognized the potential value once they located them.
I really enjoyed working with Florian on this project. Combining our strengths helped us create a functional and user-friendly app. Usability testing was particularly rewarding, offering insights into UI/UX design I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. Watching real users interact with the app revealed areas for improvement I might have missed. This experience deepened my appreciation for user-centered design and the importance of testing in creating a polished product.
I had a great time working on this project. My main focus was on the backend, and I really enjoyed tackling the coding challenges and making sure everything ran smoothly. It was cool to see how my work connected with the frontend to create a functional app. The usability testing phase was eye-opening, it showed me how small design tweaks can make a big difference for users. Overall, it was a fun and rewarding experience, and I learned a lot about both development and the importance of keeping the end user in mind.
