IntroDuction & Research
This mobile app helps newly engaged couples put into perspective how much their wedding will cost based on their desires and current financial state. Currently, wedding budget applications are able to calculate all of this information, but none that have the ability to link both parties' bank accounts.
The wedding wire budget is an application that will estimate the category costs. Tracks the spending and manages vendors. It will also monitor the costs and customize the budget as needed. All of these features are great tools. However, the budgeting tool I would like to create has a fun unique twist that will add a quiz/survey to better understand the couple’s vision for the wedding.
Another application called Wedding Happy is another budgeter that will follow a timeline and make it easy to customize the budget and share the budget with the partner.
Business Model
When planning out the business side of this wedding budget application, the best tool for this would be the business model canvas. Please reference the model in the appendix. Here I am able to understand who is going to be partners with my application such as investors, banks, and local vendors such as wedding planners. The customers who will be interacting with this application are newly engaged couples, with that comes new users each year as well as advertisers who will want to show their products to my users. The revenue stream from this particular application is going to be coming from the user subscription fee. I estimate the subscription will be around $12 a year, which will come with additional services like being able to link this application to their bank account and receive data input on the decisions they are making to their budget. Another revenue stream would be coming in from advertisers who are going to be wanting to show their services and products like photographers, and local vendors. The resources needed to make this application successful would be the employees, banks, branding, and content. With the resources and revenue to build up this application, I am fully confident this application will be able to launch successfully.
Generative UX Research
Competitive Analysis
The top apps that I came across that had a similar idea is the Knot, WeddingWire, and WeddingHappy. All of these apps are most commonly used to plan weddings for newly engaged couples it has the capability to budget weddings. Although all of these apps are more for planning a wedding, my app idea is to strictly be a budgeting app for couples who are getting married. The Knot is able to switch from an app to a website. This makes it easier for the user to view their budgeting tool on their phone or on their laptop/computer. WeddingHappy and WeddingWire are not capable to move smoothly from app to website since their only platform is an application.
In the Knot application, it categorizes the more important items of the budget at the top, like wedding venue, photographer, catering. It also adds extras to the budget such as bridesmaids’ bouquets, rehearsal dinner invites, and stamps. Next to each of these items, there is a cost/estimate where the user is able to edit the cost. Next to the cost section is the amount that is paid for that item. The user is able to add any notes to that particular item. The user is able to click on more information about this item. An example is the reception venue has information on how much couples have spent on their reception venues between years and how vendors structure their pricing and packages. All of this information about how much couples spend on their reception venues and how vendors price their packages is good for the couples to know how they are willing to spend on each item. All of these items are editable and able to be removed from the budget or any other items can also be added to the budget. As for the reviews for this application, it has an average rating of 4.8 stars out of 5 and 53k reviews. The reviews for this app were “everything you could possibly think for wedding preparation and through the first year of marriage,” and “immediately I started realizing some of the most charming places weren’t showing up in searches.” It looks like this application has almost everything but has some bugs to fix when it comes to venue searches.
The WeddingWire application makes it easier for couples to book, customize a wedding checklist, and manage the wedding budget. The wedding budget helps the couples stay on budget and tracks the spending on the wedding details. The user is able to estimate their cost and edit it along the way of wedding planning. It also shows the final cost of the budget and how much is paid and what is left pending. The WeddingWire separates each of the categories like the venue into more items like venue fee and venue accessories. The user is able to add any more expenses to the category. This app resembles much of the Knot application. The average rating for this application is 4.8 stars out of 5 and has 35k reviews. One of the reviews says it's “not only has it been amazing for planning using the checklist and budget, finding and hiring vendors, an interactive forum with fellow brides, but also for creating your personal wedding website.” Based on this review it is easy to see why this user was happy to be using this application.
The last app I looked into was the WeddingHappy. Again, this app did more than just budget a wedding, it's a countdown to the wedding day, has vendor management, calendar support, and much more. Just like the rest of the apps, I stated before it is able to keep track of payments to vendors and measure out the spending. This application gets 4.8 stars out of 5 and receives 1.2 reviews. Although a small number of reviews, the comments are good, such as “the best app ever for a bride to be.” This application is very similar to all of the apps mentioned previously.
Secondary Research
When it comes to financing a big event like a wedding, there is going to be stress and a lot of money spent on details, to make the happiest bride in the world for a day. Weddings can be costly, a survey taken 1,000 respondents said that they are about in some kind of debt. The average amount of debt after the wedding is about $11,737, either borrowed in loans, home equity, or credit cards. Many brides’ families pick up the entire tab as a tradition. Nowadays the couple is willing to contribute to the wedding. It has been stated by the Knot “89% of couples were planning on contributing financially to their wedding in some capacity.” This shows that there is a need for an application that helps budget a wedding especially for a couple that is willing to help out with the cost. An average cost of a wedding is around $33k based on the Knot couples’ responses. This amount alone is enough to stress out one person, what better way to learn how to save and budget for the wedding. A common application that has more than 20 million users, is Mint, which is a budgeting application. Their tactic is to have a referral fee model, where the application is free but makes money from the advertisers if the user is accepting the offers. Although this application has a successful tactic, my application will rely on advertisers by selling information and be based on subscriptions.
Conclusion
Based on the apps presented above, they are known for helping plan a wedding, only one of them had the capability to move from website to app. The wedding budget application I am creating will have the capability to move seamlessly from website to app. The Knot is one of the most-used apps for planning a wedding and does have great capabilities when it comes to categorizing wedding items. The Knot also is able to provide input based on data they have taken from their users, such as the amount it costs just to spend on invitations. Although most of the applications were just strictly focused on financing a wedding, the application I am creating will get a new couple off to a great start on budgeting their wedding.
Evaluative Research
On November 3, 2020, I conducted a usability test with two new users, Katie Rude and Shaina Pattico. I had set out a plan to conduct this test over the Zoom session due to the conditions of our different schedules and to the pandemic. The application I plan to have the users test out is a wedding budget application. The objective of this test is to see if this application is able to solve the user’s needs. The business case for this test is to address if the wireframes are designed in a way that makes sense to the user and meets the needs of the user. In this usability test, I had asked pretest interview questions, which were about themselves, as well as a set of tasks to complete. After I had then asked posttest interview questions and debriefed the users.
The first set of questions in the interview gave me a perspective of what type of user I had that might use this application. I was fortunate to have two women in their ’20s and 30’s years of age. Both were well-educated, had college backgrounds, and had meaningful jobs. Both use websites and applications on a daily, which made me aware they are both tech-savvy. One user is married and the other is single. One user said they had a destination elopement and the other said that is a wedding planner. Having these two users with their backgrounds is just the type of people I am trying to target for this application. Although the user who is already married, might not see a benefit since they are already married. However, they might use the application if they need help with finishing their budgeting. These pretest interview questions were able to give me valuable data about the type of user I had for this usability test.
The next set of questions is about the tasks I am asking my users to complete. This will really help me determine what kinds of buttons or design issues I might have missed. The first task to set for one user was difficult since there was no indication of how exactly to change the estimated quiz cost. It was unclear if they would have to take the quiz over or get to change their specific answers to the quiz. As for the other user, they thought if they would edit the summary spending it would change the estimated quiz cost. This is something that is not linked together, and I can see changing not to edit the Summary Spending section. For the next task question, change the notification for a total spent. This was unclear for both users they performed the task completely differently. One thought that they had to use the pencil to edit the total spending notification and the other went to the settings gear to edit the notifications. Even though they both did not achieve the correct way I had in mind both gave me insight into where I need to have the notifications for this application. The last question was about how they would answer the quiz page on the application. This was a rather simple task since it was just filling out the quiz and continuing on. Both were able to fill the quiz out and complete the task. All the same, one user did point of that they tend to avoid portions of the quiz that had to be filled out. I can tell if I were to keep these types of questions throughout the quiz, I would not be able to collect enough data from the user. Therefore, it wouldn’t produce a good estimation of how much the wedding would cost. Each of these tasks was set out to be something that I thought the user might want and need to change but I can tell that some items to be moved around.
The posttest interview questions are going to give me an overall score from the user. I will be able to ask the user how they enjoyed the application, and if there were some design changes that need to be made. I received good feedback from both users about how they liked the application quiz and it was something they could see themselves using this application or referring a friend/family member. One user suggested on the quiz that it might benefit the application if there were some facts about how much the average bride spends on wedding invitations. I thought that this was a great idea to throw in with the quiz. That way the bride doesn’t feel like they overestimated the budget cost or underestimated the cost.
Wrapped the useability test with a debrief which was thanking them for their time and asking them if there were any last things they would like me to know or if they know someone else who would like to take this quiz/or get in contact with. This debrief is more for the user to feel open about anything about the test they just took.
The overall useability test that was conducted on these two users was very eye-opening. I am able to take the suggestions and data and make improvements to the wedding budget application. With more users taking a usability test on the application the better the design of this application will meet the user’s needs.
WireFrame Screens
Home Screen
The home screen for my wedding budget app is based on different budgeting apps. At the top is where the user can access their account settings and the settings of the application. The difference between these two is the account settings have the user information, which would include a profile pic, name, partner name, email, and phone contact. The application settings have Bluetooth settings, privacy settings, and more. Next are the two cost sections, total cost, and estimated quiz cost. These are calculated based on how much has been spent today and how much the wedding is going to cost based on the quiz taken once the user made an account. The sections of costs at the top can be edited by going to the system preferences. Then there is the spending summary which collects the information from the user's bank account and adds up the costs of how much the user has been spending on that particular item. The bottom main navigation is going to be a home button which will take it to the current screen and the two hearts will take it to their partner’s quiz and bank information. The bell button is the notification center where the user can pick how they are going to be notified in overspending or other goals within the budget.
Quiz Page
This is one of the quiz pages when the user first opens the application. They are asked to take a quiz so the application can set a budget based on the interest rather than their means. The user is able to edit the quiz cost since this is more based on desires. The top has a bar indicating how far the user is within the quiz. The questions are somewhat open-ended questions asking different questions based on each wedding category. The user is able to go back to previous questions with the back and forward button. Once the quiz is submitted the application collects the data and produces an estimated quiz cost on the home page. I wanted to keep each of the pages simple with each icon being intuitive. Another addition to some of the quizzes would be some facts on wedding facts, like the cost of florists. This will help the user figure out if they want their wedding to cost above or below. Also having the arrows on the cost section will allow the user to change or the user can type in the amount. This quiz section separates all the other budget/wedding planning apps since it gauges what the couple is looking for to spend in their budget.
Interview Questions
How long have you been married/engaged to your current partner?
Were there differences seen differently eye to eye when planning your wedding? If so, what are they?
Who contributed to the wedding or plans on contributing to the wedding?
How were you feeling about the costs of a wedding?
What was/is stressing you, as a couple, planning your wedding?
How many times a week roughly do you check your bank account?
Do you use any budgeting tools to help your day-to-day finances? What is the budgeting app you use? If not, why?
How often do you use/look at the budgeting app?
What are some pros and cons of this particular budgeting application?
Did you like the idea of this app?
Interview Notes
Interviewed a newly engaged couple, and an older couple who have been married for about three years. Both couples didn’t see eye to eye on how much they were willing to spend on the wedding. Most of the contributions came from the bride’s parents and the couple themselves. The men of each couple and the wife were nervous about the cost. The guest list had been a stressor for one of the couple’s weddings along with the wedding venue cost. Both of the couples use a bank account app and Mint to manage their finances. They use their budgeting app quite a lot. They mentioned the cons for the Mint app are the emails and categorization of each transaction. They do both wish they had an app that was able to connect to their bank accounts to help deal with everyday expenses while saving for their dream wedding.
USABILITY TEST: WEDDING BUDGET APP
INTRODUCTION:
Hello,
I am Olivia and I will be the person who is going to moderate this usability test session. In this test session, I am going to be taking a look into how my wedding budget app works with new users. I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to take this test. The results I gain from this test will further improve the application's usability. I wanted to confirm that this session will take approximately 30 mins to complete. Is this amount of time still work for you?
Please let me know at any point of this test you need a break or can stop the test. At this time, I ask you to set your phone on silent and set your computer to do not disturb mode. This will allow your full attention to the test. Thank you!
Here is the overview of the test. I will be asking a few interview questions about yourself, then I will ask you to share your screen and complete tasks on the app. After the task is completed or not, I will ask you post-test questions. Then I will finish up with a debrief of the test. As you are taking the test, I ask you to think out loud and know that there are no wrong answers. Please answer the questions as honestly as possible and don’t worry about hurting my feelings while answering.
If you have any questions during the test, please ask. Just know that I might not be able to answer the question till after the test is done. With your permission, I would like to record the call. This recording is only going to be used as a reference to look back on the test. It also helps me keep track of what is happening, and I won’t need to take many notes.
Lastly, I want to confirm that you are set to take this test and agree to participate in the test. If you have any questions you may ask now.
Let’s get started.
PRE-TEST INTERVIEW:
How old are you?
What is your occupation?
What is your highest level of education?
How often do you use a website or app?
How much time do you use on the website or app?
TASK TEST QUESTIONS:
Please change the Estimated Total Quiz Cost from $36,692 to $38,654.
Please fill out the Quiz page to the best of your ability.
POST-TEST INTERVIEW:
Overall, what’s your experience been with this application?
If you could adjust one or two things about this application what would it be and why?
Would you continue to use this application if you were getting married? Why or why not?
What is something that you are most excited about with this application? Why?
Would you refer this application to a friend/family/ acquittance? Why?
DEBRIEF:
Thank you again for your time! Is there anything else you would like me to know about you? Would you be willing to speak with me again? Is there someone you can think of that I should talk to?