Managing shared expenses often creates confusion and tension. FairShare simplifies bill splitting and group expense tracking to make balances clear.
Originally developed as an interdisciplinary BCIT project, FairShare evolved into a focused MVP centered on shared expense workflows.
As a Product Designer, I translated research into a flexible shared-expense system that reflects real-world group dynamics.
Managing personal finances is already complex, but many tools treat shared expenses as fixed, linear processes. As contributions rotate and reimbursements lag, this creates friction in tracking who paid and who owes what.
Shared expenses are currently managed through a mix of dedicated apps and informal workarounds. The comparison below highlights how each approach structures balances, splits, and interaction models.
Synthesizing findings from user research and competitive review revealed several consistent patterns:
Manual input leads to inconsistent tracking and drop-off.
Uneven payments and reimbursements lack flexible support.
Unclear permissions and data usage reduce adoption of advanced features.
Complex navigation increases initial cognitive load.
FairShare reflects how group finances work in practice, rather than forcing users into rigid systems.
The solution focuses on:
Supports uneven payments and shared bills to reflect real-world scenarios.
Streamlined entry and clear sequencing reduce coordination effort.
Shows who paid, who owes what, and how balances evolve over time.
Uses secure bank integration while maintaining clear data transparency.
Story mapping reframed shared expenses as an ongoing, multi-step experience rather than a single transaction.
This helped identify key moments where users needed context, allowing flows to be structured around sequencing actions and maintaining visibility over time.
Early iterations explored different structures for receipt confirmation, group assignment, and bill splitting. The focus was balancing flexibility with clarity while reducing unnecessary steps.
Five participants completed task-based testing across three flows:
Findings:
Based on testing, the flow was redesigned to reduce cognitive load by sequencing decisions and preserving receipt context during splitting.
Iteration 2 — Contextual & Flexible Flow
The final design simplifies shared expense management by reducing upfront decisions and keeping key actions visible within a single flow.
The visual system prioritizes clarity in a data-dense financial context. A restrained palette reduces noise, allowing amounts, balance states, and primary actions to stand out.
Color and iconography create a consistent category system across groups and transactions, supporting faster recognition and reducing reliance on text.
Together, the system reinforces clarity, consistency, and user trust.
A second round of usability testing validated the refined design.
Findings:
Real-world flows are rarely linear.
Uneven payments, shared responsibility, and delayed reimbursements quickly complicate “simple” interactions. Validating flows against real financial behavior is critical.
Scope is an active design decision.
Prioritizing bill creation, splitting logic, and balance clarity ensured the MVP remained usable while aligning with development constraints.
Design intent needs to survive implementation.
Clearly documenting flow logic, edge cases, and rationale helped preserve UX decisions as technical trade-offs emerged.
