|
|
Project Overview
The TrackMySPEND iOS and Android App is the official free app from ASIC and Moneysmart allowing users to track your personal expenses on-the-go. TrackMySPEND gives you a clear picture of what you are spending your money on by employing an easy-to-use, intuitive interface that helps you track actual spending against your salary or projected spending.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Roger Sho Gehrmann, Creative Lead
Susan Beck, Producer
Marcin Szczepanski, Lead Developer
Project Brief
A survey into Australia's financial health has revealed that 1 in 3 Australian households is living pay cheque to pay cheque and many would not be able to cover a major emergency 56 PER CENT of people say do not have any savings at the end of the month ALMOST one in five would not be able to find between $500 and $1000 if they needed it in an emergency 65 PER CENT have not developed a sound plan to help them achieve their goals.
One of the main problems identified is the lack of knowledge and skills for many Australians to analyse their own spending to and come up with a plan to improve their financial health.
ASIC needed to move from the web into mobile. ASIC needed a useful App for mobile devices that would help Australians learn how to manage their money in a better way.
The primary objective was to release an engaging and easy-to-use App that allowed them to better manage their money and move towards improving their financial health.
The secondary objective was for the App to receive enough favourable ratings from users on the App store's to reach a high ranking within the Financial category. ASIC set an inital goal of 20,000 App downloads and a favourable average of user ratings (3 Stars +) in the first 6 months.
Project Need
For their fist foray into the mobile space, ASIC needed a tool that was suited to a mobile device - not just shoehorned into one.
Looking at the financial tools and trackers available in the mobile app space, webqem and ASIC identified that a quality tool to track personal spending was lacking. Most apps available were generally very basic and of poor quality.
webqem and ASIC developed a tool to track personal spending that was specifically designed for the Australian consumer, unlike any in the marketplace.
TrackMySpend has some exclusive standout features, not available in other spend tracking apps:
1. Innovative tracking bar to monitor spending 'health' against time and budget
2. Track spending against a budget or salary, and against spending period or pay period.
3. Categorise spending (consistent with other Moneysmart products)
4. Ability to mark expenses as 'needs' vs 'wants' so users can better analyse their spending habits
5. Cloud backup to prevent loss of data
6. Exporting data to CSV for accounting purposes
User Experience
One of the objectives was to make the app 'engaging and easy-to-use'. This is usually a challenge for anything in the Financial category, especially an educational tool coming from a Government organisation. TrackMySPEND was deliberately designed to stand out from the slew of the dry and drab ‘financial calculator’ type apps that the category was overrun with.
The interface had to look simple and enjoyable enough to warrant a download. Specifically employing a bright palette, and a very simple interface which put usability first, TrackMySPEND became an App that was actually pleasing to use. The last thing that users wanted when they downloaded a mobile app, was a lengthy and wordy series of instructions. TrackMySPEND was developed with an interface that was intuitive enough for users to pick up and start using it without having to consult the instructions page.
The process of entering and managing expenses needed to be as simple, painless and intuitive as possible. In order to achieve this, webqem and ASIC went through many rounds of focus group testing in both wireframe and prototype stage to achieve the optimal userflow.
Project Marketing
In order to help Australians learn how to better manage their money – ASIC in consultation with Webqem decided that a tool that helped Australians track their spending would be the natural progression from their existing tools into the mobile space. Smartphones were picked as the natural choice, as it is a device that many consumers never leave the home without.
TrackMySPEND was developed as a free tool for Australian consumers to track their everyday spending, against their own predefined limits and projections. The App was developed for both Android and iOS platforms, and developed to work on both phone and tablet devices.
This was done to ensure that the App had the widest possible reach across Australian consumers. The App was released on the Apple App store and Google Play store simultaneously. The official release was not hinged on a larges scale traditional marketing campaign, but relied on natural web and App Store traffic as well as word-of-mouth via social media and blogs
Since launch the MoneySmart TrackMySPEND app managed to achieve a phenomenal 170,000+ downloads on iOS (4.5 star average reviews) and 15,000+ on the Android platform. This was achieved purely via information posted on the Moneysmart website and word-of-mouth.
Tags
Government Services
This category recognises applications developed for all levels of government services.
More Details