The problem
Splitting expenses with friends, like for outings or utility bills, often involves one person paying upfront and seeking reimbursement later via messaging apps, such as Messenger.
This process has several issues:
- People dislike asking for money, leading to avoidance
- Keeping and sharing receipts requires effort
- Delays in requesting reimbursement increase the likelihood of forgetting details
- Agreement on how to split the bill is necessary
- People may forget to transfer money and need reminders
The solution
I designed a feature for Messenger to allow users in Australia (where prices are all-inclusive) to share expenses with their friends.
Key features
- Sharing expenses on message threads
- Sharing payment options to receive reimbursement
- Scanning of receipts: read itemised shared expenses
- Even splits: automatically calculate and track split expenses
- Itemised splits: track expenses split by item
- Payment reminders
Benefits
- Easily and flexibly share expenses with friends and seek reimbursement
- Easily follow up expenses originally organised over chat
- No manual entry or calculations required
- Easily track who has paid
- One click to remind those who haven't paid
- Reduces the discomfort of personally asking for money
Understanding the existing market
I examined 4 existing products for expense sharing or receiving payments from others:
Three of these are standalone mobile or web apps for splitting expenses with others.
On the other hand...
Meta Pay is a payment option that has been integrated into Meta's platforms in certain markets. However, it is aimed at vendors selling products or services over their social networks.
Strengths of the products
- Most allow you to accrue a tab, avoiding unnecessary transfers
- Most offer integrated payments for easy reimbursement
Weaknesses of the products
- All of these tools require linked accounts with everybody you split expenses with
- Limited payment options based on app support and region
- Charges for processing payments; Settle Up doesn't charge but only handles expense splitting calculations
The convenient and free payment options provided by Australian banks are unbeatable —
accounting and communication are the challenges
Learning about users & the problem space
I interviewed 5 people with a range of backgrounds, ages, and financial situations.
My observations:
Existing bill splitting tools
Some participants used tools like Splitwise and Beem (which I was unaware of when doing competitive analysis) to split household and shared expenses, creating tabs to settle occasionally.
Tit-for-tat
Participants generally preferred tit-for-tat splitting, avoiding discussing money directly and allowing alternative compensation methods. They don't want to be seen as penny-pinchers, nor do they always expect to be fully reimbursed.
Effort to account & follow up
Most disliked the effort required to accurately account for expenses, calculate splits and chase up reimbursement - often fudging figures as exact amounts were less important.
Unequal shares & mental “budgets”
Bills are usually split evenly, but significant consumption differences require itemised splits. People usually have mental budgets of what they are prepared to spend; some are willing to pay more, causing potential issues.
Social dynamics of paying for others
Paying for others can be a power play, with feelings of shame or frustration for not being able to pay for others, or eagerness to reimburse so as not to be seen as “subservient”. Friends may pressure each other to settle debts.
What are the user's goals?
Based on my research, I defined an archetypal persona with challenges, frustrations and goals, representing the target audience.
These are their goals:
Cat, the social butterfly
- Wants it to be easier and more transparent to communicate and share expenses with others
- Wants to spend less time and effort tracking finances
- Wants to ensure she gets reimbursed for household expenses
- Wants to spend less time and effort chasing after friends and flatmates for payments
- Wants to not worry she is being taken advantage of when it comes to shared expenses
- Wants to avoid awkward conversations about money
How can we help with sharing expenses?
I identified some key challenges:
I identified some key challenges and brainstormed solutions:
...and brainstormed the following solutions:
How might we help people who share expenses to easily calculate splits and share with people over instant messaging, to reduce the effort and work required?
Solution:
- Receipt/invoice scanning using the camera
- Post expenses to a message thread
- Even splits are automatically calculated
- Split with specific friends (if not the whole chat group)
How might we help friends who go out to dinner or events together to collectively split the bills over instant messaging so there is no confusion about who owes what?
Solution:
- Save and share payment details for people to reimburse you
- Friends claim a portion of itemised expenses they are willing to reimburse
- Friends mark as paid their portion of the expense
- Full visibility of what each person has claimed and reimbursed
- One click to remind people who haven't claimed or paid
To consider after MVP:
How might we help friends who like to do favours for each other to be confident their generosity will be reciprocated so they can have more positive relationships with each other?
Solution:
- People can volunteer to do a favour or buy something for someone else; the person who accepts is reminded to pay-it-forward
- Post proposed shared expenses and others can indicate how much they are willing to pay
Validating initial concept with users
I initially designed user flows and some simple low fidelity wireframes to illustrate the two flows.
Testing with users revealed some minor issues:
- Latter parts of the flows were a little confusing, especially the terminology
- Too many steps and confirmations overall
- Users expected more flexibility in the ability to split expenses (either evenly or by item) and for it to be earlier in the flows
- More information and functionality within the message thread view was desired
Design progression
Validating high fidelity flows with users
With the feedback from my low fidelity wireframes I created high fidelity prototypes, using Messenger's existing design system for a seamless integrated experience.
Flows created:
- Posting a shared expense to a group message thread
- Viewing and updating a shared expense
These flows were tested with 5 potential users.
Enhancements from feedback
Users were concerned about not being able to adjust the amount of an itemised expense claimed, if they made a mistake or in response to other's.
Others wanted to see an outstanding total to inform their claims.
- Added an edit button for users to change their claims after the fact
- Added remaining amount
A common use case is splitting the cost of shared dishes on a restaurant bill
- Added long press gesture to split a single item on an itemised expense
Outcomes
The solution was rated highly for ease of use
6 – 7 out of 7
Most users said they would use the feature as it provided significant utility to them.
Certain social dynamics could be further accounted for:
- People may ask for reimbursement on behalf of others
- People may wish to pay on behalf of others