Tabbi

✳ Keep tabs on your travel spending with friends ✳

OUR PROMPT
Create a mobile or web prototype that helps users plan and manage efficient travel experiences, offering personalized suggestions that optimize their trips for time, cost, and convenience.

This project was done for a 24-hour designation! Hosted by UX Fest SLO, we were prompted to create a solution for the design challenge.

TIMELINE
January 2025
24 hours :0

ROLE
Designer

DISCIPLINES
UX Design
UX Research

TEAM
Kira Sugihara
Valerie Legates
Kaitlyn Wong

TOOLS
Figma

Keeping track of the entire group’s spendings

After 24 hours of designing, my team and I created a solution that helps college students easily split expenses on group trips.

INTRODUCTION

Starting the process

Narrowing down a problem

During our brainstorming, we considered two ideas: one to help friend groups aged 18-30 split expenses and stay within budget on group trips, and another to create an app for solo female travelers to find trusted places to stay through reviews.

We ultimately decided to focus on the budget app because splitting expenses was a major source of stress and conflict among groups. By making this process easier, we could help reduce these challenges for travelers.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

Friend groups aged 18-30 struggle to split expenses and meet individual budgets on group trips, leading  to stress, conflict, and strained relationships.

Varying financial priorities, travel preferences, and  a lack of efficient tools make managing shared expenses and planning itineraries challenging.

Starting the process

OUR CORE NEED

How might we create a collaborative financial tool that automates group expense tracking while maintaining ease of use and social harmony?

In other words: How can we help young adults share costs effortlessly, ensuring everyone feels included without confusion or awkwardness?

RESEARCH

When traveling with friends, splitting expenses should be simple, but for many young adults, it’s not.

Some end up paying for everything and waiting to be reimbursed, while others have trouble keeping track of costs and staying on budget.

To better understand these struggles, we spoke with two travelers:

One who finds it difficult to keep track of shared expenses and budgets
Another who often covers expenses for the group and waits to get paid back.

GETTING TO KNOW THE USER

Afterward, We asked each person to walk us through their process of managing expenses during a trip, from booking accommodations to splitting meals. Based on their responses, we created an empathy map to highlight the challenges they faced.

How do students feel about budgeting & splitting expenses during trips with their friends?

We surveyed 80+ college students to explore the challenges they face when managing expenses with friends while traveling.

Key Takeaways:

59.7% of young adults rely on others to cover expenses while traveling, paying them back later.

45.0% of young adults budget their trips, emphasizing the need for easier collaboration through shared budgets and seamless expense management.

* Created a survey on Google Forms, and sent it out to young adults from ages 18-30

User Statements:

In the survey, we asked what features they would like to see in a grocery list/recipe app and this is what they wanted:

“A progress thing that would make it easy to know if on track my budget, under-budget, over-budget.”

“Have an easy scanning receipt to splitting costs among groups”

“I would like to have everyone on the same page in-regards to the budget.”

“A feature to see which category of spending is the most expensive—an overall overview.”

“Make the calculation and splitting up fast and efficient to the right person.”

DESIGNING

Defining core principles to consider the needs of both generations and guide design decisions

Active Budgeting
& Expense Visibility

For the planner who tracks every dollar & needs real-time budget control to prevent overspending before it happens

Stress-Free Reimbursement Among Group

For the busy traveler who fronts the costs and just wants to get paid back, without the awkwardness…

DEFINING THE MAIN TASK

For this design, we decided to focus on the task of simplifying the process of splitting and tracking expenses for group trips, helping users manage shared costs more easily.

WIREFRAMING

Since we only has such a limited amount of time, we didn’t go into depth with the lo-fis as much as we would have liked. Before designing my screens, I worked on mid-fidelity wireframes to plan the layouts of the main group balance and transaction request screen.

DESIGN SYSTEM

Components & Styleguides

Our response to strained relationships and stressful traveling experiences, centered around personal money habits and shared expenses, is Tabbi.

OUR SOLUTION

Tabbi simplifies splitting travel expenses by integrating a group card with Apple Wallet. It automatically categorizes transactions and scan receipts, eliminating uncomfortable money conversations and ensuring transparency.

FINAL SCREENS