maxine ancheta

timeline

Winter 2025

7 weeks

ROLE

Designer

Team

Kira Sugihara

Valerie Legates

Kaitlyn Wong

Disciplines

Interaction Design

UX Research

Prototyping

introduction

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Starting the Process

Brainstorming

Research

User Flow

Mentor Feedback

Crazy 8

Moodboards

Digital Mid-Fi

High-Fi

problem

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.

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

69%

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:

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

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

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

ideation

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…

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

Design System

solution

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

Trip Planning

Add the trip details and have everyone enter their personal budgets

Setting destination

Adding your friends

Finding budget compromise

Travel Budgeting

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.

Compatible with Apple Pay

for quick and secure payments on the go

Know when your budget is low

to avoid owing others

View recent transactions

Budget by expense category

Add external transactions

Notifications

for real-time budget changes/updates

Expense categorization with AI

to keep all shared payments organized

Your share, simplified

Once you pay at the end of your trip, Tabbi automatically redistributes the amount back to everyone’s balance, keeping your trip stress-free and your friendships intact!

reflection

Future Improvements

With more time, we would have loved to dive deeper into iterations and testing to refine the project even further.

01

More explorations

Spending more time in the wireframe & lo-fi stage & playing with different possibilities of solutions and design approaches

02

Usability testing

Gathering more user feedback would have helped validate our decisions, challenge assumptions, and guide our next iterations more effectively