Concept Modeling
We often develop several concept models early in the design cycle so there is basic understanding of how users understand the tasks they need to complete. This information can be brought to bear on UI design. We sketch out multiple conceptual models quickly to obtain reactions and feedback. This saves large amounts of time in UI design and helps deliver more intuitive applications.
With My Money Calendar, we considered the user stories that we had developed to drive the development. We looked at two different conceptual models for entering incomes and expenses.
The user is guided through a series of screens that prompts them to add their starting balance, primary incomes and main expenses. The user is funneled through the steps and presented with encouraging messages so will complete the work of entering the basic data. When they complete their "work", they are presented with a populated calendar and can view their cashflow situation in a weekly or a monthly view.
In this approach, the user only has to enter their beginning balance and then they are taken to a calendar view. The calendar is only populated with that beginning balance. Users enter their incomes and expenses as they see fit, by clicking on a button and entering some information on the transaction. After each transaction, the user can see the calendar with a new entry displayed.
Ultimately, we chose a hybrid approach. By capturing feedback from some user testing as well as input from the client, we came to several conclusions. First, with the "Wizard" approach, we began to understand that the user might become fatigued by the number of screens they needed to fill out before they arrived at the "payoff", the populated calendar. Second, we understood that, in order to give the user a better user experience, we needed to give them on-going rewards, in the form of a clearer and clearer picture of their cashflow situation. In the end, we decided to include an abbreviated wizard, just the beginning balance portion. Second, we had the user enter transactions directly into the calendar and see how the calendar becomes more complete as a result of their actions.
Below are screenshots of the two approaches:
