Pocket Budget : Helping Groups Agree Before Spending
What is Pocket Budget?
Pocket Budget is a mobile app that helps groups align on shared finances. It enables seamless collaboration and agreement on collective budgets before spending occurs.
My role
As Pocket Budget's only designer, I owned the process end to end, conducting competitive analysis, user interviews, and usability testing with 6 college students to deliver high-fidelity Figma prototypes.
Problem
The text message that broke the
group chat.
He wanted to travel with his eight friends, and planning their trip was exciting until someone booked the Airbnb and texted the group chat:
“Hey guys, can you send me your share?”
The chat went quiet. No one is replying...until the chaos started:
This was the real-life experience of someone close to me, and it became the foundation of Pocket Budget.
Research
Uncovering the root causes.
Through user interviews with college students, I combined qualitative insights with competitive analysis to understand the full scope of the issue.
100% of participants face friction when managing shared expenses.
I hate asking people to
pay me back...
I sent the receipt in the chat but I do not know where anymore.
Where existing tools fall short.
After analyzing how competitors approached group budgeting, I realized that none addressed the need for groups to agree before spending money. Instead, these systems were designed for splitting expenses after the money had already been spent.
Design Approach
How might we help groups agree before spending?
My initial idea was to separate the interface: Pending Actions included all of the proposals that were awaiting a vote, while Budgets contained all active groups.
Testing revealed a major pain point.
Usability testing with 6 participants revealed a critical area that reshaped the design.
Iterating based on user feedback.
To solve the confusion I grouped all budgets into a single unified list and introduced filter tabs to separate states without splitting navigation.
Final Design
Agree before you spend.
A group member proposes an expense then the group votes in one shared space, ensuring every voice is heard before money is spent.
Know your share upfront.
Before anything is booked, the app automatically breaks down the estimated cost per person, so everyone understands their commitment early and can align on affordability.
Key Takeaway
The real problem wasn’t splitting. It was agreeing.
Users weren’t struggling to calculate who owed what. They were struggling to reach an agreement before spending. This shifted the focus from simply tracking expenses to helping groups make shared decisions with clarity and confidence.