Subscription Management Application

Today, subscriptions are everywhere. Most people see money come out of their accounts each month for services they don’t regularly use. The fictional company, SubHQ, launched a desktop program to fix this problem and help users know exactly what and when they are spending their money on. However, SubHQ needed to create a mobile friendly app so they could significantly increase their market reach and continue increasing business.

I set out to create a brand-new design for a mobile app that would act as the principle source of contact for users. My goal was to create an app that would manage a vast amount of information, and present it in a way where a wide range of users could use it easily, and quickly gain trust in the app. 

I accomplished this goal by conducting secondary research and designing sketches to use for guerilla testing to learn the best solutions to the core problem and define user needs. I then created all the high-fidelity designs and a prototype, which I then used to conduct usability testing and make needed iterations.

The Problem

Design Process Overview

Conducting Secondary Research

The Research Process

Truebill App

Bobby App

In my research I learned of some important problems users face with subscriptions. For example, according to one study, 84% of people underestimated what they spend on subscriptions each month. I also found some great ideas for solutions from other apps, such as the inclusion of a calendar view of subscriptions to make it easier to view subscriptions. 

Upon completion of my research, I summarized the findings so I could focus on key problems that needed to be addressed in my designs of the app. I focused by creating four “How Might We” questions to answer in sketching my solutions:

1. How might we allow users to easily know how much they are spending on their subscriptions each month?

2. How might we help the user feel secure and safe while using the app and entering personal information?

3. How might we encourage users to regularly use the app to track their subscriptions?

4. How might we help users identify and cancel subscriptions they are no longer using regularly?

My Findings

In order to combine the goals of the company, and the goals of the consumer, I created user flows based on the HMW questions and the needs of the company. This task was more difficult than I initially thought and it required much more detail. In the user flow of adding a new subscription I realized that I needed two different pathways depending on whether the subscription was recognized by the app or not.

Defining Ideas

I ended up creating three detailed user flows to accomplish both the user and company goals: view current subscription and monthly total, how to cancel a subscription, and how to add a new subscription. In the subscription cancellation flow I wanted to have the app offer to cancel the subscription for the users. In my research I saw that the app Truebill did this to help users avoid the headache of canceling subscriptions. I felt that this needed to be included with SubHQ to have the users feel in control. I then used these user flows as a blueprint to create my sketches.

Creating & Testing Initial Ideas

I created two different landing pages that the user can easily toggle between. This allows them to take in all their subscription information either by date or by category. I felt it was important to give users this option in order to address the HMW questions of having users quickly know how much they are spending, and increase app usage by allowing the user to interact with it how they would like.

Sketches

When adding a new subscription, I put a progress bar on top of the page so that throughout the process the user could easily tell where they were. As defined in my user flows, adding a new subscription was spread out among many pages and this encouraged the users to complete the task.

Using my sketches as “cellphone screens”, I conducted my first testing on my solutions with 5 people. Interviews lasted about 15-20 minutes and I asked each of them to complete the same four tasks. Each test was done in person.

Although the majority of the users successfully completed each task, I quickly learned that there were small aspects of the design that were causing big distractions to the user along the way. These findings, shown in the table, were surprising to me at first because I drew sketches in a way that I thought would add to the user experience, when in reality it just caused roadblocks. For example the location of the “add” button made sense to me and looked good in my mind, however it was difficult for some users and ultimately needed changing.

Guerilla Testing

Before creating my high fidelity designs I solidified a style guide for SubHQ that was in line with the company attributes of being trustworthy, caring, and friendly. I selected colors and fonts that also made the users feel comfortable and secure while using an app that handles some of their financial information.

I made sure to make the needed changes found from the guerilla testing into my high fidelity designs and prototype.  Below are examples of some of these changes

Designing the Solutions

I moved the Add button higher up on the screen and gave it its own designated spot so users could locate it easier.

Instead of dropdown titles or descriptions that were unclear to users, I had standard presets. The goal was for the dropdowns to be more understandable to users and that they can be edited.

I changed some of the button options and names in my high fidelity designs, specifically the “Remove from List” button. It was confusing in relation to the cancel button and would rarely be used.

Using the high fidelity designs, I created a prototype to be tested in my usability testing. I conducted five in-person interviews using the app prototype. I gave each person the same four tasks I used in my guerilla testing in order to verify that the changes I made from my sketches were successful, and to also identify any other potential issues.

I was excited to learn that all the users completed the tasks and each found the app to be very useful. I was reminded that the user is almost always right because the changes I made from my guerilla findings were completely successful. As expected there were some new insights learned from this round of testing and below are the iterations I ended up making to my high fidelity designs based on the findings from the usability tests.

Testing the Solutions

The monthly subscription total was not on the upcoming/calendar page where it feels like it needs to belong as well.

When adding a subscription that isn’t recognized by the app, the option to add it manually needed to be more obvious.

Click here to view the Final Prototype

With this final prototype I was able to focus on the HMW questions I defined at the beginning and was able to find solutions to each of them through my designs. The SubHQ app is easy to navigate and solves the core problem of people not knowing how much they are actually spending on subscriptions.

In both rounds of testing the people I interviewed, almost every person said they would actually use this app if it was developed. Moving forward I would present my findings to developers and if possible run another round of usability testing with the newest designs to perfect the app even more.

Throughout the process of designing SubHQ, I learned that the greatest insights come from users in testing your designs. Even if a certain type of module or design is included in well known or developed apps, it does not mean that it will work best in my designs for that certain project. Listening to users is something I will prioritize in designing a product because not only will it function well, but it will actually give helpful solutions to real life problems.

End Results