BudgetBloom

Inspiration

Budgeting can be overwhelming, especially for college students with different financial goals and income sources. We were inspired to create a tool that made financial planning easier and encouraged peers and advisors to collaborate. BudgetBloom was created looking at growth and support found in nature. It was designed to help students nurture financial habits and "bloom" into financial independence.

What We Learned

During this experience, we learned a lot about how crucial user-centered design is, especially for financial apps aimed at younger audiences. Through the process, we realized that there's a need for a friendly and accessible interface that could make financial planning feel not only approachable but enjoyable as well. In addition to this, we learned how to prioritize certain features in a limited time frame. We also learned how valuable collaborative tools can be for budgeting.

How We Built It

We designed BudgetBloom primarily using Figma to focus on a clean, intuitive UI. Our primary goal was to give users an effortless onboarding experience so they could quickly decide their financial goals and their income sources. Every feature we chose was to provide practical budgeting tools while encouraging collaborative feedback.

We initially did a competitive analysis to determine what others in this space are doing and picked up the pros and cons. We understood what was common amongst popular budgeting apps and what didn't work. Afterward, we created low-fidelity wireframes to understand the overall structure of the app. Then, we moved to Figma to create our high-fidelity mockups and prototypes. We prototyped the core screens, such as the home dashboard, collaboration screens, and insights. We decided to stick to something plant-inspired with greens and neutrals for icon and color selection. Among this, we also used more playful colors to communicate that it's for a younger audience and make it more approachable.

Challenges We Faced

Our biggest challenge was trying to understand the scope of our project within the 24-hour limit we were given. We needed to balance our comprehensive features with simplicity. We felt new users needed to see critical financial details without being overwhelmed. It also took a bit of time to create something that was not only professional but youthful as well. We figured it was worth it to make something engaging for college students.

Conclusion

BudgetBloom is a budgeting tool and a supportive space where students can manage their finances and gain confidence for the future. We're excited to present our solution that empowers its users to grow financially and receive guidance and feedback from a like-minded community.