It’s difficult to keep track of all the products and services we subscribe to each month. Sometimes we want a free trial before committing to the product, but we forget to cancel and end up paying unwanted fees without realizing how much accumulates each month.
Interact with the prototype here!
A friend had expressed interest in picking up dance and wanted to try some online classes for free before going all in. Long story short: he signed up for the free trial, forgot to cancel his subscription, and ended up with $20 less but a slightly better dancer.
Now this isn't the worst possible scenario, but it made me think about how often unwanted fees come out of lack of organization between our many subscriptions. Thus posed the challenge:
INTERVIEWS
I asked 10 people how they manage their subscriptions and what challenges they face with keeping track of multiple payments.
From the initial research and exploration, it seemed important for people to be able to see all of their subscriptions in one location. The current challenge was having multiple subscriptions across different credit cards, emails, and cycles. Consolidating everything into one space would make it easier for users to understand and track their products.
Defining these goals helped identify what features would be useful for this application.
PRODUCT FEATURES
1) Dashboard: easily display all upcoming subscriptions as well as monthly expense tracking
2) Calendar: provides an overview of the month and what days have a payment due
3) Wallet: link your active cards into the wallet and see what subscriptions are being charged
During my first lo-fi exploration, I prioritized creating screens for the main features and adding a new subscription. I found in my early iterations that the add new subscription screen didn't offer as much information that may be needed. I wanted to create something simple and clear, but realized that the simplicity lacked important details.
I went back and revised the new subscription screens and edited the flow to break down the process into clearer steps. The new variation presented users with different subscriptions to choose from, as well as a search button and a custom button.
The next step required more details to be filled out, but these would be necessary in helping people track their subscriptions and expenses.
After exploration and different iterations, these were the first hi-fidelity variations of Subbed.
This was one of my first solo projects diving into product design, and I really enjoyed the experience of seeing how an idea evolved from personal experiences.
One challenge I faced throughout the process was being certain if my design choices would be feasible from an engineering standpoint. Having constraints can help narrow in on the details of what can and can't be done realistically, but in this case the sky was the limit.
If I were to develop this concept further, I would love to do usability tests and see how people interact with the product in both low fidelity and high fidelity stages. I'd also incorporate more market research on the average user and their subscriptions to define business goals. Overall, it was a great learning experience and I'm excited to continue growing!
