GoDutch
Using AI and automation to simplify bill splitting
Role
Research
UX Design
UI Design
Prototyping
Timeline
Oct. 2024 - Dec. 2024
Team
Developer
Tools
Figma
Miro
INTRODUCTION
The Challenge
The idea for GoDutch originated after countless personal experiences with restaurants that enforced a no-split bill policy for groups. These situations often leave customers to deal with the hassle and frustrations of splitting the bill.
As a result, customers say things like…
How can I reduce the time and effort it takes to split a bill?
The Solution
GoDutch is a mobile app designed to make splitting the bill with friends fast and easy. By leveraging AI to generate itemized digital bills, users can collaborate in real time—claiming items while the system automatically calculates each person's share.
Itemized bills
Bills are organized into an easy-to-digest format, enabling users to quickly review and identify what they ordered.
Automated calculations
As items are claimed, calculations are automated to provide instant results, eliminating the need for users to do math and reducing errors.
Real-time collaboration
Working together in one place keeps everyone in sync while boosting efficiency and transparency.
RESEARCH
Unpacking the Bill Splitting Experience
User Interviews and Affinity Mapping
To understand how people currently split bills and the challenges they face throughout the process, I conducted user interviews with 6 participants to gather insights into their experiences.
The collected data was synthesized through affinity mapping to uncover patterns.
Research revealed 4 key insights about users needs:
🤕 Math causes headaches
People struggle with calculations, especially when factoring in tax and tip. Users need a solution that allows them to quickly determine how much they owe with minimal effort.
🙅♀️ Overpaying
Inaccurate calculations can lead to people paying more than their fair share. Users need a solution that guarantees precise and transparent results.
⏳ Time consuming process
The current process, from sharing the bill to calculating individual amounts, is slow and inefficient. A solution must streamline this process to save users time, especially in time-sensitive situations.
🤝 It's a group effort
Typically, one person takes the lead in guiding the group through the bill-splitting process, while the rest of the group follows along and waits for their share of the information to contribute. A solution should foster seamless collaboration.
Are Competitors Meeting Users Needs?
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed the market to evaluate how well competitor apps were meeting user needs, examining their features, strengths, and weaknesses.
Analysis of 4 competitor apps
Key Insights:
Splitwise is primarily designed for tracking dues and requires users to do the math themselves, which doesn’t relieve the burden of calculating costs.
Plates by Splitwise proved inefficient, requiring manual entry of bill items and only allowing one user to work on the bill.
Venmo is limited to splitting costs evenly and doesn’t support more complex calculations, like dividing based on individual orders.
Tab is the most comprehensive solution, but it’s bloated with features that don’t perform well and lacks intuitiveness.
Identifying gaps in these existing tools helped define GoDutch's direction. It would focus on simplifying bill splitting when costs are divided by individual orders, with a focus on improving efficiency and collaboration.
Defining User Roles
User Knowledge Profiles
Identifying the two types of roles people typically take on when splitting a bill helped shape knowledge-based user profiles. These profiles, based on each user’s understanding of the task, became integral to the design process.
“Holly the Host” was used as the primary focus of the design.
DESIGN
Streamlining the Process
Task Flow Analysis
Informed by user interviews, I created a series of flow diagrams to map out the task process for the host profile. My goal was to optimize the process by identifying opportunities to bridge the user's knowledge gaps and automate specific steps.
From Concept to Creation
Sketches
The optimized task flow acted as a blueprint for the user flow, outlining the main tasks, elements, and interfaces needed to split the bill effectively:
Set up bill
Share bill
Claim/split items
Review totals
I sketched the screens required for the user to complete these tasks, focusing on content layout and user flow. I used research insights to drive design decisions, while also consulting with a developer to ensure the solutions took into account technical constraints and feasibility, including:
Sharing solution: Group members need quick access to bills in time-sensitive or one-off scenarios. I implemented QR codes for fast sharing, which directs users to the web version of the app, allowing them to collaborate without needing to download the app.
Bill editing: AI might not always accurately itemize bills, I ensured users had the ability to manually edit the bill, providing them with more control.
Scanning bills: The quality of the photo can impact the accuracy of bill itemization. I designed a prompt to help users capture clear, high-quality images of their bills.
Sketches showing the flow for the main tasks - Set up bill, share bill, claim items, review totals
Sketching allowed me to explore different design ideas. Given the constraints of limited screen space, I needed to be strategic in how I displayed content. For list items, I experimented with contextual swipe and tap-to-reveal interactions. Ultimately, I opted for a tap-to-reveal design that would show the "split" action. Any editing features would be accessed on a separate page.
Style Guide
Research revealed that users often felt awkward and frustrated when splitting the bill. With this in mind, I aimed to design an app that fostered trust and was intuitive. The goal was to create an experience that felt like a natural extension of the collaboration that happens when splitting a bill.
I chose blue as the primary color for its relationship to trust and used a friendly, light tone of voice to ensure the app felt approachable and easy to use.
The name "GoDutch" was inspired by the phrase "going Dutch," where each person pays their own share. I kept the logo simple, using the white space between the words to form the illusion of a percentage symbol.
Final Designs
PROJECT REFLECTION
What's Next?
Conduct user testing and iterate based on feedback.
Develop the design for the collaborator profile.
Learning Outcomes
Each step in the research and design process must be intentional, guiding the next phase. It’s essential to create actionable, meaningful artifacts that genuinely influence the product and decision-making.
Simplicity is key. It’s important to focus on solving the core problem. I initially struggled with wanting to tackle everything, but narrowing in on the main issue proved to be the most effective approach. By concentrating on the essential elements that help the user achieve their goals and eliminating unnecessary complexity, the design becomes more streamlined and effective.
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