People often need to spilt bills when they hang out with their companions. Sometimes the condition may be complicated. For example, Anna paid the lunch (¥138), and one of her friend Bob paid the taxi bill (¥36), but the other friend Cal paid nothing. So after the hang-out they had to do some math to solve this problem before they split the expenditure. But if the three persons were all not good at math, it could be a matter for them to calculate how much money they would pay to each other.
Go Dutch in WeChat Pay
Now in WeChat Pay there is a function called "Go Dutch", which aims to help people in splitting bills quickly.
But there is still a problem: It is convenient for sharing bills with the identical amount for each person, but not with the uneven amount of money. If one wants to create a payment with a uneven shared amount, she/ he must fills in each one's amount separately (maybe she/he has to use the calculator).
Use the example I said above, the user scenario would be like this:
Anna wanted to create a bill-splitting with Bob and Cal. So, she entered into the function in WeChat Pay.
Step 1. Anna created a new chat with Bob and Cal.
Step 2. Chose the option "Specified Amount".
Step 3. Input the amount for each person.
Step 4. Anna realized she couldn't calculate the number by her mind, so she opened calculator in her phone and thought over the question for a long time. She needed to ask Bob for 34 yuan, and Cal for 46 yuan. But at the same time Cal should pay Bob 12 yuan for the cost of the taxi drive.
Step 5. Anna got the answer, but not sure about it, so she sent a message to Bob and Cal to confirm it.
Step 6. Anna finally got the right answer and inputted the number.
Step 7. Filled in the event title (lunch)
Step 8. Create the bill
Now in WeChat Pay there is a function called "Go Dutch", which aims to help people in splitting bills quickly.
But there is still a problem: It is convenient for sharing bills with the identical amount for each person, but not with the uneven amount of money. If one wants to create a payment with a uneven shared amount, she/ he must fills in each one's amount separately (maybe she/he has to use the calculator).
Use the example I said above, the user scenario would be like this:
Anna wanted to create a bill-splitting with Bob and Cal. So, she entered into the function in WeChat Pay.
Step 1. Anna created a new chat with Bob and Cal.
Step 2. Chose the option "Specified Amount".
Step 3. Input the amount for each person.
Step 4. Anna realized she couldn't calculate the number by her mind, so she opened calculator in her phone and thought over the question for a long time. She needed to ask Bob for 34 yuan, and Cal for 46 yuan. But at the same time Cal should pay Bob 12 yuan for the cost of the taxi drive.
Step 5. Anna got the answer, but not sure about it, so she sent a message to Bob and Cal to confirm it.
Step 6. Anna finally got the right answer and inputted the number.
Step 7. Filled in the event title (lunch)
Step 8. Create the bill
Bob and Cal saw their own bill and paid it. Finally, Bob paid Anna 34 yuan, and Cal paid to Anna 46 yuan (the first picture below).
At last, Anna got her own money back. But Cal haven't finished his procedure. He must transfer to Bob 12 yuan after paying this bill.
At last, Anna got her own money back. But Cal haven't finished his procedure. He must transfer to Bob 12 yuan after paying this bill.
Or there is another way to use the function: Creating multiple bill-splitting by the owners of each bill, just for one hang-out. So even if she/he pays the biggest amount of cost (which is over the average) , she/he still need to pay to others, even though more money will be come back. But for this user group, the payment is unnecessary and a waste of time.
Take Anna's hang-out as an example again, the procedure would be like this:
Anna created an Identical Amount bill, and the total amount was 138 yuan. Bob and Cal had to pay her 46 yuan respectively.
Bob also had to create an Identical Amount bill, and the total amount was 36 yuan. Anna and Cal had to pay 12 yuan to him respectively. But for Anna, the payment seems to be redundant. She could get rid of the payment instead of just recieving 46-12=34 yuan from Bob.
Design question
After amalyzing the example above, a design question can be described as:
How can we spilt multiple expenditures from different persons without a calculating procedure by jesy creating one splitting bill?
How can we spilt multiple expenditures from different persons without a calculating procedure by jesy creating one splitting bill?
Goals of the redesign
The conceptual model can be described as:
1. Input personal cost
2. Add participants of the bill-splitting activity
3. Create personal bills among participents in chat. Each participant will recieve the payment message(s) from a/several participant(s).
4. Pay the bill(s).
There are 2 goals for the design:
1. Avoiding the calculating procedure outside using the app.
2. It can deal with multiple costs from different users, sending right bills to each participent of a bill-splitting activity.
Conceptual model
The conceptual model can be described as:
1. Input personal cost
2. Add participants of the bill-splitting activity
3. Create personal bills among participents in chat. Each participant will recieve the payment message(s) from a/several participant(s).
4. Pay the bill(s).
Final design
The final design focuses on the feedback of user operations. it tries to let user understand what king of result they will get before the payment has been sent to other. A preview function has been redesigned as follows ( the third interface): User will know how much money they should pay to whom, or how much money they will recieve from other participants before their submition.
History review: By tapping the "clock" on the top-right corner, user can check the payment history. If someone haven't pay the bill until it has expired, here you can send the payment again.
