Playercents
A budgeting app that helps gamers set purchase goals and keep track of video game spending to foster a healthy relationship with their finances.
UX/UI Design
Mobile App Design
UX/UI Designer
November 2023, April-June 2024
With the increased cost for new video games and the increase in In-game purchases throughout the years, gamers have felt a big stress in their budgets while also often feeling guilty for spending money. They have reported that surprise spending and overspending have become massive hurdles for their budget.
For the past couple of years, in forums, comment sections, social media sites, I have seen an increase in discussion over the cost of video games and the negative effect that FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) can have on gamers. I sought out to interview and survey several gamers in order to find out what possible pain points could be discovered.
This is Playercents, an app made for gamers to take control of their gaming spending habits. The app allows users to create and track future spending goals in order to avoid surprise purchases. Also Playercents allows those who wish to curb their need to spend to keep track of all their video game spending in order to foster more confident financial decisions.
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A central home page that informs the user of recent activity and showcases their efforts with a badge that rises in tiers for contributing to their goals.
A dedicated page for purchase goals, giving gamers a place to keep track of their planned spending.
Spending, trackable all in one place for users to understand their video game spending habits. In-game purchases, Downloadable Content (DLC), goals completed, and unplanned game purchases are viewable and sorted.
I surveyed 12 users who play video games as their main source of entertainment, then spoke to the 6 participants who claimed to have had some history with tracking their budget when it comes to the medium.
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With the use of affinity mapping, I was able to get a clearer picture on what impacts gamers when they are thinking of spending their money on games.
The main takeaways I got from their insights were:
1) Surprise spending often catches gamers off guard when its time to make a purchase.
2) Being made aware of how much they spend on games usually causes more thought when buying.
3) Most gamers are not tracking their spending, but those that do are motivated by necessity.
4) Users don't want an app with too many features that require engagement past tracking budgets.
How might we...
1) Remove the sudden bombardment of future gaming purchases?
We can potentially create a product that will give gamers the ability to set long term reminders that require occasional attention in order to plan ahead of time.
2) Provide accountability for gamers who tend to feel like they overspend?
We can provide a quick and easy way to document any game related transactions so that progress can be tracked in order to give players a more accurate picture of their current spending. This will allow gamers to make more confident spending decisions in the future.
3) Give gamers a more approachable way to stay on top of their gaming budgets?
We can create a product that requires minimal steps from the user once onboarded. By giving users a quick and easy way to add their history or future goals, it can reduce the amount of time needed to be spent on the platform.
4) Maintain a low level of required engagement from users?
A solution can be created that prioritizes the main goal for users so experienced users can jump in an out of the process quickly.
As of 2023, 97% of Americans from the age of 18-49 own a smartphone.
With the large presence of smartphones and large amount of mobile gamers, it is important to consider that creating an app would be beneficial to the most amount of users.
Although I could not find other apps that directly try to bridge the gap between gamers and finances, there are plenty of apps on the market that are for budgeting as a whole.
I decided to compare three budgeting apps in order to understand what they do right and what could be improved on.
Moving forward its important that the solution...
- Is easy to use
- Has simple navigation
- Has a clear visual hierarchy
- Provide ways to interact with entries
-Doesn't require too much engagement from users
Proposed User Flow
The brainstorming process provided several possible implementations for the app design, but in order to prioritize a low-stress interface this is the proposed user flow that influenced design decisions.
First Design Draft
The first design iteration took a lot of inspiration from other budgeting app, which borrowed a similar structure in order to appear more familiar with users.
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Was it the wrong approach?
After talking to several users who were able to take a look at the wireframes, it was clear that the aesthetic of the design was not catering towards the actual target audience.
So what changed?...
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It was important to not only take inspiration from budgeting apps, but apps that favor gamers as well.
I noticed several design elements that are common in apps that tailor towards gamer aesthetics. Dark backgrounds with high contrasting elements along with gradients were common practice among these products.
The Final Prototype
Changes to the home screen were made in order to give users a better idea of their progression towards financial goals.
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Things I learned...
Since this was my first time working with a finance/budgeting app it was important to learn about what makes a useful tool for users to budget with. It was also important for me to learn during this process that understanding your target audience has so many factors at play. I learned that the apps interface should focus on implementing all aspects of what the users look for. Finding a good balance between the gamer aesthetic and the financial aesthetic was where the audience truly saw the value in the product.
Another thing I learned during this project was how to make subtle iterations that don't always require starting from scratch. Thinking of ways to improve aspects of the design by making small changes can actually make a big impact.
For the Future
This project has definitely helped me improve my UI Design skills as that is where my educational background focused on the least. I can appreciate the work that has been done so far, but I would love to further understand the issues that gamers have as a community. Unfortunately it is not possible to solve the financial crisis that people are going through as an individual, but creating products like these hopefully can change the way people manage their finances in the future.