Consumers are spending a lot more on subscriptions than they think.
From Amazon Prime to Spotify and countless other services, the average consumer now juggles five retail subscriptions for items like makeup, clothing, wine, and nearly five paid streaming subscriptions.
For consumers who want help tracking and canceling those payments, a subscription management feature could be the solution.
I chose to do this project because of how difficult it can be to cancel and keep track of paid subscriptions. There are many ways to cut costs and manage your budget, and I set out to design a feature to make it easier for users to do so. It is part of my work for DesignLab's UX Academy.
My Role
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Timeline
80 hours
Tools Used
Figma
Photoshop
Illustrator
I distributed a survey to to discover how people manage their finances via banking apps. Thirteen people aged 18-65 participated.
noted that they used their mobile banking app to pay their bills.
had difficulty managing their subscriptions.
noted that they would be more likely to use a mobile banking app if it had a subscription management feature.
said it would be "very helpful" to have alerts or reminders for upcoming subscription payments within a mobile banking app.
I interviewed three different people to see how they managed subscriptions and to understand their pain points.
Patterns included the need for a clear overview of subscription spending, a more direct way to cancel unwanted subscription, and notifications before a subscription is charged to the user's account.
I created two personas to reflect individuals who are likely to use a subscription management feature. From there, I used the "Jobs To Be Done" framework to clarify the underlying desires that make managing one's finances important.
The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework and theory aims to discover the outcomes that users want, but also explores what they don't want with the business needs in mind. Based on the personas and user interviews, I crafted a JTBD user statement of desired outcome for a mobile banking subscription management feature:
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I started my wireframe process by hand drawing sketches as a way to explore different components, layouts, and flows in a more focused way.
While building out my wireframes, I thoroughly examined and studied the US Bank mobile app and determined that the subscription management feature should live in the existing money tracker feature. I added a "subscriptions" category and nestled it in this tracker.
I conducted 4 usability tests of the prototype. My goals and objectives were related to the outcomes determined by the JTBD framework:
User completes task with relative ease and no significant errors.
User completes each task in a reasonable time frame.
Metric 1: 75% success rate
Metric 2: 50% success rate
of users thought that it wasn't apparent that the money tracker button was a button.
of users found the circular category spending graphic more informative than the bar graph.
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This project allowed me to experience designing a feature for a preexisting application and to build off and work within a structure that already exists.
Subscription management features are helpful for users who have multiple recurring payments and subscriptions. Having a large number of subscriptions can make it challenging to keep track of due dates and payments. Canceling subscriptions can also be a hassle, and this addition to the Money Tracker feature on US Bank's mobile app will help users manage and track their subscription spending.
