For this weekly workshop we looked at personas and how they represent to two opposite spectrums of our target audience. For example if the target audience was 16-30, there would be a persona and how it would relate to the person who is 16 years old using the application and then there would be another one for the 34 year old. There is not always two, sometimes there are a lot more, depending on how wide the target audience is. As these audience members are different ages, they also would use the app for two completely different reasons. One would use it to help his career and the other would use it to maintain his income and outcome as financial aid.

For the week 4 workshop we were looking at our competitors and how we could get inspiration to influence our development in our application. I looked at many different applications that focused on budgeting and the ones that stood out to me were Cleo and Concur. I chose these applications because they both looked at saving money for different target audiences. Cleo was a more personal, informal application where you had to simulate a text in to a AI software that replied with a message giving the user statistics of how much they have in their bank account and how much they have spent on specific goods over the given month or week. I also looked at concur and how it relates to the business man and the travelling entrepreneur. It gave details on hotel and travel expenses and this would allow the user to claim them on the works bank account. This would only work if he knew exactly how much he was spending and the app allows the user to scan receipts and online transactions straight to their phone. This would be something I would like to incorporate into my application.

Through the week three workshop we were given the chance to get critical feedback on our idea and proposal. We reviewed this with our tutor and how our idea could stand out an improve. Here is my given proposal.

What is the intended idea / concept behind the proposed project?

Budgie is a budgeting app, allowing students and above to use control their spending and income with ease. For example, if the user was to have a weekly budget of £25 to last them to Easter from the Christmas months Budgie will send them push notifications informing them of what they can and cannot spend to help them maintain the budget they have personally set. Budgie will not take any personal details unless you want it to link in to your bank account and maintain your money from there. With the correct personal settings Budgie will send you push notifications saying how close you are from exceeding your budget, you can also check on the app how close you are manually, this will use mobile data or any internet connection. If the user were to link Budgie into their personal banking account it could keep track of investments and would estimate the right weekly or monthly budget that would be best for you due to your recent monthly purchases. The user can personally set when they want to receive the push notification, informing them how much they have spent and how much they have left to put into savings or to spend the following week. As some people would not be happy putting their personal banking account information into a third party application, Budgie has a guest feature. This guest feature, although may be more difficult to use, it still allows the user to check how much they are spending and when they are more likely to make a purchase throughout the week. The difference between the guest account and the personal account is that the guest would have to input manually how much they spend each time so the app can receive the data without having access to the banking records. This way would be safer, but more challenging for the user.

Justify the idea / concept in terms of the needs for its existence (if purely for entertainment, state this and how the output will be innovative/original and creative):

The application Budgie would be very helpful for students as they may have never had to be responsible for their purchases and their income before. It will be helpful for potential employers as it will allow them to look at how they have spent their work’s money and what they could do to cut down on the not so important purchases. As this application may not be possibly life changing, it will on the other hand help students and people who suffer from the lack of education when it comes to looking after their own money, it will help them greatly and make for an easier Segway into the world further than just the educational system. Budgie will be very helpful for potential house owners who want to save up money before making the big purchase of their first house. Budgie will allow you to set aside the money you don’t spend and send you notifications of how much you have saved overall over the months and even years! This will be extremely helpful for people who want to save up for bigger purchases, whether it be a new car, or something helpful for a business. The application budgie can be used for both entertainment and professional needs.

Describe the intended audience:

The intended audience for Budgie is 16 and above. I believe that the majority of the younger generation these days would normally get your first part time job around 16 and with the help of the app, it will allow the user to save up for further years. I chose a wide ranged target audience because I believe that everyone has problems when it comes to spending too much money, with the ease of a push notifications just informing you when you are about to go over budget, that will be a lot to change the user’s mind about ordering another chicken wrap from the local takeaway. Although some people may overlook a singular notification, Budgie can be set to repeat the notification daily so that the user knows exactly how much he can or cannot spend for the remainder of the week and or month. As this can be used in both America and United Kingdom, it will have the conversion rates for UK citizens traveling or working abroad. Other users using the app around the world can input their own currency and Budgie will calculate the conversion rate for use further than just the United Kingdom, meaning that Budgie could potentially be a global application.

How will this project extend your or your team’s creative and technical skills?

This project will help to develop my creative and technical skills because it will allow me to create an application that I will have to develop and make each individual logo and working screen. I could use Adobe XD to make the application’s screen function to a certain extent, as a sort of prototype. This would be a more serious and practical application than the application that I created called ‘Doggo’, as the target audience is much wider that anything else I have created in the past I will have to keep to a serious, more professional way of working in which I handle my time more responsibly than before. This will help to develop creative skills as I think about what the logo will entail and how the user interface of the application would come across as user friendly and easy to access the things needed quickly.

Technically I would have to use the given programs to the best of my ability to create a professional application and market that the user would find easy to use and hopefully would make them trust the application.

I would create the application logo in Adobe Illustrator and I would do this by using the pen too, shape tool and the paint brush tool. I will have to find the right aesthetic look to the logo to make it look consistent throughout the application screens, I would also have to make sure that the colouring and stroke of the line is not too harsh or soft as this would not be deemed professional in the given target marketplace. I would use Adobe Photoshop to create the mock prototypes of the application screens on a mobile phone, as this will be created for an I-phone, and I will get them peer assessed to see if they fit my target audience. I would then create a somewhat interactive application in Adobe XD in which the user can use certain buttons, to get a feel of what the final product would be created like.

Outline how the practical work will be carried out by you / the team (division of labour) and the time-scales involved for each task:

As I am the only member of the group, I will be focusing my time on getting each individual task sorted without rushing any of the given projects. I will firstly look at the application logo and how I will create that to a professional standard, using research to guide how the market is seen in the current years, and how different applications became popular either due to simplistic or complicated design, this will take the first week. I will also look at certain animations and different music videos and how they have advertised different applications, taking colours and other aesthetic qualities into consideration. I would then look into the 3 to 5 different individual interactive screens, created in Photoshop and how I can use the research gathered to combine into the application, this will take around 2-3 weeks working quite intensely. Finally, I will put all of these screens together in Adobe XD to finish the prototype application, although this is that final hurdle, it does not mean it will be an easy task, as we have not had a lot of experience with Adobe XD, but it will allow me to gather further experience with the software.

What other work (by animators, designers, film-makers, writers, digital media producers, etc.) is relevant to your project? (This work may either be relevant for its conceptual or technical similarity):

I have looked into the works of the Santander app, although it is practical, it looks bland and boring and there is not budget feature which is needed to allow people to maintain their income. This is where Budgie comes in! Although the Santander application has a secure log in and their trademark red log, it lacks the easy to use user interface. This seems to be the case with most banking apps, it makes the app usable but not enjoyable to use and not appealing aesthetically. I have personally been using the Santander application for about 2 years and have only received a push notification about being logged off securely, I have received a notification on how much money I have spent per month or how much money I have left in the savings.

List any critical texts that are relevant to your conceptual intentions:

https://www.barclays.co.uk/BarclaysMobileBanking/MobileBankingapp/P1242609123821

http://www.santander.co.uk/uk/help-support/mobile-banking

http://www.halifax.co.uk/aboutonline/download-apps/

http://thefinancialbrand.com/47123/mobile-banking-in-2017/

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/living-on-a-low-income-tips

Any other information not covered above:

My Padlet page:

https://padlet.com/14524303/a9p1hucxnla8

In the Week 2 workshop, we looked at our own ideas and the development of our proposal. We did this by going around the room and reviewing our own ideas and other ideas in small groups of two or three. When we had gathered the information from our peers, we then put the received comments and information into our Padlet page under feedback boxes, which shared opinions on the app and how they would improve it by changing specific things. The information gathered allowed me to look at my app from another perspective and seeing as the people were from my specific target audience. I looked into mainly banking apps and how they function from a mobile perspective, using portability as a main way of looking at your money, without having to visit the bank or an ATM. I want to incorporate looking at savings through the app and controlling what you want to see, with personalised settings.

For the first week of digital media, we had our lecture in the morning of the Monday at 11 o’clock, this spoke about what we were going to be learning throughout the semester. This was followed up by the workshop on the Thursday morning which went into more detail about what the semester was about and how we as a class should individually create and market an app to fit in with the EYA categories. We had been given a challenge to go through each individual EYA category in groups of 2-3 and brainstorm as to what ideas we could look at and what problems there are already within that market. After the workshop, I had an Idea to fit under the money category. My idea was called Budgie and it would be a green app that would allow students to budget money week by week, making them save more money than they spend. It would show a weekly graph in which the student can see how much they have spent and how close they are to their weekly total. It would even keep track of the amount of money they earn with their part time jobs. As this was my first Idea I looked into different categories but wanted to keep it as an app.