6 thoughts about Targets

[simon_tomes]

:mondo:

Targets are ace and I’ve enjoyed using them since the start of October. Here are some thoughts:

1. The “Spending” page feels a little cluttered, especially if compared to the clean and spacious design of the “Home” page. Perhaps removing the “£x left of £y” per category would help. This information could then only be available on the category specific page.

2. Each time I view the Spending page I have to think. I’ve dug deep into why I do this and it feels like the numbers at the top are the wrong way round. I’d like to read spending and monthly target like I read an equation i.e. £500 target - £380.72 spent = £119.28 remaining

3. I have a monthly budget and like that I can set a Total Spending for the month. The typical spending figure is useful. I’d like to apportion my monthly spend across individual categories, instead of setting individual targets per category. I had to do the maths and my head hurt. Perhaps provide two options a) Set a monthly target and allow users to apportion amongst the individual categories b) Allow users to set individual category targets first which means they can’t set a monthly target (unless they take option a)

4. The use of green/orange/red in the bars and text is excellent. It’s super clear what the colours represent.

5. The “Your overspending” notification is useful. I think this will help people become more aware of their spending. It did for me.

6. The non-opaque spending bars decrease from right to left and I can’t seem to reconcile why this confuses me. I’d like to see a non-opaque spending bar increase from left to right. I’d imagine the left and “increasing (non-opaque) bar” representing spend and the right “decreasing (and opaque) bar” representing the remaining amount of the target.

I appreciate this is a whole chunk of feedback and I considered creating separate topics per item of feedback. Happy to break them into individual items of feedback if that would help the conversation.

What do you think?

[anon44204028]

@simon_tomes

The non-opaque spending bars decrease from right to left and I can’t seem to reconcile why this confuses me. I’d like to see a non-opaque spending bar increase from left to right. I’d imagine the left and “increasing (non-opaque) bar” representing spend and the right “decreasing (and opaque) bar” representing the remaining amount of the target.

agree with you as it is otherwise counter-intuitive

[alexs (Alex Sherwood)]

@simon_tomes

The non-opaque spending bars decrease from right to left and I can’t seem to reconcile why this confuses me. I’d like to see a non-opaque spending bar increase from left to right. I’d imagine the left and “increasing (non-opaque) bar” representing spend and the right “decreasing (and opaque) bar” representing the remaining amount of the target.

Just to pick up on this point - think of these bars as a fuel gauge. But instead of fuel, this is shows you how much money you have left to spend. Fuel gauges decrease right to left…

If the bar was showing you how much you’ve spent, I’d expect it to increase left to right but this bar is showing you the opposite.

The focus is on how much money you have left to spend in the month, not how much you’ve spent (which can’t be changed now).

Just to keep everything tied together, I’ve also tried (without much success ) to make this point in this topic -

Spending screen is counterintuitive with targets

I appreciate we can see things differently but I find the spending screen really counterintuitive when tracking against targets. Functionality is that when nothing is spent against a category the bar is full and as spend occurs the bar decreases to the left. I would expect it to be the other way around, the bar starting to grow from left to right as the cash goes out and I am heading towards the target. e.g. I have #164 of #180 left to spend on eating out. The bar is solid almost all the way …