Disclaimer: We are not planing on building an Apple Watch app any time soon. As you know there are tons of other things we need to get done to start offering current accounts.
That said… From time to time we like to think a bit about what the future Monzo could look like and play with ideas that are not refined. In this occasion we indulged ourselves designing a Watch companion app for the soon to be released Target feature, something really simple that you could always leave on your Watch dock and glance before taking a decision, for example, checking your Groceries Target while you’re in the supermarket. Same idea would apply to a Monzo Targets “complication”.
I wear my Apple Watch every day, I find it great! Having notifications come to my wrist is nice, it saves time and allows me to see who’s calling if I’m up a ladder easier than checking my pocket. This complication would be very handy indeed. I’m all for this sort of development, so long as the bigger issues are worked on first (which it sounds like they will be).
In general I’d want to track my targets by month (payday to payday) & obviously that’s is how the feature’s designed in the iPhone app. Scrolling through screens to see each category’s monthly remaining balance looks good to me.
But since I’d be checking my Watch much more often, a complication displaying my remaining balance for my daily spend target (the target figure that was requested here) would be more useful than a complication showing how much I have left to spend for the month overall. I’d also like to have a complication displaying my account’s current balance.
Building on @anon42748375’s suggestion for tomorrow’s upcoming payments, it would be neat if you could use the Time Travel feature to see all upcoming payments for the month, as you travel forward each day, with an amount due for each day & month to date total. i.e. 2nd £10 due, £10 MTD total & then 3rd £5 due, £15 MTD total.
If you could display the outstanding balance of the target for the default category of the merchant who’s located wherever the Watch wearer currently is, when the app is opened, that would be great.
Important to think about what you’re trying to achieve with a Watch app and make sure it’s achievable in around two seconds.
Looking at the prototype, I’m seeing what I feel is too many screens on that bottom navigation controller.
I personally think the Monzo app on Apple Watch would be much better suited to a kind of structure like the Activity app. Page 1 being card balance and spent today, possibly scrolling down to a mini-feed. Page 2 being a large overall budget number with all your split targets in a list (eliminating the need for that useless last page, see the Stocks app for a good example of this pattern in use). I say this because swiping is frustratingly slow and I find in my use of the Watch that navigating mid to long screens is significantly faster with the Digital Crown.
I do also question if the Watch is really the right place to try and put the balance graph, is the graph really that useful with no labels or the length to show a whole month?
As I’m sure I’ve said elsewhere, I believe the strengths of Monzo on the Watch are really in the complications and rich notifications you can provide with a Watch app. Focusing on Targets and the glanceability of that feature within the Watch app itself is a good move.
On Barclays Watch app, you setup lower and upper limits, then to view your balance it shows a ‘ring’ with no figures based on your upper and lower limit, so you get an idea as to your balance without revealing any figures. If you want to see the actual balance, you force touch the ring and it shows up. When it works, it works really well.
Yes, by using your average lows, highs and your habits, this could easily be setup for you automatically, showing your what the high and low are on your phone in the app, with the ability to adjust whenever you want.
Also a gentle reminder that advises you of expected debits and credits to your account would be nice - obviously with the ability to turn them off.
Something else that would be nice is a projected balance, based on regular credits, debits and past spending habits - you choose any date in the future and you can get an idea of projected balance, which you can adjust by switching off any of the spending habits and just looking at regular credits/debits. This would be good for the app, with a complication for the watch.
Love what you guys are doing, takes me back to Concept Labs working for Barclays.
Nice @hugo! Maybe include some filter controls to include/remove categories of habitual spending, so that users can see how changing their spending habits will impact their finances.
As a Watch owner since they launched, I’m excited for the idea. Even as simple as a Balance complication would be a great thing to have. I wish glances still existing as that would be a great next step, with a full app being a final step with some recent transactions list, would be really useful I think.
Don’t feel that you need to do everything at once. Give us a balance complication!
