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 to the right.
To me, that indicates Iâm nearly at the limit, not that I have only spent #16.
I am sure thereâs a reason for it working the way it does, but it makes no sense to me
Iâm sure I remember seeing a post from Hugo somewhere, crediting Tristan with suggesting this design - & saying it was a deliberate choice.
Anyway, I actually like it, I prefer that the focus is on how much I have left to spend, rather than how much I have spent.
The latter (which is still displayed as a number & determines which order you see your targets in), is less useful for me because thereâs nothing I can do to change how much Iâve already spent. Whereas I can manage the remainder of my balance & try to ensure that I still hit my target.
Keeping the userâs attention on how much they have left to spend (I find that the bars draw more attention than the amount spent figure), also supports Monzoâs first product, overdrafts
but this design is unconventional so Iâm sure you wonât be the only one who finds it strange at first!
Whatever the reasoning, I wonât be âgetting usedâ to it as it doesnât work for me. Sometimes âbeing differentâ doesnât work too well. Even if the bar decreased to the right it would make more sense. Decreasing right to left as something progresses is counterintuitive. Because, as you say, the bars are much more prominent than the numbers.
Agreed, the bars throw me off when i first look at them, thinking Iâve spent nearly all my budget when in fact i havenât spent much at all. I would prefer the bar âdrainingâ in the opposite direction as well
Thatâs your categoryâs balance decreasing when youâre looking at the bars expecting them to show you how much youâve spent, they donât make sense but when you look at them as a balance, they do.
We wonât agree. To me, the balance working up to a target makes more sense. Not something I want to relearn for a single app thatâs decided to challenge the way we read in the western world. If it works for you, great!
It would be a bit like a petrol pump not showing how much you spent on fuel but how many ÂŁs left to fill the tank so the display decreasing down to ÂŁ0
The way I see it, it is correct. The targets arenât there to be hit, they are there as a guide. In an ideal world, you donât want to be reaching all of your targets. And thatâs why (as far as Iâm aware) they work the way that they do.
Whichever way you look at it, the issue I have is the dividing point moves the wrong way. It needs to move left to right, not right to left, as time goes by. Itâs just the conventional way we mark the passage of time and bucking the standard way stuff works makes it counterintuitive.
Donât know how to highlight it but up there ^^ alexs says âbut this design is unconventional so iâm sure you wonât be the only one to find it strangeâ
This is âyouâre holding it wrongâ applied to app design.
Iâm looking at it wrong, not the way itâs presented is unnatural. So bad design becomes my problem, because I am not smart enough to âget itâ.
Actually Iâll take back the âunconventionalâ comment. If you think about a physical fuel gauge (or the balance indicator that I mentioned) this is a standard design. Itâs unconventional for budgets but not those types of indicators.
And I definitely wasnât suggesting that youâre not getting it because youâre not smart. People donât like change / difference because weâre naturally wary of change. Remember the last Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram redesign or the Monzo name change, everyone (including me) complains about these changes because theyâre strange & itâs fun to point them out & then in a couple of months, theyâre not bothering anyone & no one remembers or discusses them anymore.
And obviously itâs good to question whether these features are as good as they could possibly be.
It is one thing to get used to change if it one thing in isolation changing but if one person or one London borough decides to drive on the opposite side of the road how do you get used to it sometimes when your brain knows they have to be used to the opposite the rest of the time.
The original poster has that issue. If all apps and sites chose to display in the direction Monzo want we can adapt easily, but with everyone else doing the opposite of Monzo makes it a real struggle coping with Monzoâs insistance to go against the grain.
A âprogressâ bar gives us the idea that the targets are fixed. I look at them as fluid, kind of like a thermometer or pressure bar, which can go up and down.
As an example, if I find Iâm spending too much on transport or eating out, then I might reduce the target on shopping so I can increase the targets on transport and eating out.
I care more about how much I have available to spend rather than how much I have spent, so as the available amount decreases it seems logical to me that the bar should decrease along with it.
The targets feature is only at the early stages. As Monzo adds other products/features, the design of the feature will inevitably change with it.
I understand, honestly but give it some time. If itâs still bothering you in a month, then (for what itâs worth) Iâll be much more open to agreeing that this is a real problem.
If itâs unconventional for budgets then why force a change. Sometimes conventions make sense.
This is a banking app, not a selfie posting site. They are different things entirely.
This seems to me like change for the sake of it, just to be different. Great if you like it, unfortunately I work with numbers all day and I donât want to do that mental swap every time I look at my Monzo spend. This has nothing to do with resisting change, everything to do with consistency in a particular field. So Iâll be switching the âfeatureâ off.
âWait a month and youâll get used to it isâ a reason that we end up with rubbish software at all levels. It gets to the point that even if the consensus is that itâs wrong, after that convenient month has passed it is then too difficult to change as everyone is used to the way it worksâŚ
the solution is to have a bar going from left to right with a toggle setting allowing the bar filled in to the left of the mark or to the right so it shows how much spent or how much still can be spent
I agreed with your initial post, but the comment about it being represented as a tank emptying struck a cord with me. As you donât want to empty the tank⌠whereas left to right feels more like a target to hit.
But as it is down to preference then maybe a left right or right left toggle?
Just a quick follow up on this, Zancler explained why the team chose the decreasing money, rather than increasing spending design in the developerâs Slack community todayâŚ
when youâre looking at the bars expecting them to show you how much youâve spent, they donât make sense but when you look at them as a balance, they do.