Hello all! I had a wee search about and couldn’t find a dedicated thread for general UX ideas and so I’ve created this one. Feel free to post ideas, designs and anything else UX related in this thread.
My input:
As I’m beginning the thread, here’s an slight modification I have made to the Home section:
Having predominantly been a Starling user in the past, I’ve currently been getting to grips with the UX differences between the two apps. The Monzo app seems somewhat cluttered in areas and a wee bit of tweaking could really help make elements clearer and easier to read.
In the mock-up above I have attempted to do the following:
Allow for easier navigation through transactions using the month drop down menu.
Allow the user to easily navigate back to the current day by use of the use of the Current Day Calendar Icon (top right).
Give the user an indication of how much money they are receiving by way of adding a Received total to the top section.
Create a clearer distinction between transactions and days (blue day bars).
Present the “true” cost of transactions (before roundup), though highlighting the roundup penny amount in a circle above the transaction total. NOTE: incoming transactions are rounded down so as to remove the pence and keep your balance penny free.
Allow the user to easily see the time of each transaction along with a transaction note.
This is the first of many ideas I hope. I’ll certainly be posting more as I get the time. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else has in mind.
I think I preferred how you presented roundup in your Starling mockup before, the circle cutters the area imo. I tend to prefer a cleaner look so those blue day bars stand out too much for me. The calendar icon is a nice touch though, very interesting. It reminds me a little of the format on the Life Cycle app, which incidentally uses a day/week/month pie chart view too which I’ve suggested on the Starling forum as a possible tweak to Pulse. I don’t spend enough daily for the Pulse to be useful, and it would benefit from a day/week view to see your spending properly at a glance.
@Anilm3 Haha the only reason I kept it is because I thought people like it. Perhaps not. I’d prefer it gone too
@evangelskies Aha, much appreciated. Perhaps I should go over some of my old ideas and integrate them into this. I too prefer a cleaner look, though I don’t find distinguishing between days easy enough as it’s a small grey piece of text. For me, the blue bars do the work so you don’t have to. I’ll have a look at Life Cycle, cheers for that!
Really liking the cleaner differentiation between days and easy way to swap between months.
Not sure I like the roundup in a circle as initially I had no clue what it was , I haven’t seen your other UX ideas that @evangelskies mentions.
Maybe an idea would be instead of all 3 figures across the top (seems a bit cluttered? IMO) have the current spent today figure include any received payments to cancel spending out.
I’m sure the Monzo team love looking at people’s ideas.
I thought that too, there’s a lot going on in the screen so you don’t quite know where to look. And those blue bars just catch your eye and you can’t see anything else
I think there was a collapsible feed function thing you shared in one of your Starling mockups which I liked. Very useful for when you get a whole bunch of notifications eg when you cart out at Amazon and they take payment in separate feed items/ on a pub crawl when you have 10 feed items just from one night
Like the others, I think the blue date bars are a bit too much. Maybe a pale grey of something, and collapsable?
I don’t mind the three figures, but I’d rather have a ‘left to spend’ figure from Summary. (Actually, I have half an idea about replacing Pulse with something that’s more like the Summary dial, but need to think about it more. I think the Pulse concept works better for a revised account screen (see mock here - with hindsight I think it’s too busy, but the concept’s sound, I think).)
Do you still have your Starling mock-ups? I remember thinking that one that @evangelskies mentioned was really clean and cool.
I would remove the word September from the top menu - the transactions say the month and you have a calendar icon on the top right. Seems like clutter as you should know the month and the calendar icon could do what you are planning with the written September option.
Blue too bright, especially for a hot coral bank (maybe I don’t like it as I don’t like Man City blue…).
I can’t accommodate everything, though I’m taking baby steps. Below is an updated version taking on board some of the feedback.
Changes include:
The blue bars have been changed to a lighter and less distracting grey. Transactions are still well separated, though in a cleaner fashion.
A rolling roundup figure for each day has been added to the day bar for each transaction day, allowing the user to see at a glance how many pennies have been saved that day.
The graph/chart has been removed and replaced with a drop-down calendar, allowing the user to easily navigate through their transactions. Navigation via scrolling is obviously still possible and like the previous version, the Current Date Calendar icon will return you to the current day.
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tbutz
(🏳️🌈 Producer of "low value commentary")
13
I notice you have used a fairly hefty screen size in your mockups. How would this translate to my tiny iPhone SE screen?
Sadly I’m not an iPhone man and so generally tend to design only for android. However, I’m sure iOS has its own calendar navigation option which would scale accordingly and therefore accommodate your resolution.
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tbutz
(🏳️🌈 Producer of "low value commentary")
15
I just twigged it was an Android mockup once I’d sent the message (doh!) but my question was actually more about the 3 figures showing in the upper section (minus chart), sorry about being so vague!! The peril of asking a question in a rush.
Anyway, on my iPhone it barely has space for the 2 figures so squeezing another in the middle would be a problem. I’m sure there are Android phones with the same size issue(!). After much faff I’ve done a screen shot (I don’t mind you knowing my balance is so low, it’s payday this week!):
I imagine there would be some sacrificing to be made, perhaps in that the “Money Received” option would not be displayed on your device, though available within the Summary section.
The layout for lower res screens is currently a little flawed anyway in that if you were dealing with larger figures, things begin to get pretty crowded. Designers try their best to accommodate all display sizes, though there does come a point where they’re really just cramming everything in. It may not look pretty, but it gets the job done. I’m just glad I didn’t upload a Quad HD mock up now
A compromise for me would be that it collapses upwards as you scroll down the list.
If you scroll sideways on the graph it stays there and skips through the month of transactions below.
That’s actually much better! The rolling roundup makes everything much cleaner and the calendar is definitely something I’ve missed. Any ideas on navigating to previous months using the calendar?
Agreed, I don’t personally like the graph, but a lot of people do so it should probably be made optional in some way, I would vote for a specific app setting to enable it or disable it.
Good idea!
My take is more a Material Theme (2) iteration and focuses on the very busy account screen.
Makes the hot coral stand out with the dark blue used as an accent colour throughout.
The area I most admired within the Starling Bank app was the Goals section as the layout and simplicity somewhat inspired saving. Within the Monzo app however, elements are much more bunched together within the Account section requiring you to scroll past several different cards before arriving at your pots. I’ve made a wee mock up and once again invite all of your comments and feedback
Updates:
Tabs have been introduced into the Account section, separating card and account management from pots.
, I haven’t seen your other UX ideas that 
, I love the pulse graph.
