We're working on a new look for the Monzo app

So I’ve taken a while to play with this new iteration. Apologies, long post incoming…

Summary: :heart_eyes: - I’m loving it! (As a quick test I went back to the old layout… It felt like reinstalling Windows 95. I shuddered and rapidly came back to the future).

Anyway, here’s the feedback requested :hot_coral_heart:

Absolutely. Everything is smooth and lovely. Performance wise, you wouldn’t notice that this is an early release.

It feels very natural. The animation is smooth and works wonderfully. I particularly like that tapping on a pot / account on the View All screen gives a nice little reverse animation. :hot_coral_heart:

A couple of quick thoughts on this though:

  • There seems to be a bit of inconsistency in the card hierarchy. My connected credit card is at the same physical height as a pot, rather than the slightly higher height of the Monzo account. Instinctively this feels wrong to me - it feels like credit cards should be on the same level of hierarchy as the Monzo account.
  • This would also solve a minor niggle - the inability to go from account to account except via Pots. I found myself trying to swipe left/right in two places - one at the top of the card to skip to the next account (i.e. my connected credit card, missing out pots), and one at the middle/bottom to go to the next pot.*

I found the pull down gesture odd for a couple of minutes but very quickly got used to it. I now love it. Big fan.

I do find myself tapping the card, though.

Sometimes (mostly when it’s on the main Monzo account card) I expect a tap to give me access to card controls (see account/card number, freeze card etc). Sometimes I expect it to have the same functionality as the pull down gesture (so see all accounts). And then I wondered if that would be a helpful home for a new screen to give headline details of the selected pot (what is currently in the feed for pots at the moment), or managing the selected open banking integration etc.

Then I wondered if you’re saving the ‘tap the card’ interaction as part of a secret plan? :male_detective:

Yes it’s easy to see all my info. I don’t have any goals, so can’t speak to that, but the amount on my credit card is clear and easy to understand.

One thing I would like, though, is a ‘net worth’ indicator - of all the connected accounts, how much I have / owe in total. And (without opening up old wounds about whether a pot is part of the current account), I think there needs to be a figure of the total money held under Monzo’s banking licence somewhere.

I’d also love to be able to reorder pots to avoid excess swiping - my pot order is annoying at the moment, my most used one is a few swipes too many away :frowning:.

I’ve not noticed any weirdness or animation glitches.

I do, though, find myself wanting the drawer to snap at another (additional) point - below what I hope becomes the left to spend bar, but above the cards. That would be a lovely, clean, option (for me at least).

Mostly. I had one issue where I added money to a pot, but had to restart the app for it to show correctly. I haven’t done it since, so can’t see if it’s repeatable…

I don’t think so…

You didn’t ask for these, but here are some other thoughts after using the new iteration for a day:

  • I have a bug where pots sometimes show in the horizontal list on their own - not behind the Monzo account. This happens when you tap a pot from the accounts screen - it animates back to the top of the screen but without the backing Monzo card.
  • It feels odd to be that the screen flashes when swiping left/right to replace the transaction feed. It feels like the new contents should either slide with the card or elegantly fade in (or something).
  • I’m sure this is on your radar for the future - but this new UI makes it even more evident (to me at least) that when swiping to a pot, you should see transactions for that pot, not a pot summary. (There’s place for that elsewhere - just not here, it feels inconsistent)
  • I’m a lover of empty space and having breathing room in apps - but I wonder if there’s just a but too much of it in this iteration? For example, I find myself slightly at odds with others - I like for the account number to be easily accessible, but think it’s probably superfluous on the main screen at the moment. (That said, if it stays, can you add a bit of gloss and let you tap on it to copy the details, please? :slightly_smiling_face:)
  • I think you’ve said this isn’t the planned behaviour, but seeing the overdraft bar when I’m in credit seems redundant - left to spend bar please! :pray:
  • With this new layout, I find myself a little frustrated at the Payments tab. I see to be expecting it to become context sensitive to whatever’s up top - so being able to transfer money in or out of a pot if that’s on the screen, or money in and or if it’s the personal account, (part) pay bill if it’s a credit card integration, (money in and out via open banking for other accounts in the future)…
  • I need new pot images! Lots of the ones I have aren’t helpful when you just see the top stripe. Alternatively, the ability to include the name at the top in a complementary colour would be kinda useful. Or different stock images.

Hope this is all helpful. But I’m loving this and seeing big possibilities (including a committed pot that isn’t really actually a pot at all, instead being two swipeable cards to represent one main account: one for committed spend, one for discretionary. But I’m off topic, so will shush there!)

*I’m imagining a, hopefully not too distant, scenario where I can connect my Starling account to Monzo - I’d then have two main accounts with two sets of sub accounts - I don’t want to scroll through all of those before I get to my credit card.

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