A preview of some features included in our final product!

00. Why Budget Buddies?

As university students, we often fall into the traps of eating out, impulsive spending, and “girl math”-ing our way into justifying unnecessary purchases.

Budget Buddies was inspired by Duolingo’s notification system, which has proven to boost daily active users (DAU) and engagement through playful, relatable nudges. We wanted to bring that same energy to financial accountability, transforming saving money into an approachable and even fun experience. By introducing AI-powered, customizable personas like Bestie, Coach, and the Realist, our goal was to create a financial buddy that users would actually enjoy interacting with. We also took some inspiration from Spotify's Wrapped Feature for our Weekly Digest in order to make insights more engaging.

THE PROBLEM

Many Gen Z students struggle with saving money because traditional tracking methods feel overwhelming, leaving them stuck in a cycle of guilt and unmindful spending.

KEY FINDINGS

74%

of students don’t save as much as they’d like to

74%

of students regularly feel guilty about their spendings

93%

spend most of their disposable income on eating/going out

PAIN POINTS

😟

“Too much work”

😟

“Hard to get started”

😟

"Feel lazy"

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Looking at the current alternatives on the market to helping students save, there are 3 main categories: bank apps like RBC NOMI and TD MySpend, standalone budgeting apps like YNAB, and manual tools like Excel or Notion.

While bank apps and budgeting tools offer basics like single-bank integration, personalized insights, and real-time tracking, they fail to actively help students curb their spending and instead overwhelm them with stats that often reinforce cognitive dissonance. Manual tools provide lots of customization but require too much effort.

From our competitive analysis, we observed that all banking tool options lack proactive measures to prevent spending. Similarly, most of them are not approachable or utilize multi-bank integration.

USER FLOWS

After understanding the pain points of our users and existing tools, our team began creating users flows of the core features we wanted to show in our prototype.

03. The Final Result

OUR SOLUTION

Introducing, Budget Buddies. A financial accountability buddy designed to help Gen Z students save smarter without feeling overwhelmed. Unlike traditional banking tools, our AI-driven app gathers context from users through chat, bank, and calendar integrations to create proactive measures to help users be more mindful of their spending before it happens.

// Key Features

CUSTOMIZABLE PERSONALITIES

Users can choose a buddy from three distinct personalities: Coach Copella, Realist Randy, and Bestie Borcupine.

FUTURE SPENDING INSIGHTS

Budget Buddies uses AI and calendar integration to anticipate opportunities for spending. Using this insight, the app helps find areas to save.

WEEKLY DIGEST

Inspired by Spotify wrapped, "Spending Wrapped" is a weekly digest that gives users a rundown of their spending habits for the week.

// Prototype

05. What’s next?

🏦

MANUAL TRANSACTION INPUTS

Creating separate pages for different stakeholders, so the information is tailored towards each user group

🎮

GAMIFICATION AND REWARDS

Earn rewards and unlock new buddies by hitting savings milestones

🌐

COMMUNITY CHALLENGES

Join group savings goals or compete with friends on leaderboards for added motivation

06. Reflection

Working with Team Teletubbies (yes, that was our team name) made this entire UXathon experience a blast! As a team of designers who have gotten the opportunity to see each other grow through our various involvements, it was extremely rewarding to have been able to work together on Budget Buddies and see our vision come to life. In under 24 hours, we developed a cohesive branding and design framework, translated user research into features, and mocked over 100 screens!

Introducing,
Budget Buddies

00. Why Budget Buddies?

So, we asked...

02. Preliminary Research & Ideation

03. The Final Result

// Key Features

// Prototype

05. What’s next?

06. Reflection

don’t be a stranger, let’s connect! ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧