Mffais: Make ends meet
product design
mobile development
quality assurance
marketing & growth
We’ve all experienced expenses piling up over time. Luckily, those days are over. With Mffais, you can stay on top of your personal finances. This app helps you track your money flow and provides insights into spendings and savings up to a year in the future.
Scope of work
Strategy
UX Design
UI Design
Android Development
iOS Development
Marketing & Growth
Completely reimagining the existing product
Cinnamon was tasked to completely reimagine the existing product. We were approached with a prototype for an app helping US citizens to take control of their finances. The target were users struggling to keep cash flow positive. After re-assessing the users' needs, we organized and redesigned the app with a focus on visualizing where your money goes.
Connecting all
income in one
place
Starting point: product discovery
The first phase of the project: define and shape the problem space of the app.
Emphasizing with the target users
User testing indicated their needs, pain points, desires, wants, goals, and motivations.
Designing all states in the process
From onboarding to being informed if the user will keep a positive or a negative balance.
Having development in mind at all times
All states and permutations of elements are defined to make it easier for developers.
User testing for real-time feedback
Testing and research discovered major flaws and differences between implemented user flows and users’ expectations. With users’ goals in mind, Cinnamon designed a logical and intuitive way of using the app. Mffais warns users on time if they are approaching a negative balance, and supports them in keeping it positive. Helpful tips and instructions are provided throughout the app to guide users every step of the way.
Identifying the main user flow
Following the product discovery phase, we started with wireframes for the main user flows – identified in the initial phases of the process. The focus was on providing a simple and easy way to get the user started with this personal finance planner.
A consistent and
simple layout
across all screens
Simple setup with integrated help functionality
An emphasis was placed on guiding users and providing them with well-timed information for all functionalities. User testing showcased the differences between the mental models we designed and the mental models users already carried with them, mostly pertaining to transactions. The dashboard turned out to be overwhelming for them as well. To fix this, we automated clearing transactions, added a Floating Action Button to clean up the interface, and simplified the dashboard.
After conducting these steps, we completely reimagined the information architecture of the product and user flows. Not to make the app so serious, we implemented colorful and playful graphics while staying in line with the branding.
Planning the
money flow
A single place where users can edit and check their future transactions up to a year in advance. Due transactions are marked automatically to reduce cognitive load.
A dashboard to control
the money flow
Our designer came up with a simple dashboard that informs users about their future spendings/earnings up to a year in advance. A simple setup and an integrated help functionality guide users through the product and all its features. The end result is a friendly, easy-to-use app that helps users take control of their money flow.
Mobile development
The application is implemented for Android and iOS platforms following the MVVM design pattern and using the latest tech stack. The application does not use the backend, so all the data is stored in the local database of the device.
All the heavy lifting is done on the Money flow screen, where the transactions are presented in the nested lists. There can be thousands of transactions in the scroll view, so we needed to mind the performance.
It is possible to generate transactions for a few years in the future. The main challenge was to optimise the generating transitions, storing them in the local database and fetching them. Luckily, we know to work with threading. The application supports over 35 languages. It was interesting to find a way to effectively test the UI on all the devices.
We hire experts for a reason. Quality that’s worth the wait.
With Cinnamon, we appreciated the attention to detail and the ability to run the project. The right balance of when to confirm something and when to follow their own lead.
Kevin Traster,
CEO, Mffais
Insights and what we’ve learned
What we like to do is collect insights from users before, and ideally, after the upgrade of a web or mobile app. With this approach, we’re certain that we’ve delivered a product of value that will make life easier for its users. Before launching the app, we directly contacted users who were struggling with keeping their cash flow positive.
We at Cinnamon hope that the users of Mffais will manage to keep their cash flow under control, plan future transactions and increase their quality of life. Now they will have the option to spend money freely without having to think about unwanted financial consequences. And make fewer bad decisions on upcoming spendings.
The great thing is that this must-have budget app is free to download. With that said, we invite everyone who struggles with money to give it a try. We promise you won’t be sorry!
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