Receipt Vault

Summary

Receipt Vault is a receipt storage and organizing application to help users keep track of their purchases, including copies of their receipts should they need to make a return or take advantage of a warranty.

My role in this project was to help the client investigate and validate the idea, identify potential users, and design an MVP balancing AI technology with user interaction.

My first step was to investigate the market, identify market fit, and potential users.

Market Research.

Potential competitors, and apps that run similar functions. Where they are located, interesting features and potential opportunities.

User Research.

Potential app users, people who would need to have a solution to keep their receipts organized for one reason or another from a personal level.

User Research

After 11 semi structures 1:1 interviews with potential users, we identified 3 potential user groups.

Personal Trakers.

8 out of 11 Users

Track purchases to reflect on spending habits

Business Trackers.

6 out of 11 Users

Track purchases to keep info on large items and make returns

Tax Filers.

5 out of 11 Users

participants need to track purchases to receive deductions come tax season

Sample Questions

We set up two formats of questions, multiple choice answers, and freeform answers.

Do you ever keep your receipts? Why?

Do you return items often?

Have you purchased any of the following items this year?

Do you purchase extended warranties?

How important is if for you to track your expenses for taxes?

How do you keep track of your expenses?

Market Research

Competitors.

Are there any companies in the same space, offering similar solutions?

Purchases.

How much do these services cost? How do they get these services?

Reasons for not buying.

Are there any reasons that give users pause for signing up? Are there any blockers?

Satisfaction.

From those competitors, what is the user satisfaction rate? What are their users saying?

Competitors

These companies live in the space of personal finances and expense organization.

Solutions these companies offer

Tracking.

These solutions offer various forms of tracking expenses

Categorizing.

Expenses can be categorized for easy data organization.

Pricing.

The cost of these solutions range from $9.99/mo to hundreds.

Accessibility.

The majority of the companies are desktop-first, but there was a portion that offered some support as mobile apps.

Problem Statement: People need a simplified solution to store and organize digital copies of their receipts. This information is essential for tasks such as tracking expenses, managing taxes, calculating depreciation, handling business expenses, monitoring warranties, and remembering return dates. By keeping receipts organized, users can better understand their spending habits and make informed financial decisions.

Solutions recommended

Some of these solutions were deprioritized based on timeline, budget, and project scope.

Responsive Web App.

Launching with a responsive web app, versus a mobile app, became necessary when we started talking about use cases where someone needed to deep dive from an accounting perspective. We felt that we could still provide similar and acceptable mobile experience.

Scan and Track.

Scan receipts with your camera, or get digital copies emailed to your app. Get the app to track the info, and learn about extended warranties and return by dates, so that in the future it can remind you.

The use of AI.

A desirable aspect of the app was to simplify the user’s experience, so they didn’t have to think about their receipts. When scanning a receipt, AI can detect and learn about the vendor, and all the receipt’s data.

Use Once, come back whenever.

Make it super easy for users to sign up and set up, so that they don’t have to continue engaging with the app. After all, finances are always stressful, you don’t want to be thinking about them all the time!

To work with the client’s budget, we offered a light version of a branding exercise, to assist with creating a logo and UI colors.

For this, we used various branding exercised with the client to learn more about their mission, inspiration, emotions they want to draw from clients.

Branding - lite

To follow the app name, I explored logos with vault graphics, receipts, clouds, vaults. The below were the results.

Logo Opt 1.
Logo Opt 2.
Logo Opt 3.
Logo Opt 4.
Logo Opt 5.

Description goes here
Logo Opt 6.

Description goes here
Logo Opt 7.
Logo Opt 8.

Description goes here
Logo Opt 9.

Description goes here

Final Logo

Branding Ideas.
Branding Ideas.
Branding Ideas.

User Flows

User Flows

Sign In & Account Set Up.

Signing up is easy, but account set up included additional information for receipts emails to be sent automatically to the app, so we worked through the steps for that.

Manage Receipts.

Scan, edit, categorize, and delete receipts should be the primary tasks. A lot of tasks are expected to happen through the AI, but we needed to account for all the instances.

Manage Categories.

Receipts can be categorized into their own folders for easy location.

Other Flows.

Course Recommendation Page: Close account, submit feedback, request help, error messages and edge cases.

Creating detailed user flows revealed key user interactions and pain points, providing a clear foundation to efficiently design intuitive and purpose-driven screens.

Screen Designs

This app is launching 2025 during Q1, and my role with it for the foreseeable future is completed. There were lots of good findings during this process that we documented for use on other post MVP versions of the app. That documentation, plus, continuous user experience research and monitoring will lead the next generation of the app.

Other Projects

Product Design • Responsive SaaS

Receipt Vault

Summary

My role in this project was to help the client investigate and validate the idea, identify potential users, and design an MVP balancing AI technology with user interaction.

My first step was to investigate the market, identify market fit, and potential users.

User Research