Guided by AI and AR: Budget Buddy for Smarter Decisions
This project, "Budget Buddy," is an innovative group effort aimed at exploring how AI-driven technology can enhance consumer decision-making in the context of augmented reality (AR). The concept was inspired by the current landscape of consumer habits and the increasing complexity of financial management, particularly in light of rising global inflation. As a team, we envisioned a system that would allow users to make informed purchasing decisions, using AR to visualize and compare products in real-world settings. The system integrates with AR glasses, overlaying critical information to simplify choices, and provides personalized recommendations and financial guidance tailored to each user’s needs.
My role in this project included developing the initial idea, screen development, and leading most of the testing phases. Together, we conducted extensive research, using a range of methods to understand user needs and the market landscape. We started with market and competitive analyses to identify gaps and opportunities, then held brainstorming sessions to refine our ideas. Our research also included focus group sessions to gain qualitative insights, where I contributed both as a researcher and participant. In these focus groups, we explored users’ first impressions and experiences with the Budget Buddy prototype, gaining valuable feedback that informed iterative design improvements.
Testing was a crucial part of the process, especially to evaluate usability. We employed a Wizard of Oz testing approach, simulating AI interactions to observe user behavior and gather feedback without a fully functional backend. This approach provided valuable insights into interface design, usability, and navigation, allowing us to refine the experience iteratively. This project has not only strengthened my understanding of user-centered design and AR integration but has also deepened my skills in research, testing, and collaborative design, helping me grow as a designer focused on innovative and impactful solutions.
Budget Buddy
Cooking while watching how-to-cook videos—hands-free cooking experience with all the data you need right in front of you, without distractions.
The functionality of Budget Buddy hinges on the combination of AI’s analytical power and AR’s immersive experience. When a user wears AR glasses connected to the system, Budget Buddy acts as a personal shopping assistant. It processes the user’s spending history, financial goals, and current needs to provide personalized product recommendations and financial advice, all in real time. As the user browses through physical or online stores, Budget Buddy displays additional information directly in their line of sight—such as price comparisons, product reviews, and financial guidance—allowing them to make well-informed decisions with ease.
The immersive nature of AR adds a unique layer to the experience. For instance, while shopping for furniture, users can see how an item would look in their living room through AR projections, eliminating the guesswork of online shopping. The system also provides financial advice, alerting users when they are at risk of overspending and suggesting cost-effective alternatives based on their budget. It ensures users stay within their financial limits while enjoying a seamless shopping experience.
Budget Buddy also includes tools like voice navigation and real-time financial tracking. Through a simple voice command, users can navigate through various product options and ask for specific advice, making it accessible for individuals who prefer hands-free interaction. The system’s interface is designed to be intuitive, ensuring that even users unfamiliar with advanced technology can benefit from its features.
Do we really need a budget buddy?
Budget Buddy was created to address some of the major challenges that modern consumers face in today’s fast-paced, high-choice marketplace. The inspiration came from the realization that people often struggle with decision fatigue, especially when there are too many options available or when finances are tight due to global economic pressures like inflation. Many people are overwhelmed by the number of products and services available to them, and making sound financial decisions can be difficult without the right guidance.
Shopping made fun!
This project’s core purpose is to help users navigate these challenges by providing them with a tool that combines convenience, personalization, and financial wisdom. By leveraging AI and AR, Budget Buddy doesn’t just simplify the shopping process—it also teaches users better spending habits. It provides real-time advice that helps users stay within their budget and make smarter purchasing decisions. Furthermore, the project aims to encourage responsible financial behavior by giving users the tools they need to manage their money effectively, all while enjoying an interactive and engaging shopping experience.
The integration of AR adds a layer of fun and interaction to what would otherwise be a mundane task. By allowing users to see products in their own space or compare different items visually, Budget Buddy enhances the shopping experience. At the same time, it promotes mindfulness about spending, ensuring users don’t go overboard. In essence, this project brings the best of technology to everyday life, blending financial management with a futuristic shopping experience.
The fun stuff
Research and Concept Development
Bullseye diagram
The project began with extensive research aimed at understanding market trends, user needs, and technological feasibility. The first part of this research involved a market analysis that looked at the growing demand for smart shopping tools and AR technologies. The analysis revealed that the market for AR/VR smart glasses was expanding rapidly, driven by consumer interest in immersive experiences. This was particularly evident in the 16-34 age group, who represented the majority of AR users. We also found that the UK held a significant share of the global immersive reality market, which further validated the decision to focus on integrating AR into the project.
In addition to market research, we conducted a competitive analysis to see how other companies like Google, Amazon, and Monzo were addressing the same problem. These companies were exploring different ways to enhance shopping experiences, but none offered the combination of financial guidance and immersive AR technology that Budget Buddy proposed. This gap in the market inspired us to move forward with our unique approach, focusing on providing personalized financial advice alongside the immersive shopping experience.
Analyzing competitors.
To better understand user preferences, we held several focus group sessions. These sessions were essential in gathering qualitative insights from potential users, ranging from university students to part-time workers. Participants shared their frustrations with existing shopping apps, noting the lack of personalized recommendations and the overwhelming number of options. This feedback was crucial in shaping Budget Buddy’s key features, particularly its minimalist design and hands-free navigation system.
Initial Design and Brainstorming
Bringing "Budget Buddy" to life was like piecing together a puzzle, with each research step revealing a new piece of the user experience. Our mission? To make this AI-powered, AR-enabled shopping assistant truly resonate with users, making shopping and budgeting feel less like a chore and more like an adventure. So, we dived into a toolkit of research techniques to uncover who our users are, what they need, and how Budget Buddy could fit seamlessly into their lives.
Imagine stepping into the shoes of your ideal shopper, seeing their daily routines, frustrations, and dreams unfold. This is where our research journey began, using personas, scenarios, user journeys, and more to shape every corner of Budget Buddy. From detailed competitor analysis to site maps and taxonomies that turned chaos into order, each step helped us refine and personalize the experience. The PACT framework let us envision how users and technology would interact, while the service blueprint mapped every step of the journey, frontstage and backstage, to ensure a smooth, thoughtful experience.
What we ended up with wasn’t just a set of features but a digital assistant built with empathy, making Budget Buddy a friend in finance and shopping alike. Here’s a peek behind the curtain at the research methods that shaped every detail of Budget Buddy.
Personas
User persona.
We began by building detailed personas—fictional characters based on our target users’ real characteristics and needs. Personas allow us to step into the shoes of our users, understanding their daily lives, challenges, and how Budget Buddy could make a difference for them. Each persona was crafted with attention to specific traits like age, income, shopping habits, and even frustrations with traditional shopping experiences. This helped us ground our design decisions in real-world contexts. Personas like “Tomi, the tech-savvy budget-conscious student” and “Amara, the multitasking professional” became reference points, ensuring we designed with real people in mind, not just data.
Scenarios
Scenario 1
Scenario 2
Scenario 3
With our personas in hand, we then crafted scenarios, which are essentially "day-in-the-life" stories for each persona. Scenarios visualize how Budget Buddy would fit into our personas' routines, making their tasks easier and more enjoyable. For instance, one scenario follows Tomi as he navigates a grocery store, using Budget Buddy’s AR feature to scan items and view nutritional information, helping him stick to a budget while making healthy choices. These stories helped us consider every interaction a user might have with Budget Buddy, ensuring a smooth and beneficial experience.
User Journeys
User journey map 1
User journey map 2
User journey map 3
Expanding on scenarios, we mapped out user journeys, charting each step our personas would take when using Budget Buddy. From the moment they open the app to the completion of their shopping experience, user journeys reveal every touchpoint and potential hiccup along the way. We created multiple user journeys for different scenarios, like setting up the Budget Buddy glasses, shopping for household goods, and attending a special event. These journeys identified pain points, such as potential frustrations with navigation or item comparison, guiding us to design smoother and more intuitive pathways.
Site Maps
Site map
Next, we dove into creating a site map—a visual blueprint of Budget Buddy’s structure. The site map organizes every section and feature within the app, from the homepage and shopping lists to financial analysis and settings. This map ensured that each feature was logically placed and easily accessible. It’s a bit like the app’s backbone, making sure users can navigate it effortlessly. By clearly visualizing how users would move through Budget Buddy, we could refine our layout to prioritize essential functions, like quick access to shopping lists and financial tracking.
Taxonomy
Taxonomy
To keep Budget Buddy’s information easy to navigate, we created a taxonomy, or structured system, to label and categorize content. Imagine going shopping and finding everything clearly labeled in an intuitive way. Our taxonomy was designed to do just that: sections like “Financial Insights,” “Shopping Cart,” and “Nearby Availability” guide users seamlessly, eliminating confusion. Consistent, clear labels ensure that users know exactly where to find what they need, even with the app’s diverse features.
Red Routes
Red Routes
Red routes highlighted essential user tasks that would be critical for a positive experience. By identifying these priority tasks, such as quick access to budget insights or seamless AR item scanning, we focused on making them fast and efficient. Red routes allowed us to streamline these core functions, ensuring that key features worked flawlessly and that users could complete their main objectives without friction. This approach was crucial in crafting a minimalistic, user-focused experience, reducing unnecessary steps and prioritizing essential actions.
Service Blueprint
Service Blueprint
Finally, we developed a service blueprint, detailing every layer of the user experience for Budget Buddy. This blueprint outlined all interactions a user would have, both in the frontstage (what users see and do) and backstage (the processes running behind the scenes). For example, when a user scans an item, the app not only displays product details but also checks their budget and suggests alternatives if they’re overspending. The service blueprint helped us anticipate needs at every stage, ensuring that all systems worked in sync to support a smooth and enjoyable experience.
Prototype Development
The Budget Buddy prototype development was an iterative process that transformed research insights into a functional, user-centered experience. This phase involved building wireframes, simulating AR features, and progressively refining design elements to align with the app’s goals of simplicity, accessibility, and enhanced usability.
Low-Fidelity Prototyping
The process began with low-fidelity wireframes, focusing on Budget Buddy’s foundational layout and user flow. These initial sketches mapped out the essential structure, such as the home screen, budgeting tools, and AR scanning interface. The low-fidelity approach enabled us to concentrate on core interactions without the distraction of detailed visuals, helping us quickly validate the app’s primary functions and adjust the layout based on early feedback
The high-fidelity prototype brought Budget Buddy’s design to life, incorporating polished visuals, refined navigation, and enhanced interactivity. This version included color-coded budget alerts, an intuitive AR scanning interface, and user-friendly overlays that allowed users to seamlessly navigate between features. The high-fidelity prototype closely mirrored the final product, providing a realistic feel for the interface’s flow, layout, and functionality. It included fully interactive frames for shopping lists, budget analysis, and product details, giving users a comprehensive experience of Budget Buddy’s intended design
In developing the Budget Buddy prototype, we conducted all testing through the Wizard of Oz method, allowing us to simulate core functionalities—particularly the AI-driven AR components—without a fully developed backend. This approach was chosen because it enabled us to test user reactions to the intended features of Budget Buddy without needing the final, fully operational system in place. By creating a controlled environment where we could mimic the AI responses manually, we gathered valuable insights into user expectations, preferences, and the overall flow of interactions.
The Wizard of Oz setup involved simulating the key AR features that Budget Buddy offers, particularly the product scanning functionality. During testing, participants used the prototype to "scan" virtual products displayed on a screen, expecting real-time responses as if from an AI-powered system. The “scanning” process triggered manually controlled feedback, where operators (acting as the “wizard” behind the curtain) provided simulated results, including budget impact, nutritional information, price comparisons, and alternative product recommendations. This allowed us to observe user behavior in response to realistic, albeit manually controlled, interactions and gauge how well the app’s design supported these tasks.
The Wizard of Oz method provided clear advantages in the testing phase, particularly in terms of speed, cost-efficiency, and flexibility. By simulating AI interactions, we could test multiple design variations quickly without needing costly backend integration. This flexibility enabled us to refine elements of the AR overlay based on immediate feedback. For example, participants preferred concise, immediately visible information when scanning products, rather than complex or lengthy details. In response, we adjusted the AR display to prioritize quick insights, such as price and budget impact, while allowing users to tap for more in-depth information if desired. This iterative feedback was only possible due to the Wizard of Oz setup, as it allowed us to adapt the interface in real-time based on observed user behavior.
The results from these sessions highlighted key insights regarding user expectations and interaction flow within the AR features. Participants reacted positively to the concept of instant, personalized feedback on scanned items, expressing satisfaction with the simplicity of information provided and the way it supported quick decision-making. However, they also voiced a preference for more control over information depth, prompting us to create a layered design in which primary details were prominent, while secondary information could be accessed with a single tap. Additionally, participants indicated that responsiveness was critical; delays in simulated responses occasionally disrupted the flow, emphasizing the importance of smooth, near-instantaneous feedback for future development.
In summary, the Wizard of Oz method proved highly effective for Budget Buddy’s prototype testing, enabling us to simulate complex AI-driven features, capture authentic user feedback, and make real-time adjustments to enhance usability. The insights gained allowed us to refine key elements like information hierarchy, AR overlay responsiveness, and interaction flow, ensuring that the app design aligned with user expectations. This testing approach laid a strong foundation for further development, providing actionable insights into the user-centered design of Budget Buddy’s AR capabilities.