Sorted for Self-employed
iOS
Project Overview
I joined Sorted at an early stage helping them craft out their MVP. As their lead designer of a small lean group, we optimized the product by going through 2 evolutions of UI while ideating on upcoming features. I was also able to push their brand and develop the Sorted logo. Being in a space unfamiliar there was a lot of learning about taxes. The biggest challenge is balancing its complexities and nuances with user empathy.

Timeline

August 2018 - March 2020

My Contributions

Wireframe, UI/UX, Interaction, Prototyping, User-Testing, Branding

Results

MVP to 31,751 downloads, 14,520 registered users as of March 2020; retained 40% Monthly Active Users. Released on iOS and Android.

Sorted is a B2B Venture at RBC Ventures focused on tackling the unique needs of the business-of-one segment.
Problem
Business-of-one is the fastest-growing consumer segment market. By 2025 an estimate of 45% of the Canadian population will be working as freelancers or self-employed. However many of these individuals struggle with balancing their businesses and dealing with administrative tasks. Within our research and user interviews, we discovered the major pain points to be:
‍
- Separating business and personal transactions
- Staying organized: using outdated methods to track taxes (paper documents, using excel)
- Underestimating their income tax liabilities, resulting in overspending
- Not knowing when and how much sales tax is owed to the CRA, resulting in shock
Understanding the Problem
To understand and emphasize the experience of the business of one, user interviews and workshops were held to capture details of their journey.
Through the discovery work, many of the pain points in the business of one's journey reside in the latter stage of their journey, primarily regarding tax work.
More detailed view of the business of one's journey.
""My Accountant is always reminding me to get them what they need to do my taxes…. It takes longer than I’d like to find and organize everything.""
Solution
A mobile finance management tool for the self-employed that easily separates business and personal expenses, track tax deductions and keeps up to date on what sales tax is owed. Powered by real-time updates, this information allows them to minimize work and drive confidence in running their businesses.
Know how your business is doing
The dashboard offers real-time graphs to keep track of the user’s cash flow (income & expenses per month) and top expenses (by business category.)
Sort Transactions
Sorted offers two ways of tracking business and personal transactions. 1. By tapping through transactions one at a time; allowing visibility of the transaction details. 2. Sorting quickly through a list of transactions by swiping right for business and left for personal.
Stay Organized
Once a transaction is sorted, they are aggregated into the sorted list. They are able to view and make additional edits to the details. Filters allow users to surface up relevant transactions helping them stay organized.
Add Details
If a transaction is sorted to business, users can add a business category and the Sorted tax engine will calculate the sales tax. Users can also change the province (which will affect the sales tax) and add additional notes.
Get Personalized Reports
Users can easily track what and when their sales tax is due. To avoid surprises they can view the breakdown in the sales tax report. They can also see business’ income & expense reports and keep a record of their business expense deductions. All the information can be exported into an excel document so users can easily send it to their accountants.
Other Screens
Collection of other screens in the app.
We designed and tested 3 evolutions of the product.
MVP
Sorted went through three phrases: MVP, Sorted 1.0 and currently Sorted 2.0. The evolution of the product was determined by usability testing, feedback from users and the pipeline of future features. For the minimum-viable-product, we focused our efforts on having a clear value proposition, easy profile setup, an intuitive sorting experience and comprehensive tax report.
Sorted 1.0
For Sorted 1.0, changes were made to address the critical problems of the MVP. Goals include: a clearer value proposition, improve navigation throughout the app, build trust through RBC branding, and update the UI of the product.
Sorted 2.0
For Sorted 2.0, we continue to improve the value proposition and build trust from the users. This release evolved Sorted into a powerful tool with automated sorting with the rules feature, the ability to add details to transactions, and real-time finances dashboard.
We went through rounds of iterations to create powerful tools that would enhance the experience.
Sorting
As a response to users not getting the initial sorting experience, I mapped out the proposed task flow that introduces sorting in a single-card view as an alternative to the swipe.
Bringing the flow to life with low fidelity wire framing
I organized my ideas into 3 buckets. 1. Transactional list level, 2. One-card view, 3. Transactional detail level.
The final solution offers two ways of sorting. 1. Through an optimized transaction list where the main interaction is to swipe. 2. In the transaction details level where users can tap.
Rules
We introduced a feature called Rules which allow recurring transactions to be automatically sorted and categorized based on the recurring transaction name. We explored how users would create a rule, how to notify automatically sorted transactions to users and how users would view and edit the rules.
Second Iteration of Rules exploration.
Final flow for creating and editing rules.
We continuously optimized the value proposition and built trust.
Onboarding
We iterated and tested on the most effective messaging that would allow the users to have the best understanding of what Sorted offers. We highlighted the ease of use in what usually is a complicated process and trust through the RBC branding. The evolution of the onboarding screens from MVP to the current state. In the beginning, the messaging underperformed as it focused strictly on the function of the app. Progressively, we changed it towards selling the outcome and security.
Second Iteration of Rules exploration.
RBC Brand & Security
The RBC branding improved trust. Seeing the RBC logo led users to trust the app at first glance. Knowing that Sorted was associated with a bank led users more inclined to link their bank account.
Design Impact
Total Downloads and Registered Users
MVP to 31,751 downloads, 14,520 registered users as of March 2020
Increased Monthly Active Users
Increased 40% Monthly Engagement with Sorted 2.0
Optimized Trust through RBC Branding
With research and testing that was conducted, it allowed us to understand that leveraging the RBC brand can improve trust with users. This strategy has been in use in other ventures.
Crafted the Sorted Design System
Worked with Engineers to create the first ever design system for Sorted.

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