Digital publication is about magazines and books that have been put onto smartphones and tablets and can be accessed anywhere. In our Digital Media we are more specifically looking into how magazine’s are transformed into digital versions.

The earliest version of digital magazines were on computers which would simply just turn the page and could link you to there website.  They were usually free.

But now as they can be put onto smartphones and tablets, they have started to make them much more animated. For example; the National Geographic magazine, that me and my group looked at, showed the magazine with a black cover that was shrouded in fog and when the fog lifted it unveiled a dinosaur on the front cover.

National Geographic front cover Oct 2014

Throughout the magazine, if you swiped it across, it would go to the next article but if you scrolled down the magazine it would go into more detail of the article and would be a more interactive to you.

Another digital magazine we looked into was WIRED Magazine. This digital magazine was much more interactive. When you look at the front cover the man at the front looks at you but when the sticky notes go on him, he starts to pull different faces.

WIRED Magazine oct 2014

It does not stop there, when you start to go through the different articles it can allows you to be interactive with little the image and buttons there are. For example; in the article (below) the image is completely interactive everyone in that image has a number on there head, if you press on that it expands and tells you more about that person and there experience when doing the article. In addition, the apps of the month on the right hand side are completely interactive. If you press the app picture it will take you to the app store and show you that app which you can then purchase. Then, the digital magazine would sometimes play a video or an advertisement or something that WIRED had created.

Inside WIRED Magazine (1)

Inside WIRED Magazine (2)

In the second magazine article (above) all the little icons were interactive. When you clicked the icon it would expand telling you more about it and again would lead to a link to another website or a video.

I found digital magazines very intriguing as I have never really looked into them before but I can see why they are quite popular as they are stored on your device. This means less luggage and they are also interactive, which would keep your readers entertained and intrigued in the magazine.

This is my logo for my app –

helping hand logo

After much time creating and changing a few ideas from my design idea templates, I finally created my interface design.

iphone interface mock up

Looking back at my original design idea templates, I think I have combined the best bits of each design and added one or two things that I thought would be really good and appropriate for the device to have. For instance :

• Having a calendar so you can back track on your in and outgoings.
• A search button so if you purchased something specific it would search though all your invoices and bring up what it could be and at what date you purchased that item or saved in that month
• Also a small mini calendar as a scroll bar and can tell you how much have you spent and saved each day.
• A bottom bar that tells you how much you have spent and saved over a period of time e.g. week or monthly.

The interactive pie chart is the main attraction and I wanted that to stay along with it as with my first interface design I kept the interactive pie chart and stuck with the style of it. I have kept the saving and the outgoings from that design but instead of it being a bar it is now just at the bottom of the phone simply telling you what have you saved and how much you have spent.

The style of the app I wanted is it to be basic and easy to understand, not too complicated nor too basic that it wouldn’t do the needs of the demographic I am targeting.

iPhone interface mock up hand

The interactive pie chart I feel speaks itself and tell you easily just from looking at it where the majority of your money is going and can see where you need to cut down on plus if you wanted a more detailed view of your accounts you just press the icon and it would open up for you and give you the break down of everything you wanted.

interactive pie chart

For example, if you press the House section (orange) it will then lead you to this screen.

iphone interface in depth mock up

• In the screen above, it gives you the break down of everything you have spent in this topic/ area and shows it either weekly/monthly. It will then tell you if you spent less or more or it has stayed the same with the different coloured arrows; red is bad, green is good and the grey bar means no change.
• As you can see Helping Hand is on the left hand side asking “Do you need a hand?” Helping Hand will then try and give you advice and tips on how you can save more money in the topic/area you are in.
• You can also scroll down the menu screen to view more of what you have spend.
• Finally on the bottom, you have arrow keys that will go to the next topic/area that you are spending or saving money in.

In my designs I did try to incorporate both designs in as I liked some features from both. I dropped the features that I did not like and then thought when creating it that certain feature would be useful in this app. For example; the arrow keys that would take you to the next topic/area.

iPhone interface in depth mock up hand holding

Overall, I am really pleased on how this interface has turned out with its style, appearance and how detailed it is. I am really proud of creating this app and only wish I could make it for real to see if it would work in real life.

After choosing what logo I want to use and what demographic I am targeting, I decided it was time to create the interface for my app. Knowing the my demographic I am targeting, I wanted the interface for my app to be easy to use, could be understood from a glance and wouldn’t need in depth tutorial that could be complicated.

Interface idea 1

interface idea 1

The idea of this interface was that it would tell you that the beginning how much you have in your account at the moment and the bar underneath would tell you how much you have spent in a month or week. The bar underneath that would tell you how much you have saved so far. The pie looking chart at the bottom would give you the break down of everything that you are spending on and its categorised in each section. If you wanted a more in depth review or think you have spent more on the food shopping section, you would tap the icon and would then expand and give you the break down of everything you have spent that week or month.

I really do like the pie looking chart and I personally feel that when my targeted demographic see it they would naturally would want to tap the icon to see more. I do like the bars at the beginning but do feel that it does clutter the place up a bit and would be more tidier if it had its own section in the interactive pie chart.

Interface idea 2 

With my second design I continued the idea of the interactive pie looking chart but instead I incorporated my logo in the middle. The Helping Hand logo would point to what icon you tapped and again it would expand and give you a more in-depth review of that section, breaking it down into everything that you have spent in that category so that you could see where your money is going out. This could hopefully help you see where you are spending your money.

I personally like the idea that helping hand would be in the middle of the interactive pie chart  and point to the different categories that you have selected. I do feel that the younger demographic would really like that and wouldn’t bother them that much if helping hand did that. However, the older demographic might find this unprofessional and almost childish and would not want to use the app. In addition I do like how I have designed the break down of the selection that you select as it is plain, easy and helpful.

Interface idea 3     

interface idea 3

My third design considered of not using the interactive pie chart and instead would have the categories in bubbles floating around Helping Hand and again once you press the bubble Helping Hand would point to it and it would expand giving you the break down of that selection giving you an in depth review of that category.

With my third interface design I’m not convinced that it would work as well as the two designs that I have created as I do not think the bubbles work as well as the interactive pie chart. This is because with the interactive pie chart you could easily see where your money was going into and into what categories.

Conclusion

Overall  I am pleased with my interfaces i have designed as they all have pros and cons to each one so far I really like interface design one and two but i do feel like i need to incorporate both design ideas and change a few thing for instance i like in design 2 you just have the interactive pie chart straight away and you see it straight away but instead of helping hand in the middle and the icons inside the pie chart they should be like design one where the icons have there own bubble pointing to what section they are instead of design 2 where if you had small sections then you would not be abel to see the icon

The in depth menu screen of a section should stay the same, like in design two. However I do feel like I could incorporate Helping Hand in there as a little advice money guru to give ideas to people on how to save there money. This is almost like the paper clip in Microsoft word that would help people if you needed help with stuff.

Microsoft paperclip

After I did my Research and Development I got right down to designing a logo. I wanted to create a very unique and colourful logo for my demographic group of people that would love, enjoy, recognise very easily and had its own personality.

I started looking at other personal budgeting websites and their logos to see what they have done and I wasn’t very impress to say the least. If you want people to use a product the logo should be very eye catching and say to the consumer what your business is.

you need a budget logo

You Need A Budget’s logo is a very basic and straight to the point. It says what it does straight away to the consumer who wants to use it, in addition it does look professional. My only problem with it is that I would have thought they would have done a little face to go along with the speech bubble.

budget simple logo

Budget Simple’s logo is very colourful and eye catching with the use of the red, yellow, green, blue and orange. I do, again, like how it gets straight to the point that it tells the person that you can budget simple and easily.

buxfer logo

I do not really like Buxfer’s logo because by looking at it you are not able to see that it is a personal budgeting business. I also feel that this logo is not very eye catching like the other two above as it is not colourful and bold.

My logo designs for personal budgeting 

Overall, I am really happy with all of the logo’s that I designed as I think they are quite creative, imaginative and also get straight to the point.

my designs

1st design logo

My first drawing I thought of was a hand giving out money or holding a pound sign almost like it wants to help you with your budgeting. However I did feel like some kind of design or idea like this had already been used and didn’t feel comfortable using this as my logo.

2nd design logo

My second drawing I thought how about was two hands helping out to give help but yet again I did feel like before with my first design was that this idea had already been used and no one would pay attention to it.

3rd design logo

My third attempt was to think of something else other than hands and thought why not have a super hero that helps budgeting and so I created Mr Super Saver. I really like what I produced and how it looked, especially the logo as I was trying to think of something rememberable and would be iconic to that character. Even though i liked Mr Super Saver, personally I thought it would not appeal to the demographic of people I am targeting towards.

4 th design logo

My fourth design idea was to created some kind of cute fluffy animal that would appeal to people to use, almost like the Compare the Meerkats and created Smart Dog Saver. Again, I personally liked the design I created and thought the dog was really cute and funny. However, I did think that it would attract the wrong kind of consumer, such as people who are interested in budgeting for pets and animals which is not really what I am targeting towards.

5 th design logo

For my next logo I was trying to get back to the money side and make something catchy that would attract my demographic and get straight to the point so I then created Helping hand. Personally I really like helping hand as he is iconic and people can understand that he is something to do with money wise. In addition, he is called Helping Hand which gives the impression that he will help you with your money problems and I think he is best suited for my demographic.

6 th design logo

My final design took inspiration of google chromes wheel as it made me think of how could I turn that into something personal budgeting wise. It then occurred to me why not make it look like a pie chart which represents your personal budget where your most spending your money. I then felt I had to create a name for it and I came up with the name ‘The Source’. I thought of The Source as in ‘the source of your problems’. I again do feel like it would appeal to my demographic and that it looks professional but might get a bit mis interrupted into something else.

In conclusion, I am going to use helping hand logo as my user orientated design as I feel it is the best suited and will attract the right demographic to the personal budgeting app.

For my user oriented design I was given the subject area of personal budgeting.

When researching for personal budgeting I found a variety of websites and apps that already try and tackle this problem.

For instance, by simply typing into google ‘personal budgeting’ multiple websites appear that offer to help you to budget. Some websites are very basic, easy to manage and easy to access via computer, smartphone, internet and tablet. Other websites can be quite extensive and do like to go into detail, for example; how much money you have in your bank account, savers account, rent, utilities, transport, birthday and christmas expenses, food money etc. They also do offer access via apps with smartphones and tablets yet some websites offer software that you can download for a fee and use it as freely as you want.

online budgeting in its simple form.

online budgeting indetail

online budgeting in detail

However, all of them want you to do the hard work of invoicing what you have purchased and how much you spend in a day, weekly and monthly. They also want you to remember how much you spent but you could forget purchasing stuff or may be inaccurate on how much it cost, which isn’t going to make your budget accurate or know how much money you are able to spend or how much money you have saved.

I purpose that when you start your budgeting, if you have a bank card/ account, you link your account to your budgeting account that will then start giving you that most accurate budget. This can give the break down of when you were shopping. For instance, if you did your food shop at a supermarket it would record what you purchased and how much you spent in that food shop and may try give you advice on how to save 0n your next shop. Better yet, it could tell you where it would have been better to shop and could have saved you that little bit extra.

app of personal budgeting

In addition if you withdraw money out of your account, the next time you go onto your budgeting website or app it would ask you what you did and/ or spend the money on.

There are already some apps that already try and attempt to do this, for example:

Easy Envelope budget aid app

This is an app called ‘Easy Envelope Budget Aid’ I like the layout and gets straight to the point but it does look a bit dull and boring with the grey titles and plain background. However, I do like the feature that it has recorded what someone spend on their groceries which then shows you if you have not paid more or less on them then previously.

HomeBudget app

I like how the app shown above, called ‘HomeBudget’, has broken down everything that you have spent money on and on what day.Also how it has the relevant icons to go with the area, for example; a shopping trolly for groceries and a film reel for Netflix. However, I do not like how it looks like its been put on a note pad as I think it makes it look unprofessional and unreliable.

LearnVest app

The LearnVest app looks like it has a lot of character and is the most interesting out of the lot. Once again this app breaks down how much money you have spent and by the looks of it they have broken it down into categories. The screenshot above shows how much someone has spent at each restaurant and bar they have been to in that month. It also shows you the percentage of money overall you have spent on restaurants and bars out of your budget. The look and design of this app is very good, interesting and professional.

debt free app

debt free interface (1)

The Debt Free app is properly one of the most unprofessional personal budgeting apps I have seen since my research. The reason why I am not a fan of this is that the logo for debt free is the word debt in a no entry sign which makes it look unprofessional and very unimaginative for a logo. In addition, the interface of the app looks unprofessional with the background of that blue. The break down of your accounts are just thrown together and the font used looks like times new roman which I am not a big fan of as its the default setting on software and hate seeing it.

In conclusion the demographic of people who are interested in personal budgeting are people who are aged between 18 – 45 year olds. The reason for this, depending on which range of the demographic you target towards, is how easy you want the interface to be. For instance, students aged 18 – 21 will want a very basic and easy to use and manage while older people might prefer a much more detailed budget for themselves but doesn’t mean that students might not want to use a more detailed budgeting software and vise-versa with older demograph.  I will attempt to create my own app for personal budgeting with its own logo and interface that looks professional easy to use and can be accessed on smartphones and computers that caters for both demographs.