PROJECT

As a team, we first reflected on common pain points in our lives as consumers, considering circumstances when having "just a bit more” information could meaningfully improve our decision making. We quickly arrived at a realization that human beings are not rational consumers; that we almost look for excuses to spend more; that we often consume disproportionately within (and outside of) our budgets.

We explored conventional displays of consumption behavior in search of inspiration for an appropriately skeumorphic design. Initially, we were drawn to the communication of time passing on an analog watch; we recognized that, through a single 360 degree pass of a clock, X days of consumption and Y dollars of a budget ought go by at roughly the same pace.

For technical reasons related to the servos we used (explained more fully in our process section), we were forced to iterate this design; ultimately, looking further to the various synchronized gauges of a car dashboard, we found an opportunity to communicate something useful, useable and desirable for people spending on their cards without hesitation.