Chip — Group Bill Splitting App
Chip simplifies shared expenses for friends, roommates, and teams. Users can split bills, track balances, and manage group payments easily in one place.
Overview
Chip was born from the frustration of messy group expenses, confusing receipts, and awkward reminders. Our goal was to design an app that makes bill splitting and group budgeting intuitive, transparent, and fun.
I led the ideation and user research, creating structured user interviews and surveys that informed our app’s core features and interaction flow.
Research & Ideation
Our team conducted over 20 user interviews to identify pain points around shared expenses. The top issues were:
- Unequal payments and confusion about who owes what
- Difficulty managing multiple ongoing groups
- Discomfort in reminding friends to pay
From this, we defined our key goals — transparency, automation, and easy collaboration. I wrote most of the marketing research and user reports that guided our MVP priorities.
Design
As we developed the initial Figma prototype, we focused on clear visual hierarchy, fast bill entry, and effortless group setup. The design language follows a friendly, modern tone using soft neutrals with teal highlights for clarity.
The main flow I designed covers:
- Creating or joining a group
- Adding shared expenses with real-time split previews
- Viewing balances and transaction summaries
Development
We are developing Chip in React Native with Expo Go, backed by Firebase for authentication, data sync, and storage. My role evolved from design into fullstack development — building both the mobile UI and backend logic for expense tracking and user management.
Our team workflow integrates GitHub for version control and Figma for continued design collaboration.
Reflection & Next Steps
Chip has evolved from a student project into a fully functional mobile application. Leading research and design taught me how to align user empathy with technical implementation. As we prepare for beta testing, I continue to refine both UX and backend logic while mentoring teammates on design consistency and usability testing.