Product Teardown: Mint's Trends Feature for Spending

Today, let's critique one of the best features on Mint.com -- its Trends. What do I think of its Trends feature? Is it well designed?



To answer these questions, let's think about the Trends feature across the dimensions listed below. Is the Trends feature:

1. Innovative
2. Makes a product useful
3. Aesthetic
4. Understandable
5. Unobtrusive
6. Honest
7. Long-lasting
8. Thorough down to the last detail
9. Environmentally friendly
10. As little design as possible

Above, I've bolded what Lewis Lin thinks are the more important aspects of good design. The only bullet I won't be consider is #9; I do'nt think Mint is hogs real-life resources.

1. Is it Innovative? Maybe.

This feature has been around a long time. Yet, newer, personal finance competitors like Trim or Personal Capital don't provide trendline data across your Spending.

Perhaps the best comparison is to Trim. Its "Trends" feature displays all the spending you made within the month.



One note, to see the exact data on the trendline, you have to hover across the line graph.

Overall, Trends is something Mint has been doing for a long time.



Moreover, not shown on this screen is the breakdown of the spending on each day of the month.


Pros:

• Displays information to users in a straightforward manner
• Users can identify which days of the week they spent the most 

Cons:

• Use of a bar graph does not show cumulative spending over the period
• Competitors use of the line graph illustrate how Mint cannot tell users when they have spent more than $X in a given month

2. Is it useful? Yes.

To get at this question, let's look at the full feature.


As you can see, Mint allows you to drill down from a yearlong view to a day-by-day view. You can also compare to past periods. Finally, Mint provides a table of the spending in each period. That way you won't have to hover over the graph. You have all the data upfront to analyze.

Pros:

• Can compare to past data with a few clicks
• Displays each period's data at the bottom for easy comparison across periods
• Displays average for users to compare their day-by-day spending
• Displays "Greatest Change" for users to be wary of any issues with paying off huge (unexpected) spending

Cons:

• It's too useful - too many features on one page

3. Is it aesthetic? Maybe.

Pros:

• Use of Mint.com green is pleasurable to the eye
• Green is on-point with Mint's branding

Cons:

• It's a lot of data and a lot of features on one page
• Use of yellow for the comparison data is a little hard to see on a white background
• The use of grayscale and shading between different boxes feels dated

4. Is it understandable? Yes.

Pros:

• Use of a bar graph is accessible to almost all people
• Use of a table to show period (e.g. day-by-day) transactions helps clarify the bars

Cons:

• None

5. Is it unobtrusive? Yes. 

Pros:

• It's the main feature of for the page. Users know this when they click on "Trends" > "Spending"

Cons:

• None

6. Is it honest? Yes. 

Pros:

• Provides users with a quick idea of their spending throughout a period

Cons:

• Data integrity issues. Some of the Mint.com graphs show very large spikes in Spending. Some spending is negative, several hundred dollars

7. Is it long-lasting? Yes. 

Mint hasn't changed this feature for over five years. In fact, I think they've had this feature for over a decade. Even if I didn't know this, I think the feature is pretty long-lasting. 

Pros:

• Provides users with a quick idea of their spending throughout a period
• Provides comparisons to past months and years, so it keeps users coming back to see how spending trends have changed over time
• Shows you useful states, like average spending, so you don't have to calculate them yourself

Cons:

• From a design perspective, it's a lot of graph and data. Tackling one's finances already feels ominous, so this does not help allay some users' anxiety

8. Thorough down to the last detail? Maybe. 

Pros:

• No

Cons:

• Data integrity issues. (See #6)
• I've seen duplicate entries for some transactions
• Some transactions post several days late

10. As little design as possible? Maybe.

Pros:

• Yes, it's a graph

Cons:

• No, it's an overloaded graph. There are a lot of options for trend comparisons. There's also a lot of data  - you can see spending month-by-month or day-by-day at the very bottom.