Libertas
Project Overview
While attending university, I relied on a personal Excel spreadsheet to manage my budget and track financial obligations. I noticed that many available applications either required invasive access to personal bank accounts or mandated recurring subscriptions to offer what should be a straightforward service. This led me to design and develop my own solution—Libertas, a personal finance management application that emphasizes simplicity, privacy, and user control.
Technologies Used
ExpoTypeScriptZustandSupabase
Supabase
- Utilized Supabase as the primary database for storing user data, debts, and expenses.
- Integrated Supabase authentication for secure user login and account management.
Zustand
- Implemented Zustand to manage and maintain the application’s global state with minimal boilerplate.
Expo
- Leveraged Expo to build a cross-platform mobile application compatible with both Android and iOS.
Challenges
- Creating an efficient method to monitor monthly expenses.
- Developing a way to record and track payments, as well as the growth or reduction of debts.
- Designing an intuitive overview of total debt, monthly payments, and outstanding balances.
- Implementing a prioritization feature to identify which debts to pay off first and estimate payoff timelines.
Actions
- Conducted research into how financial institutions calculate minimum payments.
- Studied various debt repayment strategies such as the avalanche and snowball methods.
- Analyzed comparable mobile applications to identify best practices and user interface patterns.
- Outlined a modular approach to the app's architecture, separating concerns between data, state, and UI.
Solutions
- Designed a minimalist and user-friendly mobile application interface.
- Developed clear visualizations for total debt, remaining balances, and monthly spending summaries.
- Implemented a debt prioritization tool to assist users in financial decision-making.
Results
- Successfully launched a working prototype that effectively replaces spreadsheets for personal finance tracking.
- Received positive feedback from peer testers regarding usability and utility.
- Enabled users to track debts and payments without needing to link bank accounts or pay subscription fees.
Key Learnings
- Gained practical experience integrating authentication and data services using Supabase.
- Learned how to customize and send transactional emails via Supabase.
- Acquired knowledge in deploying and submitting mobile applications to app stores (Google Play and Apple App Store).