Overview
A smarter way to manage personal and shared subscriptions.
Role
Sole UI/UX Designer
Timeline
March - July 2025
Skills
Visual Design
UI & UX Design
UX Research
User Testing
BACKground
why do we still split netflix in a groupchat?
We all share subscriptions – Netflix, Spotify, YouTube Premium, you name it – but splitting costs is messy.
Who pays?
Who collects?
How do you trust everyone?
Most people rely on group chats and reminders.
It’s clunky, confusing, and often unfair.
A random day in July, my friend created a group chat to remind us to pay back all the shared subscription fees we owed her throughout the school year, which, as you might notice, ended two months before that.
It usually takes her weeks, sometimes months, to track down who owes what, send reminders in the group, and even follow up with private “nudges” when someone forgets. And when one person goes radio silent, she’s left to swallow the cost and only vent about it later.
We carried out 5 in-depth user interviews with people actively splitting subscriptions. From this, we uncovered that the core issue isn’t just tracking money, but the social awkwardness that comes with it.
Subscription holders
Hates chasing after
people to pay
Subscription members
Forgetful & annoyed
with being nagged
Privacy feels risky
Holders feel uncomfortable acting as monthly debt collectors, chasing friends or acquaintances with repeated reminders.
Members, on the other hand, often forget to pay, then feel guilty or annoyed when reminded, which makes them even less likely to respond.
Underlying all of this is a trust problem: while close friends may tolerate nagging, in looser groups or semi-stranger setups, people fear being scammed, mishandled, or excluded from account details.
And as a result, most groups stick to messy chat threads, since there’s no structured system that balances accountability and trust.
ideation
What if the money splits itself?
Introducing Fair Share, where we designed a system where each shared subscription is tied to its own virtual card: a secure digital card created specifically for that service.
Every member links their payment method once, and from there the process is seamless. Each month, the app automatically splits the cost, verifies each person’s balance, and charges them directly.
The low fidelity wireframe!
testing & Iterating
how do we build trust?
Trust & privacy are fragile
Nobody likes extra fees
Many steps for the leader
However, creating a virtual card from Stripe, a third-party platform, poses many challenges that we didn't foresee:
To create a virtual card, users are required to submit personal details and link a bank card. For a brand-new app, this step introduces a high risk of drop-off, as many users fear their financial information could be compromised. Building trust here is critical: the process needs clear communication, visible security assurances, and transparency about third-party providers.
Another friction point lies in the cost itself. While generating a virtual card only incurs a fee of 10 cents, this seemingly small amount can feel like a significant hurdle—especially for first-time users who are unsure about the app’s long-term value.
Finally, the group leader faces the most complex burden. Their responsibilities extend beyond personal setup: they must select the subscription, invite or approve members, finalize the group, split the cost, send out payment consent, wait for approvals, create and fund the virtual card, and only then use it to purchase the service. This long, multi-step process is where abandonment risk is highest. Simplifying and clarifying the subscription flow for leaders became a key design priority to keep groups from stalling before they even begin.
The steps of work required for the leader to create a group and subscribe to a shared service.
For the User Information and Card Details modals during onboarding, I added a tooltip for extra information, while also making these screens optional so the user can skip, allowing the app to build trust for the user before prompting them to commit to our MVP. Without a virtual card, users can still manage their personal subscription.
Prior to creating a virtual card, I also added a screen noting important information and use a checkbox both for background API requirements and making sure that the user fully understands the nature of using virtual cards for their subscriptions.
For group subscriptions, I broke down the service-subscription part into steps for the leader, providing them with context on navigating outside of the app, subscribing, and coming back to activate the subscription for the group members.
the Final product
fairshare.
