PayOwe.com

PayOwe was Inkitecture's first project. The site aimed to track transactions between Twitter users to keep records of debts and repayments. A visually stimulating site which integrated with Twitter's Jabber Client.

Background

The idea for the site arouse from luncheons with colleagues while working at Deloitte Consulting. Since waiters would rarely split checks, one person would pick up the bill, leaving debts on the other parties. Debts would rarely be repaid, and tracking the debt formally would be considered a social faux pas. PayOwe aimed at tracking these debts via Twitter mobile as a fun but effective debt tracking system.

Design

Inkitecture went full-bore with the design, using vibrant colors and graphics. This later became a lesson-learned in design school; we were not designing for a set of users, but ourselves.

The debt tracking design focused on what was owed and by whom vs. whom the user owed. Users would command all debts from this page using AJAXian widgets.

PayOwe was Inkitecture's attempt at throwing the technological kitchen sink at the problem. Ultimately, our user base was very small. This was later attributed to not understanding the user we were solving for.