MealShare: The Ultimate Check-Splitting Companion App For Venmo
MealShare stemmed from years of frustration and awkwardness while dining out with my close friends. I often went out to dinner with the same group and every time the check came, chaos ensued.
Something quickly grew in popularity that could act as a band-aid for this age-old issue. That something was Venmo, the app that has quickly grown to become the giant of peer-to-peer mobile transaction apps, and the app that was used by virtually every 20-something I knew at the time.
It dawned on me that Venmo could be utilized to split a check in a streamlined, user-friendly way -- both fairly, and completely accurately. I had always wanted to build an app that could be more than just a tip calculator, and closer to a full restaurant check-out solution. Venmo had given me my window to do such a thing.
I started sketching out iOS wireframes (something I had never done as an Animator / Motion Designer), and MealShare was soon born.
For the next year and a half worth of nights and weekends, I developed a brand from scratch, product managed and directed the development of the actual working app, designed and animated an explainer video, and built and maintained a web and social presence -- all without any outside funding.
Ultimately, MealShare became a committment I could not care for as much as I had intended to. It has been downloaded nearly 9,000 times as of this posting, but I am currently putting all of my efforts into my freelance business. It is still available on the App Store however, so feel free to check it out. There were some outstanding bugs that my developer was not capable of fixing.
This project page is not only a portfolio piece, but also a self reminder of how much work went into this endeavor, and proof that motion designers can apply their skillsets and processes to other mediums, especially app design and brand development. Lastly, it's a project that benefited greatly from the support of my family and friends, and I'll always be thankful for that! Creating something that is 100% yours is uniquely rewarding, and MealShare was exactly that.
Logo
iOS App
Website
Social
Exploration
If you are interested in learning more about the project or discussing restaurant check-out solutions in general, please don't hesitate to message me.
Thank you!
