Pluto

Collaborators

Keerthi Sahadevan, (UX Designer) Enrica Tsui, (Product Manager)
Jess Jerltorp, (Product Manager) Carlos Ramos, (Developer) Sreekiran V, (Developer) Ranjeet Kumar Maurya (Developer)

Type

Professional Project, Internal Client

Problem

In a big organisation operating across the Nordics, tracking spending was a problem for the business.

Managing budgets for activities like learning or social events was hampered by a complicated system of financial record-keeping, lacking automatic oversight. A slow process of logging receipts and invoices compromised accountability and transparency.

Solution

Pluto streamlines financial oversight by integrating budget tracking and spending analysis into a single, user-friendly platform.

It automates the aggregation of financial data, enabling budget owners to monitor real-time spending against their allocated funds. An itemised list of all receipts is provided, clearly showing the amount spent and the remaining budget.

Senior budget owners can allocate budgets to their staff, effectively redistributing responsibility. At the C Suite level, users such as the COO of the service line have the ability to delegate budgetary responsibilities, ensuring that financial management is both scalable and flexible.

With custom alerts and reporting features, Pluto ensures that all budget owners, regardless of their level, stay informed and in control of their spending, fostering a culture of fiscal responsibility across the organisation.

Process

In Pluto, while the comprehensive user research was primarily conducted by business analysts, my role was to distill these insights into detailed user personas, ensuring the app met the diverse needs of its users.

Initial interviews with senior figures, including the CFO and COO of a prominent service line, alongside HR leadership, informed the business requirements.

Equally important were the contributions from junior employees, who provided a broader perspective on daily user needs

Initial interviews with senior figures, including the CFO and COO of a prominent service line, alongside HR leadership, informed the business requirements. Equally important were the contributions from junior employees, who provided a broader perspective on daily user needs.

User Personas:

Level 2 Budget Owner:

Typically managing a budget within a specific business area, this user requires primarily read-only access to monitor their budget and assess their financial performance.

Level 1 Budget Owner:

Responsible for a country-level budget within a single category, such as Learning or Social, this user has the authority to reallocate funds to Level 2 Budget Owners and create new user accounts. They need the capability to reassign responsibilities while maintaining oversight.

Delegate:

Acting as an aide to Level 1 Budget Owners or Super Users, Delegates require read-only access to assist in overseeing all subordinate budget activities.

Super User:

High-level executives like the COO oversee substantial, regional budgets across multiple categories. They prefer a macro view, focusing on aggregate performance across countries rather than micromanagement, with the ability to delegate detailed budget management to Level 1 Budget Owners.

Visual Identity

Brand Concept: Planetary Theme for Internal Budget Tracking

The branding for Pluto, an internal budget tracking app, draws inspiration from a planetary theme, symbolising exploration and navigation through the complexities of organisational finances.

Pluto represents stability and reliability, as well as oversight from above.

Color Scheme: Teal Accents for Trust and Analysis

In developing the color palette, I chose a dark mode with teal accents. This decision was strategic: blue is widely recognized for inspiring trust and is commonly used in finance applications, while green conveys analytical thinking and growth. By combining these two colors into a vibrant teal, I aimed to create a unique identity that balances reassurance with an analytical edge.

Dark mode enhances UX by reducing eye strain, particularly important for users who will spend a long period of time looking checking charts and tables.

Ideation and Design

The design process navigated a complex technical environment of Microsoft PowerApps and PowerBI, security was a key issue. It was also grounded in business needs, and the challenge was for each feature to not only be user-centric but also feasible within our technical framework.

As the UI was designed, there was a constant need to balance the complexity of data representation with providing a positive UX to create an app that was both powerful in capability and intuitive in design.

Through this challenge, I learned about about the importance of designing products that align user needs with the business and technological landscape of the organisation.

Testing and Iteration

The design of Pluto is being iterated on an ongoing basis.

One example of how aspects have evolved is the Budget Overview dashboard.

First Iteration: Pie charts

This was originally designed using pie chart data visualisation in PowerBI, as these were easily implemented and served as useful visual placeholders that could be hovered over for further information and clicked on to be expanded into tables.

Positive feedback was given by the main user persona involved; however, greater interest was expressed in the expanded breakdown, leading to the realisation that little thought was given to the overview screen.

Feedback from the Level 2 Budget Owner Users indicated that more relevant data for them was the visualisation of actual versus budget, specifically regarding remaining spend and which budgets were overspent or close to being overspent.

Second Iteration: Bar charts

Bar charts were implemented for a time to provide better comparative visibility regarding how users were performing against each other and in relation to the overall competency area. Initial feedback from users praised the visual depth of this data view in PowerBI.

However, it became clear that the amounts of budgets allocated to different owners could differ dramatically; one user could have $10,000 allocated while another could have $500,000.

The visual representation created a false equivalence that led to initial confusion, prompting the decision to reconsider how totals were represented.

Third Iteration: Key Figures + Donut charts

Combined user feedback, along with technical changes for data visualisation (moving from PowerBI to native PowerApps charts), resulted in the decision to change the layout a third time. This iteration provided more visual prominence to the differences between on-track budgets and those that were close to or already overspent.

This iteration of the dashboard was praised for balancing the needs of different categories of users while providing a positive UX that successfully conveys a large amount of information through a visually appealing UI.

Results

Throughout the design process, we were guided by the pressing business requirements, which provided a clear direction for Pluto's development. Admittedly, there was a desire for a more user-centric approach, a vision somewhat curtailed by the limited pool of initial users.

Some initial, immediate results were:

Clearer oversight on how different departments were acting with spending.
Reduced workload for budget controllers.
Easier collaboration between different service lines in the organisation.
Easier for COO and CFO to plan objectives.

However, as Pluto gains traction and a broader user base, there is further possibility for conducting more comprehensive workshops.

The insights gained from each phase of Pluto's development have been invaluable, shaping not only the app but also our approach to creating solutions that resonate with users and drive business success. With each iteration, Pluto will improve as a facilitator of fiscal management within the organisation.

Eoghan Patrick O’Connor ⏤ 2025