Spring 2022
ASSESITY
Personal finance tool that tracks the prices of a user’s physical assets.
Product Design and Management
The Problem
People constantly lose money on past purchases. Our stuff’s value changes over time. Why haven’t we taken advantage of these fluctuations in price to better manage what we own and make smarter purchases?
Challenge and Opportunity
How might we help individuals better manage their physical assets and save money?
Product Overview
Assesity is a personal finance tool that tracks the prices of a user’s physical assets.
Tracking the Value of Your Physical Assets
Think like your iPhone, microwave, Xbox, golf clubs, etc. Almost anything that has been sold online can be tracked with live pricing.
Your Possessions in Your Portfolio
In your portfolio, you can actively manage all of your physical assets.
As the price flucturates for each product in real time, your portfolio’s networth updates.
Visualize Your Asset Portfolio
Utilizing the asset tracking dashboard, you will be able to visualize your portfolio’s trends giving you a better understanding of how your possessions affect your wealth.
Start Saving for Your Future Self
Product Forecasting can help you discover what reoccurring purchases are draining your pockets the most. Assesity helps you think ahead when it comes to items that will need to be replaced.
Outcomes
1. Better management of your physical belongings.
2. Making more informed purchases in the future.
Why This Matters
Having a portfolio that actively tracks and manages all of your physical assets is important because it allows you to have a clear understanding of the value of your possessions and how they contribute to your overall wealth. By being able to see the real-time fluctuation of prices for each product, you can make informed decisions about your investments and spending habits. The asset tracking dashboard and product forecasting features also provide valuable insights into your financial habits and can help you identify areas where you may be able to save money or make more informed purchase decisions. Additionally, the ability to track and forecast the replacement of certain items can help you plan for future expenses and budget accordingly. Overall, an active portfolio management system can be an essential tool for anyone looking to take control of their financial wellbeing and make informed decisions about their assets.
Mini Case Study
The idea for Assesity stemmed from analog tracking methodologies for our possesions. We sought to take some of the practices and adapt them to a program.
Survey Findings
Through initial surveys and interviews, we found that most people do care about their products value, however, they are dissatisfied with their current ways of tracking that value.
64%
strongly agree that they care about the value of a product after use
54%
are unsatisfied with their current way of calculating the value of their assets
Unmet Needs
Calculating the cost of Physical Assets
Keeping Track of Physical Assets
Knowing to Purchase Products That Don't Depreciate
Making It a Habit to Declutter Possesions
Finding Ways to Sell, Donate, or Trash Items
Repelling the Effects of Lifestyle Inflation
Changing Directions
Due to the nature of Assesity being a class project, the team faced changes at the end of the semester. What was supposed to be a large scale development of Assesity devolved into a friend and I taking on a smaller feature set to support our own needs. As of now, Assesity is being held in development as other projects are more pressing.