Roles & Methods
Competitive Research & Analysis, User Interviews and Surveys, User Flows, Prototyping, and Testing
Tools & Programs
Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Whimsical, Maze, Lucidchart
A payment solution that won’t cost friendships
In the past years, the American population has felt the sting of the rising prices with goods and services. Many save on subscription plans by sharing joint accounts with their friends and families to effectively cut some of their expenses by half.
In our modern age, electronic payment services make transferring funds quick and easy among people and businesses. Many users rely on Venmo to pay back friends and split family bills. Digital payments have integrated themselves into our lives and users seek efficient ways in making automatic and punctual payments to remove the risk of potentially hurting those who may depend on receiving funds on time.
Disclaimer: This is a conceptual project not affiliated with Venmo in any way.
“Even if my friend says that I can pay our Netflix bill whenever... I still feel this expectation to pay what I owe on time. Small costs can add up, and what if he really needs the money?”
To learn and understand the users and their methods of sending and receiving recurring payments, I conducted a series of user interviews and surveys for people who use digital payment apps. A majority of participants were Millennials and Gen Z (ages 20–39) as well as existing Venmo users who shared their thoughts and relationship with the service.
Market & Industry Insights
Similar payment apps in the market were reviewed to compare and contrast the strengths and disadvantages between one another.
Venmo holds a strong advantage over other digital payment services mentioned in user interviews and surveys thanks to its instant transfers, free of any fees. However, it did lack the option to set up recurring payments which some users of other platforms used to transfer monthly or weekly funds between themselves and others.
Summary of Key Takeaways
Venmo is popular with Millennials and Gen Z (ages 20–39) audiences.
It's commonly used to pay for food bills split among friends, services from small businesses, one-time transactions between other users, and more.
Users prefer ease and convenience with their choice of mobile payment services.
It's easy to sign up for, simple and almost effortless to use, and payments and fund requests are instant!
A scheduled/recurring payments feature would add value to the service.
A portion of users use Venmo regularly to pay their friends, family, and others for recurring bills such as rent, streaming services, and other shared expenses.
Validating a New Payments Option
Users not only gave direct positive feedback about adding scheduled and recurring fund transfers, but the fact that Venmo is an active part of many people’s lives validates the assumption that the new payment option could be a useful addition for users.
Persona to Help Guide the Feature
Based on the combined findings from user interviews, surveys, and industry analysis, I adopted this user persona to identify the common goals and problems users face with P2P transactions. Using the goals and frustrations mentioned by a sample of Venmo's users, I could plan how to integrate a new payment option for the app.
How can Venmo integrate a scheduled or recurring transfers option into their service?
In what ways can we implement this feature to benefit the users in managing their payments and finances?
Journey Map
In the case where scheduled or recurring payments are being added to Venmo, this diagram reviewed in the series of steps a new Venmo user may experience when discovering the app. With guidance from a UX design mentor, I created a journey map to get a fresh impression of Venmo and to analyze and predict what users may think and feel over time as they engage with the service.
A journey map can build and construct the steps and actions a customer takes with the product. Based on their emotional state throughout the journey, it's possible to strategize on features to focus.
Task & User Flows
I created a user flow to map out the user's actions and visualize the overall experience. The flow below demonstrates setting up a reoccurring payment with various decision points. This diagram determined where to add new options and selectable elements while maintaining the speed and efficiency that Venmo is known for.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Because Venmo has a pre-defined design and interface, the goal was to retain the sole functionality of the app. I referred to Venmo's visual and design guidelines and replicated its overall composition while overlaying components for the new feature.
Let's Consider These Points...
How should the new feature look within the existing Venmo interface and layout?
Are there any layout adjustments that can be made to make this feature easy to access?
How would users adjust settings for their scheduled and recurring payments?
In preserving Venmo's user interface and flow, current users could expect to rely on their core memory of the app to continue navigating through its screens while exploring and accessing the new feature.
High-Fidelity Wireframes and Prototype
A high-fidelity prototype was created by applying Venmo's current interface to the low-fidelity wireframes. By mimicking the visual design and interface of the Venmo app, the intent was to allow new Venmo users to freely make a payment for their first time and channel a degree of familiarity and memory with current Venmo users testing the new payment feature.
Task 1 - Scheduling a Recurring Payment
Task 2 - Editing an Existing Scheduled Payment
The prototype was presented in a group critique for feedback on the design and functions of the demo. In addition to in-person testing, I collected results with Maze's product research platform. Participants were asked to:
Usability Test Results and Observations
Both tasks had a success rate of 100% with its 9 participants. Many users noted that they could set up the payments because of how the prototype mimicked the Venmo app, leading them to easily recognize how to proceed with each step.
"Overall, it's a very cool and an awesome idea that I would definitely use! I'm surprised it isn't available on Venmo already."
However, there were also some points of confusion with how they expected the prototype to behave based on the selection and interaction of certain options.
What Performed Well:
The prototype followed Venmo's design style. Even with some adjustments to the interface, test participants felt confident and relaxed interacting with the prototype.
New feature felt intuitive and straightforward.
Setting up a recurring payment was simple and easy.
Enough steps to cover the choices involved with setting up a scheduled payment.
Needed Improvement:
Changing placement of the scheduling icon to improve visibility and clarity.
Wording for certain choices such as "occurrences" for repeating transfers.
Including specific ending dates for constrained payment cycles.
Changing menu behavior after selecting a choice.
Iterations and Revisions
A few changes were made to improve the accessibility of the features and make them more prominent within the frame of Venmo's app. After adding confirmation buttons for some settings and changing the interactive behavior of menu panels, there were some prioritized revisions made to improve the functionality of the new feature.
Relocating the Scheduling Button
Some participants could not immediately recognize or were not familiar with the schedule payments icon until it was mentioned in closing discussions.
Venmo's "Gift Wrap" option was replaced with the scheduling button. As I learned from participants, the "Gift Wrap" feature was more of a cosmetic and would have been better aligned next to the social features of Venmo with tagging, stickers, and others.
Occurrences and End Dates
Added the end date for number of occurrences to help users anticipate the final payment date in the scope of their own timelines.
Some users mentioned that the word "occurrences" was confusing. In an attempt to find a wording alternative, I referred to popular calendar platforms like Google Calendars and Microsoft Outlook. Based on their examples, the wording was kept as is.
This project provided the chance to empathize with the users who mentioned feeling some kind of stress or anxiousness when they owed others. I felt more confident creating this function that had more worth than I initially thought.
Also, designing a product or service is more complex than we realize! Creators and inventors acknowledge that there is a general need for something but need to dive into sufficient research and testing to help fulfill certain goals and expectations for those it is targeted at. By breaking the larger problem into smaller steps, I was able to analyze and strategize a solution to create a useful addition that I hope Venmo will one day integrate!
Given the opportunity, I would like to explore the option of setting up notifications for upcoming scheduled fund transfers. For those who may live within certain financial constraints, giving them prior notice of upcoming transfers may help them plan their budgets a little easier.
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