Allawe
Creating a Solution for Recurring Financial Transactions.
Role
UX Designer, UX Researcher
Project Length
3 weeks, 4 days
Solution Type
Mobile Application
Software(s) Used
Figma, Concepts App, Adobe Illustrator, Procreate
Result
Branding, UI design, UX research & prototype of main function.
Implementation
In Progress...
The Overview
Here’s the lowdown on this fintech solution for recurring transactions. Picture this: You’re overrun with monthly bills and recurring financial commitments, like, say, you need to send $200 every 2 weeks to your son, Nathan, who’s at the university. Sometimes, maybe it slips your mind, right? Well, this app intends to solve that; a solution that enables users to send, receive and request recurring funds with ease.
The Problem
You’re at the university, and most of your cash flow comes from your dad, who’s out on an oil rig. But he’s not keen on handing over a whole semester’s allowance upfront because, let’s face it, you’re 18 and still figuring things out. Plus, he’s away for months at a time, making it tricky to send cash regularly.
Or maybe you’re a busy software dev who sometimes forgets to pay the bills on time, not because you’re short on cash, but because life gets hectic.
My UX process intends to to tackle these common woes with an easy-to-use mobile app because, if we’re being honest, our smartphones are the closest things to us anyway.
The Design Process
So, after the preliminary research, I figured a mobile app would be the way to go for our users.
I went with Lean UX for this project because I wanted to dive in fast and get feedback from potential users i brought together even faster. It’s all about that quick interaction and tweaking based on what users tell me.
Lean UX breaks down into three phases:
- Think
- Make
- Check
It’s all about iterating super quickly, unlike some other approaches.
The Thinking
I did more user research. My first findings was about all the different ways Allawe (the solution) could be used. Enterprises could use it for paying employees, but for now, let’s keep it simple and focus on your everyday average individual.
So, who’s our main audience? I’m thinking it’s the busy breadwinners in Nigeria. They’re the ones juggling everything and could really use a hassle-free way to send money to their dependents without too much fuss.
With them in mind, I broke it down into two main types of users:
The Benefactor: These are the breadwinners, the ones sending out the cash regularly.
The Beneficiary: These are the ones on the receiving end, relying on the benefactors for financial support.
I managed to chat with five potential users to get their thoughts. From those chats, I sketched out three user personas—one fitting perfectly as a benefactor, one as a beneficiary, and one kind of straddling the line.
The Research Insights
- Potential users don’t realize how much a platform with solid recurring transaction features can make their lives easier.
- 4 out of 5 of the potential users I talked to have dealt with recurring transactions before. It’s not exactly new territory.
- Seems like the younger crowd tends to be the ones getting the money, while the older ones are the ones sending it. No surprise there.
- If there’s a great app out there that nails recurring transactions, these potential users are all over it. They just need something that really works.
The Making
Wireflows, a modular design system and early screens were created.
Style Guide
Logo
So working of the main element of the branding; the logo, I wanted something clean and straightforward, just like the app itself. So, I took the “a” from “allawe” and gave it a little twist to make it look like a recoiling arrow. This is to represent the app’s main functionality—recurring transactions.
Main Function Screen
Checking the Initial “solution” with Potential Users.
So, after designing most of the screens, I circled back to chat with my potential users again. The concensus was the journey from onboarding to the home screen is smooth.
However, it does turns out, there’s a bit of a hiccup with how the “recurring cycle” main functionality was structured. Half of the potential user were scratching their heads over it, and even the ones who got it pointed it out.
There would have to be some iteration—starting with sorting out the recurring cycle main functionality and a few other minor tweaks.
The Iteration
Iterating on the “recurring cycle” element, a simple note and a change of wording did the job of making the element a lot easier to understand.
I checked this with fresh new potential users and this didn’t confuse them as it did the previous users. They breezed through it actually.
The Next Steps
The potential users I’ve got are pretty happy about the current solution, finding it super easy to use. But, the thing is, it’s a bit of a small pool we’re working with.
So, next up? Gotta expand that user base to user the prototype before actual implementation. More users means more feedback, and that’s gold for making this thing even better. Plus, once we nail it within a much larger group, we can start beefing up the features for the future.
More UX Design Works
Bulan Website
Graveyard
More Work Categories
Visual Art
2 works, 3 Galleries
Visual Design
3 works