Emma Duval case study: Sparro

Emma Duval UX Designer 1

Case Study

Peer-to-peer payments and foreign exchange website prototype

Sparro

Emma Duval UX Designer 2Sparro

Define

Understanding the brief, business goal and offering, requirements

Sprint 1 overview

Ideate

Brainstorming, feature prioritisation,

Research

Competitive analysis

Test

Usability testing, analysis

Timeframe

2 weeks

Team

Emma Duval,Alex Jarvie

Tools

Pen, paper, Typeform, Axure, Keynote.

Goal

Sparro want to disrupt the Payments space so they have developed a new back-end technology that can facilitate instant peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and foreign exchange (FX). Sparro asked us to research the best ways to offer this to users and then to create an interactive prototype.

Process

Empathise

Survey, interviews, persona creation

Create

Sketching, user walkthroughs, rapid prototyping, iteration

Stakeholder management

Emma Duval UX Designer 3SparroEmpathise

User insight

Sparro had some hypotheses.

We had hypotheses and a lot of questions too.

Our approach

1. Outline hypotheses for investigation

2. Send surveys to confirm core hypotheses and answers some of the ‘low hanging fruit’ questions.

3. Place all answered & unclear hypotheses on an axis of mportant–Unimportant and Known–Unknown.

4.Use the Important and Unknown hypotheses to form future interview questions.

5. As questions were answered and new questions were raised, the hypotheses were updated and interview questions changed.

favourite accounts preferable to recently used ones

don’t need batch process on mobile

Users want to choose currency perspect-ive

System interact-ion

General concerns/irritants Features SME only

A simple signup/setup scares users

Users rather pay cross-border with their bank

Users concerned lost phone = money thievery

Reliability of getting paid is concern

Trust p2p exchange can work

need multiple users per account

willing to have another bank account

Need direct link to multiple bank accounts

Want to use a Sparro id

Users want to poke around before signing up

Users want competitor rate comp-arisons

need multiple sparrow accounts per user

want integration with a work address book

Important

Unimportant

Known Unknown

Key


Survey

We created an online survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data to help us empathise with users of existing P2P or FX services.

Main question aims

1. Confirming or denying assumptions of user pain points/desires.

2.Investigating where priorities may diverge.

3.Confirming platform priority.

For a period of time the money is out of one account and not yet into the other. It's a bit worrisome when it appears to be missing!!!

I want clear information on which currency will be taken from my bank account or card.


Survey results

33 Respondents Sourced from email distribution, Vietnamese & Chinese student forums, Facebook broadcast and LinkedIn.

Assumptions confirmed

Product decision influencers (in order of rated performance out of 5)

1. Transfer fees which are competitive (4.52)

2. Exchange rates which are competitive (4.42)

3. Rates and commission clearly stated and compared to the market (4.15)

4. Fast transfer of money (4.12)

5. An interface I can use quickly and efficiently (3.85)

6. An interface which is easy to use (3.82)

7. A sign-up process which is simple and fast (3.58)


Survey results (continued)

Potential divergence of priorities

Self-transfer users have a very strong priority for a good deal and clarity of that deal.

Recipients of family payments have a strong preference for fast transfers.

Platform

Desktop interface was the main platform for FX and International payments.


User interviews

We wanted to get out and interview potential users to gain insights into the real-world experience of FX and P2P payments.

I want a proper payment confirmation.

Nick, Virtual cloud-based accountant

Anya, CFO, SME

Jake,SME entrepreneur

Toby,Expat from UK

CBA were charging fees but didn’t offer any incentives.

there are too many fees!Accountants

love audit trails.


Key research findings

Users did not like lack of transparency about FX rates and transaction costs.

PayPal accounts are all based on email addresses, audit trail problems for multiple access to single account.

Some users are looking to wait for best possible rate and reduce risk (Hedging).

Users often had to switch from screen to screen for getting account balances and wholesale rate comparisons.

Some users prioritise efficiency or usability over detailed rates analysis.

Users said that they may not trust a new service.

Solutions

Clearly disclose Wholesale FX rates, customer’s bank rates and that there are no transaction costs.

Accounts with multiple access via Sparro IDs.

Look at including Hedging options.

Integrate balances and wholesale rates on FX and payments forms.

Provide forms that facilitate efficient paths and detail as needed.

Propose 2-step login and get a known brand onboard.

Emma Duval UX Designer 9SparroEmpathise—Personas

Annette CFO SME user

Personas

Based on our findings we created four personas. Two representing SME users and two representing individual users. These will help to drive our design decisions.

Jeremy Entrepreneur SME user

Ted Expat Individual user

Mia Student Individual user

Emma Duval UX Designer 10SparroEmpathise—personas

I’m always looking to lower the FX rate risk and save money, as if it was my own.

Reduce FX rate risk by hedging, looking at World First for this.

Keep track of money at all times.

Save money wherever possible.

Trust service providers.

GoalsCurrent resources

American Express for FX.

CBA for Australian bank account.

CitiBank for US bank account.

xe.com for rate comparison.

Pain Points

1. Expensive FX rates.

2. Funds disappearing overnight during FX process.

3. Switching between multiple browser screens for FX tasks.

Business opportunities

1. Get SME users onboard by offering competitive FX rates.

2. Gain SME user trust with instantaneous FX.

Annette CFO Manufacturing and Export Business SME user

Transfers large monthly payments to and from the US.


I don’t want to have to think about the FX process.

Consolidate money by keeping it together in interest-bearing account.


Pay employees quickly and fairly.

Pay employees in any currency, anywhere.

Execute payments easily and efficiently.


Westpac for bank account and FX.

PayPal for international payments

Pain Points

1. Difficult-to-use interfaces.

2. Inconsistent foreign payment bank support.

3. Over-complicated forms.

4. Non-interest-bearing accounts.


1. Get users onboard by offering highly usable interface.

Jeremy Online entrepreneur SME user

Weekly payments to multiple international employees in their local currencies.


My bank’s fees on top of poor FX rates are a huge pain.

Consolidate money by keeping it together in interest-bearing account.


Save money by getting the best FX rate.

Find best time for FX to get best rate.


ANZ for Australian bank account.

Bank of Scotland for UK bank account.

xe.com for rate comparison.

Pain Points

1. Expensive FX rates.

2. Paying FX fees.


1. Get individual users onboard by offering competitive FX rates.

2. Gain individual user trust by being transparent about rates and not charging extra fees.

Ted Expat from UK Individual user

Occasionally moves large sums of money from the UK to Australia.


Ali Pay is too slow!

Get FX payments quickly.


Westpac bank account.

AliPay for receiving FX payments.

Pain Points

Slow FX Transfer speed.


Get individual users onboard by offering instantaneous FX.

Mia International English student Individual user

Receives money from her parents in China every month.

Emma Duval UX Designer 14SparroIdeate

Feature prioritisation

Based on our findings from SMEs and individuals, we focused on creating a website interface with the aim of suiting all types of users.

Prioritise

1. Highly usable interface.

2. FX.

3. Payments.

4. Top-up from linked account(s).

5. Address book of payees.

6. Transparency of rates.

Just give me a good rate, a quick time frame and make it easy.

Emma Duval UX Designer 15SparroResearch

Competitive analysis of the FX and P2P payments space

Emma Duval UX Designer 16SparroResearch—competitive analysis

Westpac FX

Positive

Really great form flow keeping the default simple, adding complexity only when required.

Negative

Exchange rates not clearly disclosed. All marked as ‘indicative’.

Lessons

Combine the approach of slowly revealing complexity with exchange rate transparency.


CurrencyFair

Positive

1. Simple, two-step, sign-up process.

2. Simple transactions.

3. Distinction between efficient and market-watching exchanges.

Negative

Some form elements are more confusing in practice than in theory.

Lessons

1. Distinction between efficient and market-watching exchanges.

2. Two-step sign-up process to allow new users to explore.

3. Forms which prioritise ease-of-use over ‘less fields’ is a good mindset.


PayPal

Positive

1. Very usable interface.

2. Very efficient transaction forms.

3. Simple, elegant and contemporary design.

4. Clear orientation.

Negative

1. Email addresses as key user identifier restricts multi-user accounts (no audit trails).

2. Very shallow exchange information.

Lessons

1. Break complexity of transaction into simple paths.

2. Simple and clear Information architecture.

3. Transparency of rates and fees.

Emma Duval UX Designer 19SparroCreate

1. Identify main tasks

3. Create first interactive prototype

2. Sketch elements of tasks

Ideation

Emma Duval UX Designer 20SparroTest

Interactive prototype demonstration

Movie will play on click or down key.


Interactive prototype wireframes


Key usability testing takeaways

Sparro’s core selling points seem to resonate with users, though some are resistant to moving from a trusted and widely-used bank account or service.

Simple forms with expanding complexity (when needed) are the way to support all user types with a single product.

Emma Duval UX Designer 24SparroConclusion of sprint 1

Team Achievements

1. Established user pain points of current services.

2. Researched usability of competitor services.

3. Identified existing features users prefer.

4. Drew inspiration from best-in breed interfaces.

5. Established core features and tasks

6. Created an interactive prototype.

Next steps recommendations

1. Further usability testing and iteration.

2. Develop two-step sign-up process to allow potential users to explore before committing.

3. Research more into creating user trust.

4. Allow access for multiple users per account for SMEs.

5. Create batch payment function.

6. Develop mobile wallet payment funtion.

7. Develop accounting system integration.

8. Integrate any new features in to Navigation and Information Architecture.

9. Further usability testing and iteration.

Emma Duval case study: Sparro

Design

Transcript of Emma Duval case study: Sparro