Efficient, on-time recurring transactions
Project background
About Venmo
Venmo is a peer-to-peer payment app that helps settling up feel more like catching up. Send and receive money with Venmo friends to split everyday necessities, bills, and shared activities like takeout or travel.
Identified problem
However, currently, they must manually remember and execute each transaction. This lack of an automatic feature can lead to late payments, inefficiency, and decreased customer satisfaction.
Proposed Solution
Project Scope
Discover | 1 week |
Define | 1/2 week |
Deliver | 1/2 week |
Project Goal
Research
Competitive analysis to inform existing features
I evaluated Venmo and three peer-to-peer payment tools to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and identify Venmo’s feature gaps.
Key Findings
User Interviews to uncover opportunities
The research goal uncover pain points and needs for Venmo users who send or request recurring payments.
Key Objectives
Tracking hypotheses
Before conducting user interviews, I formulated 11 hypotheses based on the observed problem. After each interview, I immediately categorized these hypotheses to capture fresh impressions.
Mapping insights to identify patterns
After each interview, I captured the key opportunities and completed a affinity mapping exercise to identify patterns.
Key Findings
Define the problem
Job to be Done
Prioritizing problems using an opportunity tree
Persona
Based on competitive research and user interviews, I created a user persona to reference during product and design decision-making.
Solution
How might we
Considerations
- The solution must integrate with the existing Venmo workflow.
- The UI and UX should align with Venmo's iOS design system.
Constraints
- No access to Venmo’s official design system
- No engineering resources to inform solution or development
Solution Ideation
Through a divergent thinking exercise, I proposed a solution that enables users to set reminders for recurring payments. This helps cohabitating individuals in managing their expenses timely and efficiently.
- Recurring reminders leverage the existing notification feature in Venmo.
- The development effort and cost are low, making it less risky to test the product direction.
Rapid ideation and iteration in low fidelity
I initially conducted a thorough examination of Venmo's existing user flow for sending or requesting payments. I then compared it to similar user experiences, such as setting recurring calendar invites to identify design patterns.
I created a various user flows to identify the required screens, user decisions, and edge cases that would necessitate error prevention.
I used quick sketches to explore and iterate through various UI and UX patterns for the solution.
Testing assumptions with users using mid-fi wireframes
To mitigate the risk associated with the proposed task flow and UI pattern for the solution, I conducted five unmoderated usability tests using a mid-fidelity prototype.
Click to check out the prototype
Key findings from user tests
Usability tests to de-risk the solution
I conducted five virtual, moderated usability test sessions. The aim was to assess the usability of the "Set a Reminder" feature, which is designed to assist Venmo users in paying their recurring expenses to cohabitants promptly and efficiently.
Key risks and results
Risk | Learning from usability test |
Users don’t want to set up a reminder for recurring transactions. | 5/5 users were either satisfied or very satisfied with the reminder feature to help them complete recurring transactions on time. |
Users are confused if they are paying and setting up a reminder versus just one of those. | Microcopy helped users clarify what the feature was.
Alternative entry points allowed users to set up a reminder when it suited them. |
The reminder notification does not help users pay on time. | This is an outstanding risk, which should be validated during a beta release. |
Top iterations based on usability tests
High-Fidelity Designs
Prototype for creating recurring reminders
Key design decisions
Based on the user feedback, I implemented these following key decisions in my high fidelity designs.
Feature discovery
Three entry points for the Set Reminder feature to increase feature discoverability and match user mental models for setting up reminders.
1. Confirmation screen when sending or requesting a payment
2. After completing a transaction to the same person of the same amount >2 times.
3. CTA button on transaction page for transactions to the same person of the same amount >2 times.
iOS design patters
Venmo currently leverages previous iOS components. Since this is a net new feature, I decided to implement iOS 16 components to begin upgrading the app.
Example implementation: iOS 16 in-line wheel picker component
Example from other workflow: Pre-iOS 16 component leveraging keyboard wheel picker
Project Outcome
Measuring Success
Metric | Goal in 90 days | |
Outcome | % of completed transactions with a recurring reminders | 95% |
Awareness | % of users who click on the Set a Reminder feature | 35% |
Adoption | % of users who complete all transactions in a reminder series (until end date) | 7% |
Retention | % of users set up more than 2 recurring reminders | 5% |
Future Iterations
- Expand use case by setting up reminder for a future payment without completing the first one
- Support additional reminder customizations such as time of day or occurrences
Learnings
- Leverage low or mid-fidelity prototype to test and de-risk solution early
- Allow for feature discoverability via various entry points that match mental model of users
- Consider accessibility of mobile touch area early in design phase