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Wand
A Fintech (uses technology to provide financial services and products to consumers ) mobile application that enables money transfer and saving.
My Role:
UX Design
UX Research
Collaborators:
1 Product owner
1 Product manager
Duration:
4 Weeks
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Problem Overview
It is common to have problems in sending money via mobile money systems especially if the users are not having the same or using the same network provider. So an application where users can send money easily regardless of the Network provider is very necessary, also there is a need for flexibility with having other features that can help users move their money how they want.
Goal
The goal here is to create an application that enables;
1. Money transfer directly to wand account, mobile money numbers, and directly to bank accounts.
2. Saving funds for future access toward a future goal.
3. Creating virtual credit cards to enable international transactions.
4. A portal to help freelancers receive their payments from popular freelancing sites.
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With any application and financial applications specifically, care is taken to make sure that the users understand every part of the system and can easily go through hence the reason for the naming below each icon so that the user is aware of where they are.
User Research
My research was done with 7 people in total. 5 in-person interviews and 2 virtual interviews. This interview process was meant to understand the problems users face when sending money, performing international transactions, Freelancing, and saving money. This process was iterative spanning 3 different rounds based on the feedback gotten from the users. In this process, I got that;
Sending Money: 3 out of the 7 people have been faced with the problem of not being able to easily send money to their loved ones due to the lack of a specific network service provider (NSP) in their area.
Saving Money: 5 out of the 7 people interviewed didn’t have an active bank account, so most of their money was kept in their mobile money accounts (which isn’t meant to save money)
Paying for Services: 5 out of the 7 people didn’t own active credit cards for online transactions and payment of services such as Spotify and Netflix.
Freelancers: All of the freelancers during this research used either Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr to freelance, with Fiverr being the most used. One common problem they all had was the ability to easily access their funds especially due to their location (Africa).
The Wand Experience - How It Works
The Onboarding process
The onboarding process is meant to give users a clue of what exactly they will encounter as a result of using this application. Outlining the various functionalities, telling the user what is possible.
The signup and sign-in process
The signup/sign-in process as well is supposed to be as simple as possible, with the very minimum information required that the average man will be able to provide.
Sending Money
The process of sending money is made easy as it gives the users the option of how they want to send money. That is either to another wand account user, mobile money user, or directly into a bank account. Also, the access is made so that the user can easily change how they want to send on the same page and not have to go back. For safety, the user can set up a pin code to authenticate transactions.
The screens below highlight the other modes to send money that is via a mobile money number or directly into a bank account
Adding Money to the account (Top-Up)
Users can easily choose how much they want to add to their accounts and do this top-up with the two available methods.
Creating Virtual Credit cards
Users can create VISA cards, these cards will make it easy for users to perform different online transactions such as shopping, paying for services, etc
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Savings
This feature makes it possible for users to start a new saving goal, add money to an existing goal, and also has the option of withdrawing funds whenever needed.
Freelance
This feature helps freelancers to connect their wand accounts to the various freelancing platforms available. In this case, due to the user research conducted the most used were Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.
Verification
Before a user can perform any transaction on the application they have to verify their account. This makes it easier to keep users and their money safe.
Just as a verification request can be approved, it can also be denied due to a variety of reasons and if that's the case, the user will receive such a message.
Takeaways
Upon completion and presenting the high-fidelity prototype to the Users, they were glad about the outcome. A lot of the users were particularly hyped about the freelance, saving, and creating virtual credit cards feature.
"If a platform like this exists, this will be the holy grail for Cameroonian freelancers. It's so hard for us freelancers in Africa with the available systems in place"
- Tamjong Timothy -
Further Steps
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Launch soon and make it available for mass usage.
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Conducting more user research to improve the design and particularly for accessibility.