We Remit
A WeChat mini program that provides a more humanized remittance experience for Filipinos working in Hong Kong.
Timeline: 3 weeks, 2019
Role: Interaction Designer
Tools: Paper, Pen, Sketch
Team: 1 PM, 1 IxD, 1 Visual, Software Developers
Overview
Traditional cross-border money transfer process is long and complicated.
Roughly 170,000 Filipinos are working in Hong Kong, almost all are women working as domestic helpers with families to support back in the Philippines. They work six days a week, yet spend their holidays queuing up in Central, Hong Kong just to send money home.
Tencent’s We Remit, an in-app service, comes to provide a convenient alternative— shortens what would’ve been a five-hour process into one that can be completed online within minutes. A safe, hassle-free, and easy-to-understand cross-border money transfer process.
How It Works?
The following are screenshots of the final design:
Problem
For first-time users, using an unfamiliar digital tool to send hard-earned money home is daunting enough.
To alleviate the stress and confusion, they need intuitive design interfaces, preferably one that mimics the logic that of the traditional process.
Skip to specific projects by clicking on the following links below:
Solutions
Note: This product was placed under another business unit halfway through the design update. The current market release version does not fully incorporate some of the improvements I suggested.
Insights
I closely reviewed the findings provided by our UX research team about our target users.
Here are some insights that stood out:
1. They are not "tech savvy" - don't use the most up-to-date cellphones
2. Unfamiliar with the concept of financial technology (FinTech)
3. Risk adverse, especially when it comes to money
4. Instant image recognition (they click on pictures)
5. Exchange rate has a smaller role in their offline experience
6. Community matters a lot to them (more inclined to use a product if their friends use it)
Project #1: Homepage Redesign
The original homepage design above creates confusion.
- The excessive use of colors makes it unclear as to what is clickable and what isn't
- The section on the top (#1 and #2) is distracting, repetitive and defeats the purpose of the landing page
Challenge
Simplify the homepage to prevent users from feeling overwhelmed.
In reference to the image above, here are some of the things I did:
1. Combined the two setting selections at the top into one
2. Reduced the use of colors to bring focus to the main task: input value!
3. Created version 2 after referring to the insights above (#4, to be specific)
Project #2: Are Graphs Necessary?
The PM's motive and rationale for the integration of real-time exchange rates graphs...
Context
Initial wireframe and the type of graph I envisioned:
The graph PM wanted:
I rejected the PM's request, as I found that the new feature would be detrimental to the user experience.
The requested graph design would have instilled fear and worry- not trust.
a. Our users are not stock traders or financial experts. Visually, steep drops in the exchange rates would have scared them.
b. Information overload hinders overall decision-making ability (Hick's Law)
From the insights above, our users use phones that vary in screen sizes, they probably don't even know the graph is interactive, so where's the fun experience here?
What happens when cool features conflict with our users' need?
We serve a niche market, with a clearly defined user group; yet our designs sometimes forget them.
Project #3: Currency Display Feature
Outside of work, I met and had a brief conversation with Mary, a Filipino domestic helper living in Hong Kong.
As she kindly walked me through her offline remittance process, I had the following insights:
1. She receives money in Hong Kong dollar (HK$) from her employer
2. She saves the bare minimum for herself
3. She sends home the rest!
What does this mean?
Our current application highlights the output currency, Philippine Pesos, but I believe it would be more intuitive for users like Mary to think in terms of HK$ due to its alignment with their offline remittance experience and way of thinking.
How might we design this?
This final design proposal provides our users with the ability to choose which currency they'd like to input in.
To provide a better user experience...
- "You send" will always be in HK$ to not cause confusion during payment
- The app remembers the last-used payment settings after a successful transaction.