ZeroCash

Design Project

An Application Design for Algerian Merchant Transactions

Mobile Application Design

9/1/2022- 9/30/22



I worked on this project as part of a design team. Main areas of responsibility:

  • Content Research

  • UX analysis (flows and persona)

  • Application Design

  • Preliminary Sketches

  • Lo-fidelity Prototyping (basic flow and interactions)

  • Style Guide Creation

  • Hi-fidelity Prototyping


Summary:

This Project was a team development of an application concept for a startup company called ZeroCash. ZeroCash is targeting a goal of being a payment system for merchants and vendors in Algeria. Facilitating transactions between customers, the merchants and the banks. I worked as part of a development team to provide a high fidelity prototype by the end of the month.


The Problems and Solutions:

The main challenge of this project was getting ambiguity from the company itself. During the course of our development there were two main issues that would arise throughout the process.


First and foremost, the information provided by the company was less targeted than we hoped. While the discussion of the application was for use on the merchant side of a transaction the interviews and real-world information provided all focused on customer side input. Additionally, the interviews were more based about the frustration citizens felt with their banking system and less to do with any transactions.


To solve this my team developed an affinity map while trying to empathize with a merchant that would be dealing with these same issues. This turned out well and it took a shift in perspective to really try and put ourselves into the shoes of the merchant. For example, if a customer doesn't like to deal with the inefficiencies of the bank (waiting all day for a withdrawal). As a merchant how can we help finalize a transaction outside of cash? And how do we complete this transaction quickly and consistently?




Our second issue arose from shifting desires of the client. We held weekly meetings to discuss our progress and review deliverables however it would be during this time that the company would ask for features or flows that were previously unmentioned.


While this is common in a project that is in its infancy it seemed as though the company did not entirely know what the application would do in detail. There was a target goal in the end, but it became clear that there was an inherent risk of scope creep on this design project.


This was probably the biggest issue that came to light during the project, but because we were able to work out our next steps in design during each meeting we were able to overcome these obstacles. We worked methodically. Following a basic design practice that would give us time to develop each stage of the project in a clear way. Starting with Userflows and affinity maps, really diving into the core issue this application would try to solve.




Next we developed sketches and worked out what information the user may want to see and outlining the use of each screen.



Then we went to work developing a preliminary low fidelity prototype using our sketches. This review meeting was probably the most difficult as the client didn't seem to care for the design at this stage. We decided to overhaul the style guide to make the modern looking final product the client was hoping for. While this was our intention from the beginning, this was difficult to convey to the client that the low fidelity prototype would not be the way the final product would look.



But we took the feedback in stride and divided the high fidelity prototype into sections that each of us could complete in the given timeframe. My main input was the reporting page.


Using things I had learned from my time creating the MagniFi project I understood how I wanted the reporting side to look. It was incredibly engaging to try and produce a prototype that would be flexible in its representation of the data. I wanted to make the view of the data switch between different timeframes to help explain how the data visualization could be applied.


This tactic would eventually culminate in a product the customer enjoyed.

Reflection:

All in all, our final result turned out quite well. The visual changes that we made were substantial from our initial sketches but it all came together in a cohesive manner. The final product was also incredibly well received by the client for our final preview. She was very impressed by the features and visual aesthetic we were able to produce.