Redesigning "Buy now pay later" app experience 🤑
ROLE
Lead Product Designer
RESPONSIBILITY
User research & design research
Team lead
UX and UI
OWNERSHIP
Pacepay
YEAR
2020 – 2022
BACKGROUND
Pace Pay is a startup offering buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment solutions for in-store and e-commerce transactions.
This project aims to redefine and redesign the Pace Pay app to align with company objectives and improve the overall BNPL experience based on data and feedback received in the six months following the initial launch.
Here is the case study. Enjoy!
SETUP THE FOUNDATION
Defining project strategy
and business goals
Why redesign?
After six months of the product being released, we have gained significant insights into customer behavior, market needs, and challenges. This redesign aims to address these challenges and enhance the 'buy now, pay later' experience for our customers.
Project strategy
To find the ideal solutions for this project, we need to define three key aspects: What is the problem. Who is the user and what are the business objectives and KPIs.
BUSINESS OBJECTIVE AND KPI
Business Goal
After multiple meetings with stakeholders and the CEO, we established the primary objective of this redesign: to increase repeat transactions and reduce customer acquisition costs.
Our design goal is to enhance user engagement within the app, making Pace Pay the top choice for shopping and the preferred 'buy now, pay later' payment method. The new app iteration is designed to make the shopping experience, particularly when using the 'pay later' feature, more enjoyable.
RESEARCH
Determine what should be retained and what requires improvement from the existing product.
QUANITATIVE RESEARCH
We sought to answer key questions such as, "What challenges are users encountering with the Pace app?", "What features do they like?", and "What isn't working?"
To address these questions, we conducted a series of user research activities, including:
- User observations
- Email questionnaires sent to hundreds of users from various demographics and locations
- In-depth interviews with a select group of active users
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH & DATA ANALYSIS
We collaborated with the data team to analyze user activity, profiles, and behavior. This dataset provided valuable insights into user behavior and buying patterns, forming the foundation for our user personas.
We compiled this feedback and presented it to the stakeholders. These insights are invaluable not only to the product team but also to other departments within the organization.
RESEARCH ANALYSIS
Defining user persona and
identify problems
CREATING USER PERSONA
Using the insights gained from data analysis, we developed proto-user personas and validated them through user interviews with individuals fitting these profiles.
This process resulted in realistic user personas that serve as valuable guidelines for exploring optimal solutions during the ideation process.
We then used these personas as our focus during ideation and user-journey mapping.
KEY HOLISTIC PROBLEMS
Our user research revealed several recurring issues:
- Users lack the motivation to open the app unless they're making an in-store transaction.
- Many users are unaware that they can use the Pace app for online purchases, leading to a significant loss of potential transactions.
We've consolidated these initial problems and hypotheses, which will guide our design exploration and ideation in the next phase.
THE QUESTION
How can we organically boost users activity and increase transactions within the app?
FINDING THE SOLUTION
Design sprint, design exploration
and ideation
DESIGN SPRINT
I conducted a 2-day design sprint with stakeholders from different departments to align our findings and explore design solutions.
Bringing together various stakeholders helps achieve alignment and consensus on the problem definition, potential solutions, and the way we shape the product forward. It also ensures that all voices are heard and considered in the decision-making process.
During the sprint, we engaged in several activities, including:
- Customer journey mapping
- Defining the problem statement
- Ideation
- Sketching
- Wireframing
EXPLORATION, RESEARCH, IDEATION
Now it's time for us to dive into design research and experimentation. We'll start with competitor analysis, visual research, features exploration, and information architecture.
This divergent process aims to gather as much inspiration and as many references as possible, building on the insights from our previous findings.
DESIGNING NEW DESIGN SYSTEM
In parallel, we decided to develop a new design system to complement the redesigned app. The previous design system was disorganized and couldn't keep up with new features as the product grew rapidly.
To avoid similar issues in the future, we formulated three core design principles to guide us:
- Hyperlocal: The design system should be adaptable to different countries, cultures, and languages.
- Flexible: It should be easily adjustable to cover various use cases and be implementable across different products (websites, mobile applications, plugins, etc.).
- Scalable: As we continue to grow, the design system must be scalable to accommodate future features and use cases.
THE FINAL RESULT
Launching Pace App 2.0
Personalization and recommendations
We redesign the whole information architecture and the homepage of the app to give a new experience with personalized contents (Store, deals, etc) and recommendations based on user preferences and behavior, encouraging more engagement.
We also simplifying the flow and informationarchitecture by remove footer and move some menu into the homepage. With this new design the app will focus on shopping experience and stores discovery.
Enhance user experience
01. Store page
Throughout our research, we received consistent feedback about users facing challenges while attempting to shop online through the Pace app. This was because of lack of information and a confusing UX structure in the previous design.
To overcome this issue, we revamped the store page, offering more clear information and better structure, thus improving the online shopping experience.
02. In-Store Payment
To make in-store payment with Pace, user has to scan the QR code to splitting the payment before making the purchase. Often done during peak hours and crowded times, our research reveal that users tend to skip reading the content and proceed with the payment anyway. This has resulted in misunderstandings and misinformation.
To fix this problem, we've streamlined the content, displaying only essential information, simplifying the scanning process, and aiming to provide users with more payment-related details.
03. Sign up process
The sign-up process can be challenging as users need to navigate through multiple steps involving identity verification and risk assessment. This long process often leads to frustration among users.
To smooth this process, we redesigned the entire journey by creating a simplified interface and incorporating visual aids to guide users through each stage. Additionally, we introduced clearer information and an extensive FAQ section to address common queries and concerns users might have.
Gamification and Rewards
Pace Perks
We introduce some gamified elements such as rewards and Pace Perks to app usage or transactions. This hopefully will incentivize users to interact more frequently and conduct transactions.
Pace Cards
We also enhance the Pace Card features to make it easier for user to purchase and automatically split their payment and get bigger rewards.
Impact
The new design has increase the online transaction by 18% and user spend time in app jumping almost 50% with most the activity is mainly in the homepage, merchant and voucher page.