A Credit Card Management Application
Project Overview
What is metter app?
Metter is a holistic platform for all your credit cards. With metter, you can monitor and manage the activity of multiple credit cards, track the billing dates, check the credit score and so much more.
Tools
Figma, Invision
Duration
10 weeks
My role
UX, UI
Design Process
Discover
Research
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Assumptions
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Interviews
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Affinity Map
Define
Persona
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Experience Map
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User stories
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Information architecture
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Task Flow
Develop
Sketches
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Wireframes
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User Testing
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Brand Development
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UI Library
Deliver
Hi Fidelity
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Marketing Website
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Multi Platform
Discover
Research
Objective: The goal of research is to conduct research surrounding our topic of Credit Card Management to investigate our problem space. This should include quantitative and qualitative research. We will summarize these findings from second-hand sources.
Credit Card Payment Troubles
15% of UK adults have missed a payment completely. The major reason has accounted due to the mismanagement of the cards. 75% have mentioned that the management of multiple credit cards is difficult.
People in the age group between 25 and 34 years account for the largest chunk of UK credit card debt. And, those between the ages of 45 and 54 are more likely to be feeling the pinch, seeing their financial debt as a heavy burden.
The most common frequency of missing a payment was once (18 percent), but 17 percent said they had skipped one two to four times, and another 7 percent said they had five or more overdue payments.
72 percent of all cardholders have neglected at least one card payment. There are multiple reasons for the negligence such as insufficient funds or forgetting the bill date.
Reasons for missed payments
22 percent said they had skipped one two to four times.
Skipped
60% said that the most common reason was forgetting
Forgot
71 percent said that they were too busy to track their credit cards
Too busy
11 percent said that they were traveling and missed the payments
Traveling
35 percent said that they could not keep track of their payments
Tracking difficulty
Common troubles from research
Credit Card Owners find it very difficult to manage multiple credit cards from different banks
Credit Card Owners are annoyed because they tend to miss paying their bills very often
Credit Card Owners are helpless because their poor credit score is causing a hindrance in getting loans
Interviews
About the Interviewees
Interviewee 1
She is a 39-year-old working professional who is using 3 credit cards. She has been using her first credit card for over 15 years now. She mentions that it was difficult to understand how a credit card works in the initial years and how on every month, she has memorized 10th as paying the bill of one credit card.
Interviewee 2
He is a 31-year-old working professional who is also a tech enthusiast. He has been using 4 different credit cards. Lately, he has realized that managing multiple credit cards can be challenging as he tends to miss the due dates and then bear with the consequences which he finds really frustrating.
Interviewee 3
She is a 26-year-old business owner. She has been using 3 credit cards and finds it challenging to go through different apps for different bank accounts given the user experience of different apps is overwhelming. She is looking for a mainstream way to manage all her credit cards together.
Affinity Mapping
Behaviours
“Mainly, I keep my credit cards to build a credit history. I come from a country where debt is prevailing and I want to have a good credit score.”
“One of the reasons I have is to break down larger purchases. Next is how I get cashback and incentives”
“I was not good at organizing. When the payments were supposed to go out, I happened to forget them”
“I use my credit card for bigger expenses. Bigger purchases give me more points”
Motivations
“I have never really seen my credit score. It is hard to find where to check. I am quite conscious of not exceeding the limit.”
“I would prefer to have a simple app where I do not have to enter password everytime. It is confusing.”
“The opportunity to have a small wallet to manage all my expenses and to have better control in monitoring”
“I think a rule of thumb is to ensure you pay your bills on time, which does not always happen.”
Pain points
“That’s a problem with using multiple credit cards. There will come a time where you are doomed to miss your bills. And that has affected my score.”
“It was a messy situation to know how much money I am using. Until this January, I started using Splitwise and I manually enter all my spendings.”
“It’s one thing to not have money to pay the bills. But if you have money and despite that you miss paying, nothing is more annoying than that.”
“Sometimes, I differ the payment by a week if I do not have enough money. And then I miss paying altogether after a week.”
Common problem themes
#1
Organization of different credit cards
Having different apps for different bank accounts, and then going through different user interfaces, make people frustrated as well as lazy to follow these cumbersome processes.
#2
Tracking expenses of different credit cards
People find it difficult to track all their expenses and to make sure they remember all the payments that they are making on their credit cards so that they do not end up as a defaulter.
#3
Maximize the potential of all the credit cards
People are not able to completely maximize the potential of credit cards and what are their offerings. They do not know how to check their credit score and feel uninformed about their credit cards.
How might we?
How might we help credit card owners manage multiple credit cards effectively and easily so that they don’t end up in financial troubles pertaining to their credit cards?
Define
Persona
After completing my research and interviews, I decided to create a persona that will showcase the pain points, goals and behaviors of my target user groups. This persona will represent my target users.
About
Jacob is a Senior Software Engineer working in an IT company in London for the past 7 years. He owns 4 credit cards that he uses for multiple reasons such as rewards, traveling, home loan, and everyday shopping.
Age: 31
Occupation: Senior Software Engineer
Education: M.S, Bachelor of Technology
Family: Married (wife)
Location: London, UK
Goals and motivations
-Wants to use his credit cards to get good points and rewards.
– Planning to buy a home for which he needs to have a good credit score.
– Wants to pay his credit card bills on time so that he does not end up being a defaulter
Behaviours
– Uses his credit card for everyday purchases like shopping, car, groceries, etc.
– Has a dedicated credit card for traveling which gives him access to lounge, air ticket
– Uses different apps for different bank’s credit cards which is cumbersome
Pain points
– Finds it extremely difficult to manage multiple credit cards and their billing dates
– Has missed his credit card payment 3-4 times in the last 6 months and is extremely upset about it
– Annoyed with managing and tracking different due dates of his credit cards.
– Gets frustrated in using different bank apps for different credit cards
Credit Card Usage
Traveling, shopping, socializing, dining, car loan, appliances, mobile phone, groceries
Personality
Witty, Confident, Go-getter
Experience Mapping
This is the current mapping of my persona’s journey. This will help me as a designer to empathize with my persona and identify the key challenges/pain points in their current journey with managing different credit cards.
Key solutions to focus on
After understanding the current journey of my persona and mapping their emotions at different stages in their journey, I was able to identify three key areas where I can help users with the design intervention.
#1
Monitor activity
The first solution is to monitor the activity and transaction of different credit cards in a clear manner. Users should be able to check their due dates and credit limits. The trends in this section will show the split of their spendings on different categories.
#2
Manage multiple cards
In managing multiple cards, the users will get to pay their credit cards as well as manage multiple aspects such as offers and subscriptions. They can view their statements, freeze their cards and tips on maximizing the use of the cards.
#3
Check Credit Score
This is a very important solution as most of the users are completely unaware of their credit score. Not only this feature will enable the user to check their credit score but also to see the tips to improve the score and factors affecting the score.
Information Architecture
Information architecture is the most interesting stage as this is where the inception comes into existence. After identifying the key solutions, my next task was to design the information architecture. The solution below is the result of multiple iterations.
Task flow
I created multiple user stories that I grouped into epics. My idea for the task flow is for the user to be able to use the entire app which is why in this task flow, the user will sign up, monitor their activity of the cards, manage their cards and check their credit score.
Task Flow with the information architecture
This is a breakdown of task flow with respect to the information architecture. This helps me to start brainstorming on the screen designs and the content that each screen will have.
Develop
Sketches
Wireframing
UI Library
Atoms & Molecules
Deliver
App Interface
Quick and easy sign up with fun interactions
Just scan. And see how we customise your credit card.
Monitor activity and transactions on your credit cards
Redeem the rewards you never knew you had
And finally, check your credit score
Product Marketing Website
Takeaways
From the beginning of this project, I knew how much love and dedication I would give it because I have a particular interest in solving financial problems and bring ease to the lives of people., I’ve learned that it is not enough to ask the user their opinion on a subject; inducing them to describe their actions and behaviour is much more valuable. Open-ended questions generate vital insights from the user’s perspective. The interview is not a conversation; it is an opportunity to listen and observe what the user is saying and doing. When designing for iOS, the Human Interface Guidelines have a set of proven recommendations that can be used, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel to optimise our design.