CONTENTS
Introduction
Timeline
Dec 2022—May 2023 (6 months alongside other projects)
Platforms
Web & Mobile App
Problem
Context
Impact of the problem
Piled up customer support tickets
In an average quarter, about 200 frustrated users contacted customer support for assistance regarding payment issues and transaction statuses. The ticket volumes tend to increase and pile up during repayment days, exhausting our team of 3 support agents.
High churn rate
Users were churning at the rate of 24.3% presumably caused by a lack of trust in the platform.
Goal
Research
We conducted a few user research activities to gain deeper insights on the problem and understand users’ needs.
Sifting through negative reviews
To properly understand the problem and our users’ pain points, I used Appbot to go through negative reviews posted on the App and Play Stores.
Key insights
Users experience lots of uncertainty regarding the status of their payments in the event of an unsuccessful investment.
Users are frustrated by the response and resolution time taken by the customer support team to address their concerns.
The above-mentioned problems are causing them to lose trust on Tyke and makes them perceive the platform as shady and unreliable.
Gathering inputs from customer support
We discussed with our customer support team and reviewed tickets raised regarding payment errors and queries on transaction statuses to identify patterns in our users’ pain points and needs. The meeting was quite a revelation and uncovered some interesting insights.
Key insights
Errors occur during both the debit and credit processes with the user’s bank account. Many a times, delayed repayments are caused by issues also originating from user’s registered bank account.
Most errors occur when users try completing their payment through UPI or net banking method.
Users often blame Tyke or the payment gateway for the errors they face and frequently request a payment gateway change.
Users expect an instant resolution to their payment issues, which is sometimes challenging to fulfil with our small team of 3 support agents.
Interviewing users
We sifted through customer support tickets and selected 20 users who have faced payment transaction errors. We were able to get in touch with 6 of them for in-depth interview sessions.
The goal was to gain qualitative insights into their frustrations and expectations on the current payment experience and transaction tracking.
Quotes from participants
Key insights
2 out of 6 participants stopped using Tyke after repeatedly facing payment issues.
6 out of 6 participants wanted to track their transactions through the app and website.
83% of participants said that they find it irritating to have to contact customer support and follow up with them.
67% of participants were interested in a feature that would let them make their next investment using previous earnings.
Ideation
Brainstorming for solutions
Using the insights gathered from the research phase, we kickstarted brainstorming by framing How Might We (HMW) questions and dot voting to help generate ideas and inspire creativity.
The product and tech team played a prominent role in addressing the root problems and guiding us towards feasible solutions.
After lots of back-and-forth, we figured that a potential solution is to introduce a closed digital wallet and a transaction history section. But why is this the best solution, you ask? I explain that later in solution.
Analysing our competitors
We then went on to analyse a few of our competitors to borrow inspiration and identify opportunities for a better solution.
Next, we set up a meeting with the product team and other stakeholders to determine what features would solve the problem and be feasible to implement for our wallet.
Proposing the new user flow
Keeping in mind the decisions made and the current information architecture, we tried envisioning the steps a user would take to complete an investment through our wallet.
Current User Flow
Proposed User Flow
Process
Getting down to the nitty-gritty
Before I sat down to wireframe, I wanted to comprehend how the product is actually going to work in the backend. I set up a meeting with the product team to gain a deep understanding of the different transaction types, possible transaction states, relevant data points, and user actions involved.
Wireframing
I quickly put together some low-fidelity wireframes of major screens in the flow to make sense of the layouts and placements with the intention of mobile first design. I like to use Balsamiq because its limited customisation options for elements keep me from getting too absorbed by the details. Spoiler alert: I was aiming higher than what was feasible.
Early designs & trade-offs
The Pocket card: Neubrutalist to flat design
Design trade-off in the transaction entry card
Okay, here comes the bummer. I worked on designing the transaction entries with clear status trackers and details in order to make the payment & transaction tracking experience more transparent, reliable, and trustworthy for our users.
However, due to technical constraints, it wasn’t feasible to develop from the backend as the API responses from the third-party contained limited information about the transaction.
The workaround to this constraint resulted in an increased page load time, bringing down software performance and user experience, so we had to ditch it.
Instead, we were able to implement an alternative version with fewer details, displaying simple transaction state tags and tooltips when necessary.
Solution
And here it goes! Introducing Tyke Pocket, a seamless one-click checkout for all your transactions on the platform. It went live on the 12th of May 2023.
Why a closed digital wallet?
From our brainstorming sessions, we ascertained that there’s not a lot that can be done by Tyke about the payment errors originating from a user’s bank account or their chosen payment method.
However, what we could do is lower the error volume by reducing the number of times a user pays through an error prone payment method. And this could be done by introducing a closed digital wallet — an additional layer between the user and their payment method where money can be deposited and withdrawn as desired.
Our product team decided that the wallet would be powered by digital escrow accounts in partnership with a trusted third-party financial institution to ensure reliability of the feature.
Since investment returns would be credited instantly to the wallet, users can utilise the funds for their next investment. This “re-investing cycle” could also help in lowering the frequency of payment errors and make the payment experience seamless.
Hence, we believe a closed digital wallet would significantly lower the number of payment errors, increase convenience, and establish trust.
How will this solution benefit the business?
Introducing a digital wallet would also pose multiple benefits from a business perspective such as
Cost reduction: Not only will a wallet simplify the movement of money, it would also lower transaction fees, benefiting the company’s financials.
Diversified revenue streams: Collaborating with financial institutions has the potential to generate extra revenue through customer card payments or other strategic deals.
Interest on balance: Tyke can earn interest on users’ Pocket balance through P2P lending.
User retention: Introducing a wallet could also improve retention as users are more likely to reinvest the funds accumulated in their wallet through earnings and repayments.
Seamless one-click checkout
User Onboarding
We put up a pre-launch banner to keep our users posted about what’s coming.
Post-launch, a one-time carousel introduces the user to Tyke Pocket and brief it’s functionality.
We put up a post-launch banner for a couple of weeks for users who might have skipped reading the onboarding carousel.
The Pocket card
The Pocket dashboard
Adding money to Pocket
Apart from online payments, we also decided to provide an offline option for users to add money to their Pocket using RTGS, NEFT or IMPS in case they don’t prefer to pay big amounts online.
Withdrawing funds from Pocket
Alternate checkout flows
When the Pocket has enough balance to complete an investment, users can easily invest in just one-click. But what if the balance is zero or insufficient? The user is then taken to the payment gateway to directly pay and complete their investment. In the backend, the money is instantly deposited to the Pocket and then invested.
How will users track their transactions?
With the all new transaction history page, users can view the details of all the transactions made along with a clear status tag that is updated in real-time. Transactions are sorted by newest to oldest by default.
To improve transparency and establish trust in case of uncertain transaction statuses, users can get more information through the tooltips and copy the transaction ID if needed.
Users can sort their transactions by date and filter them by transaction type and month, improving the tracking experience.
Users can receive a detailed statement of all their transactions sent to their registered email address.
Impact
Two months after the launch, we could see some promising metrics.
Interesting insights
52% of our users invested through their available Pocket balance. This contributed to the decrease in the volume of payment transaction errors.
36.2% of our users used their previous investment earnings to fund their next investment. We believe this will continue to help with retaining our users and reducing churn rate.
28% of our users added money to their Pocket and didn’t invest immediately. This led to more revenue for Tyke through P2P lending.
Future Iterations
Updating Pocket for Square
Right after we launched Pocket, we started working on Square — Tyke’s own secondary marketplace for buying and selling SARs. We took Square from vision to launch in just two months. This posed a couple of changes to Pocket as two new transaction types (buying and selling SARs) were introduced. Here’s how we represented them as transaction entries.
Making Pocket more accessible based on user feedback
A couple of months after Tyke Pocket was launched, users were sending in requests through the founders and the support team to make Pocket easier to access on the website and mobile app.
Other than the home page, if a user is on some other page on the platform, be it portfolio, campaign page, Square, etc., it takes them 3-4 clicks to get to the Pocket dashboard or view their transactions.
Here’s a peek into my design proposal to improve visibility and reduce the number of clicks to 1-2.
However, this design iteration never went live as my time at Tyke had ended before we could reach a conclusion.
Retrospect
Good designer-developer communication is key
Sometimes, constraints become known much later than we’d like. It’s all part of the designer life.
However, this time, it wasn’t so bad. I got to know that the transaction status tracker wouldn’t be feasible pretty early during the design process.
This is because we prioritised keeping the development team on the same page through quick feedback connects. Throughout the creation of Pocket, we also involved our frontend and backend developers in our design presentations to collect their inputs on feasibility. It sure saves a lot of time, effort and resources from going into vain.
Analysing feedback from all channels can be game-changing
Primary research is certainly great, but it can also incur expenses. Sometimes, utilising existing channels can also uncover interesting opportunities for improvement.
We collect our feedback by analysing conversations in our Discord community, reviews posted on the App & Play Stores, emails sent to our founders, and requests made to the support team. All this can yield valuable insights for free.
What my mentor had to say
Tushar Khurana
Chief Creative Officer at Tyke
I'm excited to endorse Rithika, a remarkable product designer I had the privilege of mentoring. What sets Rithika apart is her unwavering commitment to learning and improvement. She embraces feedback with an open mind and uses it to refine her skills, showcasing her willingness to go the extra mile to achieve excellence. She approaches challenges with a level of diligence that is both inspiring and effective, consistently delivering outcomes of the highest quality.
During her time at Tyke, she displayed remarkable growth and dedication. Rithika's intelligence, diligence, and hardworking nature set her apart, making her a valuable asset to any team.
