Project Overview
The remaining 4 weeks of my UX Design course were dedicated to the internship. I was assigned as a UX Design intern for Sensorit, a deep technology startup innovating in the automotive industry in Cape Town. I was placed in a group of 4 people, where I was the only female designer.
Roles & responsibilities
For this project, everyone in the team acted as a UX designer and researcher, so we collaborated on the creation of the app, as well as the final case study presentation. Half of the team was in South Africa and the other half was in America. Just like I did during the BootCamp, I took the initiative to coordinate team meetings that would work for everyone, keeping meeting minutes and a tracker for our progress, and contacting the client to get more information.
Initial Research
During the first week of the internship, the team met with the CEO of the company. We were able to introduce ourselves and also find out more about our future project.
After this, we conducted some research about Sensorit itself while awaiting further instruction from their team. But to our surprise, the project was not about their solutions in the automotive industry, but rather another product they were hoping to launch - a digital wallet for the unbanked to participate in the digital economy.
From further research, we were able to find out that their aim was to build a product that would reduce cash handling in low to middle-income communities. This would enable merchants, employers, and other users to receive and process digital payments. Some key findings are summarized below. These were very helpful in understanding more about the targeted demographic and the type of digital wallet we could provide.
- User Persona
Atandwa is a 29-year-old restaurant owner who wants to expand his business and give his kids a better life.
Task goals
- Provide the best work environment to his employees
- Have a balance between his work life and family life
Experience Goals
- Efficiency to make payments
- Easy to use
Pain points
- Low proficiency with technology
- Not having many options to pay employees that don't have bank accounts
- Possibility of missed payments or incorrect amounts
- Competitor Analysis
Creating a user journey turned out to be a complicated task given that we had limited access to people who could install similar apps given the location. As such, the best strategy was to do a more thorough competitor analysis to understand how they operate and what makes Sensorit's product different. These companies included:
- M-Pesa - Mobile phone-based money transfer service, payments, and micro-financing service.
- Yoco - Build business tools and financial services that work for entrepreneurs. Accessible payments for small businesses.
- Ikhoka - One of the fastest-growing fintech companies in Africa.
- MTN-Momo - A mobile money solution! Services like money transfers, buying mobile phone top-ups, purchasing goods, or paying bills.
- Brainstorming
I was responsible for the landing and profile pages. For the brainstorming stage, I started by writing down some key basic features that could be added and I did some extra research looking into my bank account mobile version.
I also wrote down the objectives of the app and important points about my user persona to keep in mind before sketching some of the ideas I had in mind. This allowed me to connect ideas together and develop new ones.
One of the main challenges in this project was communicating with Sensorit to get information about the project and the scope. It was rather difficult when we had to wait to receive the brand style guide to start our work. Even getting access to the beta version was complicated. However, this made the team aware of using every resource we were given to the fullest and it allows us to craft a client brief where we could ask the right questions to the client.
One of my personal challenges was to understand how a digital wallet would work if employees did not have bank accounts. It was hard to find answers without being able to test out the competitors' apps given my location. Nonetheless, I took a closer look at the current problems with cash handling, and I also thought about the user persona in every design decision I made.
Once I got access to the beta version, I decided to focus my efforts on creating the landing page and the profile pages. I aimed to have a smooth flow from one page to another by keeping the designs simple, with the use of icons and playing with negative space.
- Number of FlowsThe aim was to reach a middle ground where there are enough user flows without unnecessary features. Thus, the app would provide the basic features needed by the targeted demographic.
- ComplexityGiven that the app will mainly target low and middle-class communities, the app will be low in complexity to ensure everyone who is not tech-savvy can still use it. This translates into simpler and smooth designs!
- Ease of UseWe want to provide a seamless experience from one page to another → this means creating logical steps without clogging the UI with more features than we can count.
