Lydia — a mobile payment app redesign
Lydia is a popular mobile app among French millennials to send and receive money instantly from friends. This is at least what the app is known for so far. But for the past few years, Lydia has been adding features with a goal to replace cash, check and even your debit card to be a single stop for all your payments, online and offline.
The problem: the core feature is so strong that new features are barely known/used by existing users and transitioning from a “social-payment-between-friends” app to a “full-mobile-payment” app requires a different level of trust.
As a heavy user of Alipay and WeChat myself when I travel to China, I have always wondered when mobile payment will eventually take off in France. So I took this redesign challenge as a way to rethink how I would like to use mobile payment with Lydia.
Research
I use Lydia since 2016 but at a very random frequency, so I decided to reach out to 12 friends individually to know how they use the app. More specifically, I would like to know :
- What motivates them to use Lydia?
- How much do they know about Lydia’s new features?
- Would they be ready to pay with their phone?
You can find details of all interviews here (in French), below my key findings.
New features remain largely unknown
- Most interviewees use only one feature on Lydia : pay and receive money from friends. Only 3 people claims they have used Lydia for other purposes (mobile payment and money pot), even among some power users.
2. Most interviewees admit they just use the first 2 tabs (out of 4) in Lydia (send money and see transactions). While simplicity is praised by users — one even called Lydia’s homepage as no-brainer -the more right you go in the app, the more cluttered it seems to be. Some features are so hidden that they are hard to find.
New features are struggling for monetization
1) The new value proposition is still fuzzy.
While the use case of Lydia has been straightforward so far, I didn’t get what “MetaBank”, aka their new tagline, means at first. Sure the app has been adding a lot of banking related features (instant loan, joint account) since last year so it’s clearly going to a direction where it tries to combine common banking services — without being a bank — and an universal payment solution by integrating every existing payment option. But all these features are also confusing and add complexity to the product.
2) People are not seeing enough value in Lydia premium.
I have no idea about their paid users / free users ratio, but I’m still quite surprised that out of my 12 friends, only 3 know the offer, 1 actually tried it (when it was free) and no one said he/she is willing to pay for Lydia premium. The main reason is most premium features are already fulfilled by their (mobile) banks for free and the remaining are not essential. No “wow” feature worthing the price, even at 2,99€/month. As a user of N26 myself, I couldn’t agree more.
The need to build trust beyond friends
- Lydia is still associated to small amounts between friends.
The good word of mouth remains key for Lydia to sustain its rapid growth. But the trust needed to use Lydia (send money to friends) is pretty low because 1) you know who you are sending money and how it works (you have either received money before or been asked to send money by friends) 2) the risk is low because the average exchanged amount is pretty small. But when it comes to a higher amount (let’s say > 100€), several interviewees mentioned they prefer to use their bank cards because Lydia is “not a bank after all, if something wrong should happen, I wouldn’t be confident”.
2) People don’t keep (big) money on Lydia. To pay with Lydia, you can use your money on Lydia (for most people, it’s money they’ve received from other Lydia users) or from your linked debit card. Out of 12, only 1 interviewee says he is comfortable to have a Lydia balance > 100€, while most people say they would transfer any money > 50€ from Lydia balance to their bank account because there are no clear benefits to leave money in the app: the Lydia balance does not make money (interest), makes your purchases cheaper (incentives) or more convenient.
3) Random frequency, unless used as a payment solution
Reimbursing friends is an useful but a sporadic use case. Most interviewees use Lydia 2 or 3 times a month. Some power users can go up to 2–3 time a week on average. Still, there is not regularity.
But 2 persons mentioned something interesting: they used to use Lydia QR code payment several times a week to pay their groceries at Franprix (a grocery store chain) and claimed they would use elsewhere if possible (Franprix is the only name mentioned). High frequency & low amount use cases like supermarkets are actually a good way to create new payment habits.
Ok, let’s recap :
- Lydia is still mostly used between friends for small transactions
- New features are not well known or used
- Mobile payment is promising but not widely accepted
- Lydia premium is not perceived as a premium offer with clear added value versus free plan or other existing banking services
Redesign suggestions
1. A better overview of different accounts
Currently, you need to swipe to the third tab to see your Lydia account balance. This can be confusing for new users to find the money they’ve received. Several people mentioned they “forget” money they have in Lydia as it’s not so obviously displayed. I decided to add the balance on top of transactions history in the second tab. This UI pattern is familiar to people as it’s how information is displayed on most banking apps.
Key changes
- Navbar: currently at the top and possible to swipe between tabs. I moved the navbar to the bottom because it’s easier to reach, especially on bigger screen phones. As a result, swiping between tabs is no longer needed, you can swipe between your different accounts instead.
- Don’t make user think: the current tab icon is confusing and looks like a conversation bubble. I replaced it with a more explicit icon (+ label below).
Another example : You can currently see your monthly expenses and revenues by clicking on the arrow on the right of each month but words (“delta”, “volume”) are not super user-friendly, so I replace them with more common words.
2. A better discovery of key features
Organizing all the features available in Lydia was quite challenging as there are (too) many. Beside the main Lydia account, you can also create joint-accounts to share expenses or make an instant loan. Unlike paying friends for drinks or organizing a money-pot, these features introduce a certain level of recurrence, hence could lead to better user retention. I decided to regroup them under the “accounts” tab, along with Lydia main account.
Key changes
- Better discovery of key features: joint-account and instant loan are now visible from the main Lydia account. You just need to swipe left/right to jump between different accounts.
- Separate features when needed : money pot can be curently found in account section. But for me, the feature is mostly used in specific events (birthday, farewell…) to collect money for others, thus can’t not be consired as a personal account with reular operations. I decided to exlude it from acount tab.
- Less cluttered interface: each account has now a dedicated page with all transactions history and balance. It also gives more context to new users to create a new account.
3. Push adoption for mobile payment
Become an everyday payment solution is the next big challenge for Lydia and as an app, mobile payment is the key. You have 2 ways to pay with your phone today : either via QR code (used by WeChat or Alipay) or via NFC like Apple pay or Google Pay. Lydia can do both. While I understand advantages with QR code (cheap and quick to implement, that’s why millions of small businesses in China adopt it), NFC is a way much better option in France. It’s super convenient to use, more secure than contactless card and compatible with most existing card readers. But payment cards are not going to disappear anytime soon (you still need one to use Apple or Google Pay).
Key changes
- A new “cards” tab: Lydia’s mission is to make payment easier, that’s why it deserves a section to manage all things related to it. I called the sections “cards” because even mobile payment could be the future, payment cards (physical or virtual) are still the gateway.
- Popularize mobile payement : until 3 months ago, I didn’t even know that I can already use Apple Pay anywhere that accept contactless cards in France. Beyond the fear of new technologies as always, mobile payment is still unheard or misunderstood by many. This is not just free ads for Apple Pay but helpful for users.
- Follow the natural user flow: there are a lot of ways to prompt user to try mobile payment other than a traditional banner. An use case could be when users receive their first payment : let them know that they can set up Apple or Google pay with a Lydia virtual card and use money right away in physical shops.
4. Make settings great again
For an app praised for its simplicity, the current settings section in Lydia is extremely crowded. I tried to make everything visible in a single page without sacrificing the usability.
Key changes
- Regrouping: similar features are grouped into a single category (ex: “how to use”, “get help”, “write a suggestion”, “give 5 stars to Lydia” are now under “help”). This may generate one more click but give much more space and clarity.
- Highlight Lydia premium: As odd as it is, Lydia premium is just another feature among others in current design. I move it to the top and add some contrast.
- Organic discovery for less used features: This is more bold attempt of how to display some less used (useful) features. It follows the principles of creator of WeChat (which remains quite simple to use despite being a mega-app that could do almost anything) to focus on organic adoption of new features and not to push every new feature at all cost.
5. Add value to Lydia Premium
The current paid plan has not much to differentiate itself from existing services offered by mobile banks (for free) and some “paid” features are already free to use (French IBAN or contactless payment). I believe Lydia could do a better job by highlighting some unique features.
Key changes
- Universal card: payment cards are not disappearing soon and we now often have several cards. So having one card to control all of them and even change debit source retroactively is really powerful
- Mobile insurance: including mobile insurance is a bold assumption and will impact the pricing (the option is currently offered alone at 4,29€/month) but I found insurance (travel, medical …) is often associated to a premium card so it could make sense for a mobile payment company like Lydia.
Last words
Mobile payment still has a long way to go before being mainstream. I did a poll a month ago asking why mobile payment is still not “a thing” in France. I thought security would be a major concern but it comes out that convenience is the number 1 issue. It’s true that contactless cards have made payment simple & quick but they are also limited (30€ in France) and not very secure (you card can still be used even it’s declared stolen !). For me, the true reason that I’m still carrying a payment card with me it’s because it never runs out of battery !
Thanks if you have read so far ! Let me know if you have any thoughts, I’ll be happy to see 😉
