Reminder: Don’t compare with others just compare with yourself

julia warmuth
Nov 6 · 7 min read

If you interested in seeing how my wireframing skills increased or just want to push your own ego a bit, you should definitely read this this article or just scroll down to the lo-fis to laugh a bit. But hey, shouldn’t we all be able to laugh about our selfs?

When I look at this lo-fis I created in the very beging without really knowing what protoytpe, lo-fis, wireframes or mockups are, I gonna tell you one of the most important things I’ve learned through this (thanks to my lovely Italian gluten-intolerant teacher Lolla):

Don’t compare your self with other, aim just always for being better than yourself yesterday!

And for everyone who looks at this: I promise you I’m better now ;)

Task

The task given was to build a lo-fi paper prototype for a banking app. The fictive customer is called Wholesale Bank, which figured out that some of their clients have troubles with paying with credit card during their travels. They assume this problems are caused by broken credit cards, ATMs which not accept credit cards, restaurant and shops you can’t pay by credit card.

To make their customers happier they want to provide a solution, so that their clients can pay easily abroad while having a reliable and easy paying experience like they would have when they use their card at home.

Competitor Research and User Research

The competitors I had a look at

So I started (I’m a bit proud of my younger me: intuitive already back than) with some competitor research. I had a look at what Paypal, Apple Pay or Google Pay are already offering. They all promise: The easiest way you ever paid. While Paypal actually was just made for only safe online payments or to transfer easily money among friends, they meanwhile also offer the NFC function for your credit card. But basically all of them are just an extension of your actual banking app / account and do not offer special travel features.

This in mind I created a small interview guide and talked to 5 people about their experiences with paying and banking while traveling. All of my interviewees were Germans, I tell you that because it’s becoming important again for my learnings.

I asked them about their paying behaviour in general, how they prefer to pay (cash, card, online), and if there are any situation where they tend choose other payment methods as they actually would. I also asked about their paying behaviour while traveling and if there are any differences. Furthermore we talked about virtual payment like PayPal and about the pain points of the payment methods (both at home and while traveling) and about paying options via NFC and their feelings about this method.

Looking on this research and interviews now, I definitely can say, that I was just scratching on the surface and I would have needed to asked why? way more often, than I did (probably just 1 time instead of 5 times).

Here my results of the interviews:

  • The most annoying point is the length of the payment process, even those who prefer cashless payment complained (4/5 interviewees)
  • Reason they don’t pay everything by card is the lack of restaurants and shops offering that services, especially on the countryside (3/5)
  • Danger of card abuse while traveling (1/5)
  • Broken credit card while traveling (0/5) (I asked that because of the assumptions the client did)
  • Fees you need to pay for withdrawing in foreign countries (2/5)
  • Paypal not just for only shopping but also for transfer money (2/5)
  • Concerning about NFC payment with smartphones (3/5) (“it’s unreliable and cards are easier to block in emergency situations”)
  • Would use NFC payment if it’s actually faster than the current process (2/5)

Problem and Requirements for the Prototype

During my research I realised that the product I’m building not just be needed easy to user for the customers of the bank, it’s also required that there are very low entry barriers for the sellers (shops, restaurants, etc.). This came to my mind because people actually said “yeah I would use my card or NFC more often but shops on the countryside just not offering this options”.

To sharpen the scope of my problem to solve, I decided that the product need solve the following problems:

  1. Trustworthy and reliable
  2. Easy to use
  3. Low entry barriers for customers and sellers
  4. Fast and secure way to transfer money
  5. Security for emergency situations

My prototype actually is just covering point 2–5, because I guess that trustworthy actually is a result of the image and marketing of the bank it self and could be maybe supported by the color code (probably a serious and calm blue). Yeeeeah, without knowing what a MVP (Minimal Viable Product) is, I already kind of defined it.

Idea and Lo-Fi Prototype / Wireframes

So now ladies and gentlemen prepare yourself to see the most amazing lo-fis I’ve ever did!

JOKING!!!!!. As you can see I not even knew the difference between prototype and wire flow. You remember the task: Create a Lo-Fi Prototype. What did I do? I presented a wire flow. But I can assure you, that if you ask me now to do a paper prototype I gonna provide you one.

Basically my idea was it to give the user the option to use the app as a wireless NFC based payment option like G-Pay or Apple Pay, that you can pay with the app even if the shop is not part of the Wholesale Bank program, but accept cash and or NFC.

Furthermore the app gives you the option to transfer money like Paypal but without the need of internet or to exchange personal data like email-addresses just through a double verification via an SMS code, because many people don’t have internet access while traveling. The only requirement would be that seller and payer both are signed up at the Wholesale Bank App aka V-Pay (no need to have your bank account there).

As you can also see I started with Touch ID to open the app, that it feels save for the client. The app it self is connected with my credit card and my bank account and I can send and request money via V-Pay or pay via NFC and Credit Card. Of course I can also check all my activities going on on accounts and I’m able to see my past activity via credit card. So money flows are always seeable. And if there’s something strange you can instantly block your account.

If you diced to pay via the app, you just need to enter a four digit code which is individual sent via SMS to the seller via SMS and you can transfer money. So no annoying email spelling anymore. You see! Even if the Wireframes looks everything than intuitiv when I look at them now, I already tried to minimise the effort and pain for my users back then.

And of course users can also request money with that V-Pay, so there’s no extra app and effort for sellers.

Learnings and Retro

My key learnings from this project back than:

  • prototype never ever covers all use cases, actually it’s just one user journey (Smart giiirl, you just did the MVP and created a Happy Path!)
  • 5 interviews are to less to do a proper research (Wouldn’t agree with that today. 5 interviews are totally enough but maybe I could have run a survey first to get a bigger audience rather than doing just interviews)
  • The user research results are definitely biased, because the app is supposed to be used by mostly Americans and I interviewed Germans which all said “I love paying by card”. And trust me it’s not normal that 5 GERMAN people say, they love paying by card
  • Yo don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time, just find your niche within your competitors and adjust it to your needs (I still agree on that!)

Hey and you know what? When I’m looking to this stuff I did there without any proper knowledge about UX Processes, Principles and all the stuff I know now. I can definitely say I’m surprised how much I did right already back then, but I also have to smile about how much I did wrong. And I would admit that there was a lot to increase at this point. And at this point I just want to remind you and me how important it is sometimes to look back to stuff you created weeks, month or years ago and just remind yourself:

Don’t compare yourself with all the crazy talented people out there, who are doing their jobs since years and trained hard — compare yourself just with an older version of you and you will realise that you getting better everyday!

Hope I made you smile a bit! And if you have any thoughts on that comparing thing (I know it’s hard, I also tend to compare my self with others all the time). Let me know in the comments. :) Julia

julia warmuth

Written by

UX Designerin, glitter fairy, adventurer and always trying hard to keep my head in the clouds — Favourite answer: WHY?

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