Design Thinking Exercise
We had an assignment to think about how to solve a problem for Whole Bank, a fictional company. Whole Bank started operations in Framingham, a small town in Massachusetts, United States. Their goal is to offer a different way to save and manage money by giving customers innovative options such as virtual currencies.
For this exercise, I’ll be following the design thinking process:
Whole Bank’s Problem:
Whole Bank believes that customers who travel abroad struggle with inconveniences while using their debit and credit cards to make payments, including point of sale purchases.
Empathize:
As a traveler myself, I know that I encounter difficulties with transaction fees and managing currency conversions, but to properly execute this task, I wanted to survey some people to find out what other problems they might be having that I wouldn’t be aware of. Five people were surveyed and asked the following questions:
- Do you travel internationally, and how frequently?
- How do you pay for things when traveling — cash, credit, debit, etc?
- Have you ever lost a wallet or method of payment while traveling?
- What is difficult for you with respect to managing finances and paying for things when traveling or away from home?
- Do you use virtual currencies like Bitcoin or similar?
The wonderful handwriting above, in summary, shows that people have trouble with converting currency, tracking their spending, and not knowing what kind of fees they will be charged on the transactions. Additionally, two of my five respondents have lost their payment methods while traveling. Whole Bank would do well to add a feature that lets people pay for things with a mobile app.
Define:
Using the answers from respondents, the problem definition statement is:
How might we provide a payment method in our mobile banking app that lets people pay for things internationally without the need for a physical card at any point of purchase — whether online or in person?
Ideate:
Next, I spent time figuring out a solution to the problem. I started by mapping out the customer journey and researching payment methods to find one that would work for everyone. I thought about all the ways one could pay and discovered that Bitcoin could solve this issue very easily.
Prototype:
After solution sketching, I put together a paper prototype, low fidelity so that I didn’t spend too much time working on the wrong solution. The paper prototype I came up with would next be taken to the bank to determine if it meets expectations.
Process flow:
Customers will log onto the banking app by using a username/password or fingerprint authentication. Once logged in, they will visit an account overview page which will detail their current balances in USD and in their Bitcoin wallet. From this screen, if they want to send a payment to someone, they will click the “Send Bitcoin” button to continue to a screen where they can either scan a QR code (which contains the recipient’s wallet address and amount in Bitcoin to pay) or open their wallet to enter the payment details manually.
Users will be taken to a page showing the recipient’s address and bitcoin amount to send, which will be pre-filled in from the QR scan unless the user chooses to manually enter these details by opening their wallets to enter those details. Once they proceed, they have the opportunity to review their payment and once they confirm, they will receive a receipt and will be directed back to their account page.
Test:
The next step in this will be to work with the bank and real customers to test this solution, ultimately leading to a point where a high fidelity prototype can be created.
What I learned:
This was an exercise in emphasizing the design thinking process, which helped me remember the steps, and especially to ask real people what issues they’re having so that I don’t design a solution that doesn’t work for both the bank and its customers.
