How Tencent designed their remittance product for Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong
This article is translated from Tencent Design’s Zhihu account. The original article was published on August 23, 2017.
In 2017, Tencent launched a new service that allows domestic helpers to remit money to the Philippines from Hong Kong. This is the first remittance product that Tencent has launched that connects traditional remittance centres to the internet.
It took the team 4 months to launch this product from conceptualisation.
There are 170,000 Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong, and very few of them have Hong Kong bank accounts. Every weekend, thousands of helpers head to Central and queue up for 4 hours to send money back home.
Every weekend, thousands of domestic helpers head to Central and queue up for 4 hours just to send money back home.
With We Remit, there is no more need to fill up forms to wire money, and only 5 seconds to finish the remittance. After 15 minutes, their relatives back home will be able to withdraw / pick-up the cash in remittance centres.
This article discusses how we designed a remittance product for a niche group of users.
The design team used the service design framework to design this product. We went down to the field to place themselves in the user’s environment and understand the problems from the ground.
Part 1 — Empathising with users
The project team visited domestic helper hubs in Central to understand how remittance is currently done.
Anna’s story
Once a month, Anna remits back a significant portion of her salary back to the Philippines for her family to use. This process usually takes half a day of her day off. She commutes by bus or by MTR to Central. She queues up at Western Union for 4 hours before finally being able to fill up the remittance form, pay the fee and send the money — a 20 minute process. After 1–2 days, her family back home will be able to receive this remittance.
After several interviews, the profile of our target users became clearer to us:
Domestic helpers are typically 30–55 years old, earn an average of HKD 4,000 a month, low income and budget carefully, with low education level, and not digital savvy.
They are mostly concerned about remittance fees, financial security, ease of use and remittance speed.
Part 2 — Design opportunities from the field
1) Customer journey
From the helper’s point of view, the key stages of the journey are before remittance, during remittance, and after remittance.
Before remittance: Employers give out salaries at the end of the month; helpers will put aside 70–80% of their salary for their family.
During remittance: Go to the remittance centres > queue up for 3–4 hours > fill up a remittance form (every single remittance) > pay the remittance fee and then remit the money
After remittance: Family receives the remittance receipt > go to a pawnshop to claim the money or transfer it to another family member’s bank account (only 5% of families have bank accounts)
2) Opportunities for service improvement
Based on domestic helpers’ current remittance journey we have outlined several pain points and come up with an ideal scenario for improving the service design.
Also based on this 3-step journey, we have also identified 3 key personas: the employer, the helper, and the helper’s family back home.
In an ideal world, the whole remittance journey will happen through the WeChat platform: the employer uses WeChat to pay the salary, the helper uses WeChat to receive her salary, and then use WeChat to send money to her family.
Here we outline a list of user pain points, and identify opportunities on how we might solve this to achieve our ideal scenario.
Stage 1 — Before remittance employer pays salary
Pain point: The employers pay salaries in cash; the penetration of WeChat in Hong Kong is only around 50%.
Service opportunity: Cash can be topped up to WeChat wallet; helpers can negotiate with employers on how to receive their salaries through WeChat
Stage 2 — Domestic helpers during remittance
Pain point: Domestic helpers exert a lot of time and effort to go to Central to queue up; they need to fill up the same remittance form every time; they pay a high transaction fee
Service opportunity: Allow helpers to top-up their WeChat wallet through any 7/11 branches in Hong Kong; facilitate convenient remittance through a digital platform by storing receiver and sender details, thereby omitting the need to keep filling up forms; find a way to give them better exchange rates, waive transaction fees, etc
Stage 3 — family receives the money after remittance
Pain point: Usage rate of WeChat in the Philippines is quite low and most of the families don’t use WeChat; remittance time is quite long; claiming the remittance is not convenient nor secure
Service opportunity: Continue using the accustomed way of doing remittances via pawnshop withdrawal or bank transfer; create a guaranteed account, ensuring that family members can withdraw money at any time; set up a claim code system, and improve the efficiency and security of the process
Product strategy
Employers use WeChat to pay salary or the domestic helpers top-up their WeChat wallet through 7–11. Helpers remit money to their family through WeChat, and then the family can receive the money through bank deposit or claim the money through pawnshops by presenting a code and a personal ID.
Part 3 — Rapid prototyping
After agreeing on the product plan, we quickly mocked up a happy flow prototype. This includes a simple form and a PHP to HKD conversion feature. We used WeChat UI patterns commonly used in our mainland app to design this prototype.
…not a single one of the 20 helpers we tested were able to accomplish the remittance journey without help
We took the prototype to Hong Kong to do usability testing. To our absolute surprise, not a single one of the 20 helpers we tested were able to accomplish the remittance journey without help.
We encountered several problems during testing:
- No one knows how to start from the first screen
- No one tried to click and fill up the forms
- Users mostly clicked on the pictures and buttons
- No one read the field labels and notifications
- No one understood the field labels and notifications
- The system crashes when it starts installing WeChat
- The phone won’t work properly
Part 4 — Optimising the experience
1 — After the usability testing, we asked ourselves where it went wrong: the design strategy or the design experience?
Reality check: Domestic helpers are still using Android 2.2 compatible mobile phones; they are still using digital products design for the PC era of 5 years ago.
…they only notice colourful pictures or buttons.
Digital savviness: Domestic helpers can’t use complicated products. They can only do 1–2 actions in every screen, or else they can’t move on. They’re not digitally savvy; they only notice colourful pictures or buttons. Their education level is low, they can communicate orally in English but find written English challenging.
2 — Finding a design language that is suited to the domestic helpers
1) We broke down the journey and gave users very clear call to actions.
We removed the Add / Select Receiver and Add Sender fields from the home screen, we also removed the currency switching function.
We ensured that every screen only has 1–2 actions, giving the helpers the simplest, clearest journey.
In the payment method selection screen, we removed the 7–11 top-up option to get the helpers instead into the habit of topping-up first before starting the remittance journey. This ensures that the journey is not interrupted midway by going to 7–11.
Improved remittance journey
- Input remittance amount
- Choose recipient and sender details
- Confirm remittance details
- Confirm payment details
- Input payment PIN
- Finish remittance (Generate the withdrawal code, and send an SMS to the helper’s family)
2) We scaled down and focused on features users cared about
Amount input screen
In the Receiving Method section, we changed the selected UI treatment from an underlined tab to a check. This clearly tells the helpers which option is selected, reducing the need to think about it.
To further highlight the amount input section, we made the input field bigger and added a background colour.
We removed non-relevant information, and kept the exchange rate and transaction fee information which helpers are most concerned about.
Once the helper enters the Peso amount, we automatically display the equivalent HK Dollar amount that they need to pay.
Receiver / Sender selection screen
The helpers didn’t understand the original receiver / sender selection forms, and didn’t try to click it. So we changed the UI to a clickable button, which aligns to what the helpers expected to see.
Recipient selection screen
We changed the all text links to button style UI so helpers can easily recognise that they are clickable. We added a background colour to the selected option, to emphasise the selected status. We also spaced out the content boxes, to make it easier to differentiate.
3. We broke down the forms, to reduce the cognitive load of the helpers
Because there is relatively more information in this form, we tried as much as possible to show all the options, so that it becomes more intuitive for the helpers when they are filling it up.
We also considered the compatibility of the helpers’ phones. Some mobile phones do not support multiple selection, so we designed the elements to be selected individually (eg birthdate selection).
4) We got real time user feedback to clarify current state of the product and reduce user confusion.
During the usability testing, we observed that the users can’t differentiate empty state, active state, filled state, and error state of the form fields. This made the form screens the most difficult screens for them to complete in the remittance process.
We optimised the fields to give better differentiation to the empty, active, filled and error states and reduced doubt. This improvement guided the helpers to complete the forms quickly.
5) In the end, we finally had a design language that was easy to understand for the helpers.
Part 5 — Online validation
To launch the product, we organised a marketing event in Statue Square, Central. We got a few helpers to help us promote the event to their network of friends. And as the domestic helper circle in Hong Kong is quite tight, we ended up getting a high participation rate.
Because the original usability testing session didn’t go so well, we were a bit apprehensive about this product launch. Thankfully, around 80% of the remittances during the event were successful. And the remaining 20% was mainly due to the helpers not providing complete documents.
80% of the remittances during the event were successful
The helpers’ verdict on the product was that they found it efficient, secure, and exceeded their expectations, thus establishing the reputation of the WeRemit product. They expect to continue using this product and recommend it to their friends.
Since we have launched the product, the data tells us that remittance habits of the helpers have also changed. From remitting only once a month via the traditional remittance model, they are now remitting twice a month.
Part 6 — Project reflections
1) Design should be user-centred
We need to understand our main users holistically: from their thoughts, cultural common sense and cognitive level. We have to think about their abilities and behaviours when designing a product.
The design language used in this product is very different from WeChat’s main interface. We are not moving backwards with our design. We are instead designing for a very specific group people who have very specific needs. We are creating a design language that suits them.
2) Continuously iterate to build habit-forming products
We designed our product to make it very easy for domestic helpers to use, and we continually improve the product experience in every iteration. In using this product, we are also helping them become accustomed to digital products and to keep up with current digital trends.
Translator’s note: I’m in no way affiliated with Tencent nor Zhihu. This article was interesting for me personally as a Filipino-Chinese UX designer living in Hong Kong so I decided to translate it.
