Google Pay Case Study & Redesign
Launched at the right opportunity
There is a huge market for UPI Payments, GPay (Formerly Tez) is one of the best leading payments app out there. It was launched by Google on 18 September 2017 which is almost a year after currency demonetization.
It was launched at the ‘introduction phase’ when people were getting aware of online for there daily domestic payments.
Features it contain
- UPI Payments by linking banks
- Contact payments & messages
- Tez mode
- QR Scan
- Generate VPA
- Merchant Payments (new)
- Mobile Recharge (recent)
- Bill Payment
- Bank Transfer
- Self Transfer (New)
Environment Analysis
India's online payments landscape saw a massive surge of growth after demonetization — so much so that it is now one of the fastest-growing fin-tech markets in the world.
India now has approximately 460 million people using the internet; that number is only growing. The heterogeneous landscape has many contradictions and complexities, with even network quality fluctuating from 4G to 2G in a blink.
In the last two years, instant bank-to-bank transfers via Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have become the preferred mode of payment for millions in the country. What is interesting is that many of these people were adopting digital payments for the first time.
Competitors on the ground
Some major players like PayTM, Freecharge & Mobikwik provided wallet services, which were running in lite buzz, before the launch they were indirect competitors. The political decisions also boosted their temporary usage & conversion metrics. Later they joined with UPI transactions to make it.
Google shares 44% of Peer to Peer UPI market share, which makes it the segment leader.
Soon, months later after the launch of UPI many companies started a new shift & Direct Competitors were found like
- PhonePe, Major UPI player in after GPay (P2P MS: 15%)
- PayU, Improved more merchant transactions
- PayTM, Another major UPI & Wallet service but has a huge user base (P2P MS: 13%)
- Mobikwik, Famous for mobile recharge & wallet services
- BHIM, Govt.’s main Core UPI app (P2P MS: 8%)
- Whatsapp, Legged in due to omnipresence
- Other Bank apps
- Other Telecom apps
- Few E-Commerce apps
I personally use PhonePe for all my P2P and P2M transactions, because of its broader transactional options.
Looking into successful chasm crossing
Coupled with a fragmented device ecosystem and users who are leapfrog adopters of technology, providing a unique crucible for a product like Google Pay to scale.
The same applies to all major players in the market. These products have grown to a global level scale toward the fin-tech revolution.
Product Artefacts
Ideal demographics found
Age group: 12–60+ years
Tech Savviness: Low — Medium
User Goal:
- Pay for domestic needs
- Share money with peers
- Pay bill & online transactions
- Check bank balance
Motivations:
- Must save time
- Pay as easy as cash
- Safe & Secure
- Trustworthy
Pain-Points:
- Safe from blunders
- Fear of false transactions
- No time for regular bank online transaction
- No availability of card transaction domestically
- No cognitive skills for transaction payments
User Testing
Based on the most common use-case for using any UPI Payment App.
Let’s focus only one most common use-case
When a user goes to a small store for buying a few items, He needs to scan or ask the vendor's phone number. Now, It has become a standard to follow standard UPI QR codes in all merchant's place.
Now all vendors are getting QR cards from their registered transactional product & showcasing it to customers. This rapidly became very easy and convectional use to all users to start scanning these codes & make payments.
Scanning QR Flow in GPay
Moreover, scanning has become standard now the GPay users are not finding CodeScanner as a main part of the application.
PhonePe does more efficiently
It gives more quick access for a user when he wants to scan the code.
Bonus:
- Gives flashlight option, making it easier in dark light places
- Import image for a scan, when a friend shares QR snap
- Log of recent scans, useful for daily sending without scanning QR code
Tez Mode — Downfall
They’ve introduced Tez mode, It has a simple UI Handle on the homepage for paying and receiving money instantly with nearby devices just like the ShareIt app.
Tez mode feature hasn’t retained good user engagement. I’ve asked people who were aware of this or not?
Hypothesis:
- I know these features, also used it. [Low]
- I don’t know this feature exists, never used it [High]
- I know these features, never used it. [Majority]
Finally, we can conclude this feature is not retaining any traction in user engagement. Now, it must make in an inclined way with a settled standard i.e; QR Scanning.
I’m using GPay in iOS, It’s still the old version. Recently checked the 14th Jan Android version, there are 2 different versions in the same update. I think google is A/B testing it. In one version google has killed Tez-mode and changed the entire design. Another version visually looks the same, but they kept Tez-mode by replacing it on the home page with nearby payments. Now, in both versions QR Scanner is given more significance. Luckily hypothesis went correct 😁from google.
Solution Design
Now, we got the mental modal of UPI Payment users. its time to design all required iterations as following;
Design Process: Conceptual Design → Information Design → Interaction Design → Visual Design
Proposed Concepts
Split Payments with friends & family
At bars or online Netflix, friends would always like to share by splitting the bill among themselves. Sometimes a few friends won’t be able to pay in equal ratios, we must allow them to customize their offer. Let’s bring this sharing culture in payments by bringing split payments on every GPay payment page.
Robust GPay Search in Home page
Rather than exploring for target module, GPay search can look into all areas such as contacts, business and all modules navigations in the app. Everyone who uses GPay will definitely use the new payment for searching the mobile number for payment, It will add more ease & direct access to it.
Scan QR or Show QR in Home page
To increase the noteworthiness of this usage, both are kept at the top of the home page.
Introducing Expense Meter to GPay
Isolation of paying with UPI transactions has made users lose grip on their daily expenses. And the expenses are wrapped & hidden to the user visually. We need to introduce expense meter which creates awareness on their spending & usage. This will help to visualize users’ money control & develop their frugal decisions. This can also act as buzzer & improve their financial control.
Frugal people would love to have it in their app & also people who are trying to check their expenses manually looking into previous statements. GPay would solve these problems by collecting data from money transfers & transactions, Then simple daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports & insights must be produced, as follows:
- Money Credited from GPAY
- Money Debited from GPAY
- Save & Update Bank Balance
- Track GPay payments aligned with Bank Balance
- Report based on personal money transfers, which includes contacts list insights.
- Report based on business transactions, which includes all categories such as food, utilities, entertainment & so on…
- Insights on trouble spots and bright spots with experts curated financial smart suggestions to educate users will be great.
Proposed Information Design
Proposed Interaction Design
With the concluded conceptual design & information design.
Low-Fi wireframe
I recommend you view this prototype in your mobile device for best experience by clicking ‘view on mobile’ icon — select your country & enter mobile no. for SMS. Sometimes link may not work, so use back button in the virtual device or in your mobile browser.
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