Small Steps, Big Impact: Journey to DANA v2.0
DANA just released its newest version of the app. Here’s the full story, wrapped up in one article.
Hi, I’m Gaby, a UX copywriter intern, and I’m here to tell you more about the journey to DANA v2.0. This article unravels all about the development process of DANA v2.0, namely the big ideas as well as the improvement details.
For those who haven’t, check this video out for more context of this article:
DANA dedicates itself to keep making improvements. Whether on the features, the campaigns, or even the system itself. The idea for DANA v2.0 is already planned several years ago. While the majority of the users were still on the previous version, the team is already working on the next one.
By doing so, they’re able to gather feedback and build better improvements. So by the time DANA v2.0 is live, users can immerse themselves in a better experience.
Before we delve deeper, we need to know the reason why DANA decided to upgrade to v2.0.
The big idea
The number of DANA users constantly grows throughout each year. With that in mind, DANA must keep up with its growing user base. And in 2021, DANA wanted to deliver more features. It also aims to be a social and lifestyle payment app that is seamless and hassle-free.
The main goal of DANA is to build a cashless society in Indonesia. To do that, DANA needs to create financial inclusion and literacy among Indonesians. But for a country with a population of ±276 million, 181 million of them are unbanked. So one of the methods to overcome that issue is to make the DANA app accessible and easy to use.
To pursue that goal, the team started by identifying existing issues. For example, the Home page in DANA v1.0 was getting crowded. As a result, the Home page was hard to navigate and the app’s performance speed declined.
There was an opportunity for DANA to reinvigorate the application. The end goal is to enhance the user experience. This means maintaining the features to stay relevant and personalized.
“We position ourselves to be customer-informed, not customer-driven. The key is to experiment more and then dive deep into problem solving.” — Rangga Wiseno, Senior VP of Product.
The design: smooth, sleek, and simple
Another improvement in DANA v2.0 is the UI/UX design. The UX design team aims to achieve elegance and simplicity for the design. The end goal is to give users a seamless experience.
At a glance, the design improvements may seem unnoticeable. That’s because the team wants to minimalize users’ learning curve. Instead of aiming for drastic changes, they took a slow but steady approach.
All in all, DANA v2.0 is the evolution process towards the upcoming major updates. Once users are familiar with the current version, it will be easier to implement future improvements.
“Instead of delivering large design updates, the true focus is making small improvements consistently (and doing it right). Because it’s not a bad thing to be normal.” — Riswan Rais, UX Designer Manager.
The design of DANA app is not the only aspect that makes it better than the previous version. Furthermore, the app performance also contributes to this improvement.
Boosting the app performance
DANA v2.0’s improvements are not limited to the visual aspect but are also focused on its core systems. One of its performance issues lies in the app’s boot-up time. Several users voiced their concerns about the application’s loading period.
The development is a step-by-step process:
- Investigate existing issues
- Identify which features to improve
- Choose the right solutions
Hence the product team conducted several experiments to test their solutions. Afterward, they gathered feedback from users to justify the solutions.
As a result, DANA v2.0’s performance increased tremendously.
“The main focus for Tech team is to provide a seamless improvements for the users. This means making sure the improvements are 100% ready before we deliver.” — Ricardo Pramana, SDE Manager.
The message: #BebasDrama
As mentioned above, DANA v2.0 aims to be a social and lifestyle payment app. It means that beyond promos, DANA also wants to make life easier for users. This is especially true for things related to money and transaction.
For that reason, the marketing team has launched the #BebasDrama campaign.
The purpose of this campaign is to make DANA the top of mind for users when it comes to payment reliability. This aligns with one of the main goals for DANA v2.0: hassle-free.
#BebasDrama campaign itself has 4 core messages:
- Safe (#BebasCemas) aligns with the concept of DANA Protection
- Smart (#BebasGaptek) aligns with the concept of SmartPay
- Seamless (#BebasRibet) aligns with the concept of DANA Statement and Bank Card payments in DANA
- #BebasBokek aligns with the concept of the prime promotions in DANA
What’s next?
The team has already planned for DANA v2.0 for a long time. A huge amount of effort and resources are put into this project.
Based on insights from Emyr Al Kautsar (Lead Product Manager), the current focus is to optimize the performance of DANA v2.0. This gives users the time and space to adapt to the changes. In parallel, the team is also preparing for the next big updates.
With all that’s said and done, DANA wants to do right by the users. This is not the end. This is the start of DANA’s evolution towards the next level.
So, stay tuned for future updates from DANA!
Want to know the details on the development process of each feature? Let’s continue reading below!
Table of Contents
∘ 1. Home
∘ 2. Send Money
∘ 3. DANA Feed
∘ 4. DANA Statement & Smartpay
∘ 5. Nearby & QRIS Education
1. Home
On completing app registration, the first thing that users will see is the Home page. This is the phase in which users will decide their first impression. That’s why Home is one of the most important aspects of the app.
As mentioned above, the Home page on v1.0 can no longer meet all the demands of users and the ever-growing DANA app. This could lead to an unpleasant user experience.
So, how was the process of improving the design?
First, the UX designers made some samples of the designs. After inputs from stakeholders and users, here is the result:
With this new page, DANA wants to provide a seamless and personalized user experience. To achieve this, the UX designers changed the style of the service icon. These changes took into account not only the visual aspect but also the needs of the users. To gather user insights, UX researchers conducted a test method called icon testing.
In DANA v1.0, it turned out that users had difficulties to identify the service displayed by the icon. But for the new icon style, they said it is far easier to understand and more aesthetic.
Not only that, there are some improvements for the UX copy. The UX writers wanted to emphasize the human side of the app. So, the UX copy displayed on the Home page uses a more conversational tone.
Take a look at this section:
This section introduces new features or promos available for users to try every week. Previously, this section was named “DANA News”. However, some users were expecting to read news about DANA as a company. So, the UX writers decided to change the section name to “What’s New” to prevent confusion. Renaming the section engages users to explore the app more.
As a whole, there aren’t drastic changes on DANA v2.0’s Home page. Instead, the approach for the current improvement is to get users familiar with the new design. So for the next improvements, they won’t feel confused by the design.
Now, let’s take a look at the top of the Home page. There are four main services of DANA: Scan, Top Up, Send Money, and Request Money. On this version update, Send Money got the most significant improvement.
What’s the improvement on Send Money? Why is it necessary?
2. Send Money
Most Indonesians use their bank account to transfer money. But what if they don’t have any bank account?
With Send Money feature, users can transfer money via their friend’s phone number, social messaging app, QR code, and bank account. This feature also allows users to withdraw their DANA balance to cash via ATM and store cashiers.
Earlier versions of Send Money focused on persuading new users to use the feature. But now the team is shifting the focus for DANA v2.0. The new focus is to provide a seamless transaction experience for both new and existing users.
Combining the needs and priorities of different users is quite a challenge. That’s where the UX researchers come in. They conducted user interviews and testings to understand the users’ perspective.
Below are the screens from previous and current version of Send Money.
With the Quick Send option, users can tap the receiver’s icon to send money immediately. Yet for new users, the Quick Send section is empty. They can start using the feature by pressing any of the icon services directly. Also, the UI design changes are to ensure consistency between the Home page and Send Money page.
Moving forward, the team will keep improving this feature. The goal is for the feature to consistently provide a fast and secure transaction experience.
Users primarily use DANA for monetary or transaction-related purposes. Meanwhile, there are still many promos and other features that DANA offers.
But how can users discover promos and other features? For that problem, DANA creates a social payment feature called DANA Feed.
3. DANA Feed
DANA Feed, as a feature, allows users to share their activities in DANA. Now, what kind of activities that users prefer to share?
According to UX researchers, users love to share things related to promos and cashbacks. They also tend to share their activities after giving a review to a particular merchant/product.
There are many ways to interact in DANA Feed. Users can give reactions (Saymoji), leave comments, and like posts. The idea here is to provide additional value: a social payment experience for the users.
User privacy is a priority on this feature. Each DANA users have their own concerns about sharing their activity on their feed. So, the solution is to make user activity visible only for their mutual friends in DANA. If they still feel uncomfortable, they can directly turn off the feature at any time.
This feature is positioned to enable DANA as a social payment application. Also, this feature aims to provide more information that allows users to explore the app more.
Other than transacting and sharing activities to Feed, there is also a feature that can help users to manage their finances. It comes with the name of DANA Statement.
4. DANA Statement & SmartPay
“Simply put, DANA Statement is the next level of the transaction history page.” — Riayana, UX Designer.
Transaction history page usually only shows the users’ transaction list. On the other hand, DANA Statement groups the transactions into specific categories. Users can also see their monthly income and expenses and download their financial reports.
DANA Statement allows users to manage their finances with this feature. Beyond saving money, they can also learn how to plan their budget.
But that’s not all. To advocate for seamless and hassle-free transactions, DANA also released a feature called SmartPay. What is SmartPay and what are its benefits?
In the previous version, users had to manually select a payment method if they wanted to pay. Problems can occur, especially if the users don’t have enough balance. But with SmartPay, users can simply tap the “PAY/BAYAR” button to complete the transaction.
This feature recommends the most suitable payment method for users. Especially for users who have already saved their bank cards in DANA. So users can skip the hassle of not having enough balance.
But what about users who don’t have any bank cards saved in DANA?
DANA also provides a new payment method called Top Up & Pay. Users can use this method on payments using DANA Balance when their balance is not enough. This means users can directly top up without having to cancel the transaction. Their transaction will then be paid immediately. This feature allows users to enjoy a better transaction experience.
Besides that, DANA also has a feature that benefits the merchants. In this feature, merchants registered in DANA are given exposure to attract more customers.
5. Nearby & QRIS Education
What’s this feature all about? Nearby provides information about available merchants around the users’ location. There is also information about merchants that accept DANA as a payment method, available promos, or top-up agents. Reviews, ratings, and relevancy towards users are the basis to display available merchants.
This feature was in the making from 1–2 years ago. At that time, there weren’t many similar apps in Indonesia that has this feature. This is a difficult task for the team as they need to reference the UX flow based on other apps worldwide. In the early stage, the focus is to develop UI/UX improvements that allow Indonesian users to adapt.
The team keeps improving Nearby to align with users’ needs and behaviors. The focus is to provide clear and comprehensive information for the users. In the future, Nearby aims to provide personalized recommendations based on users’ behavior.
The goal is for this feature to enable DANA as a discovery app. This feature always needs more improvements, especially in terms of the number of merchants and the UX. This is all to make sure the content stays relevant for the users.
Nearby also displays merchants accepting payments using QRIS. But what is QRIS?
In short, QRIS is a standardized payment method in the form of a QR code. QRIS stands for QR code Indonesian Standard. Users can scan with DANA (as an e-wallet) or any digital payments and mobile banking apps available in Indonesia.
QRIS offers many benefits to Indonesians. This is especially true for those who are regular e-wallet app users. It’s here to provide a more seamless payment experience. Sadly, there are many Indonesians who don’t know what QRIS is.
Through all considerations, the decision is to show QRIS information on the Home page. This allows optimal education on QRIS for the users.
As mentioned above, DANA wants to develop Indonesia as a cashless society. By creating these useful and convenient features, the goal is to provide the best experience for every single user. This aligns with DANA’s mission to bring in inclusive financial services to empower people on a digital landscape.
DANA v2.0 as well as this article isn’t possible without the team members themselves. Kudos to:
- Product: Rangga Wiseno, Emyr Al Kautsar, Albertus Alvin, Ester Veronika Pane, Owen Nixon Jimawan, Vara Amorrindi, Ayu Larasati Natasha
- User Experience Design: Riswan Rais, Derrick Lionardy, Jevan Jovandy, Faizal Nurizal, Riayana Andri Triana, Geriska Isabelle, Shannen Sulaiman, Marcella Annabel, Calvin Holyson
- Marketing: Ulli Weno, Ajeng Pramesti
- Tech: Ricardo Pramana, Elvira Denisya
- All Product, User Experience Design, and Tech team whose name can’t be mentioned one by one
- Special thanks to Calvin Holyson for being the editor of this article & Erick Chandra for the illustration!
Thanks for reading until the end. I hope this article really helps you to understand the journey to DANA v2.0. Till next article!
You can visit DANA Product & Tech’s Medium page for more insights like this.
