From Cash to Click: Designing Digital Payments for India’s Small Business Owners

Documentation of my thought process while designing a web-based tool to assist small business owners with online payments.

• Project Type and role: Take-home assignment, Product Designer
• Platform: Web
• Timeline: 4 days

Problem statement

Considering the current Covid situation, the ways of living have changed drastically. With that, the payment industry, too. Payments/transactions are now primarily made through digital medium. Going forward, this will be the new normal too.

However, Baby Boomers and GenX are not used to digital transactions, are not really comfortable, and have very little trust. They have been used to make payments through physical mediums like cash, cheques, etc. With the current circumstances, they have very little option but to move to this mode of payment.

How I approached the problem

1. Breaking the problem statement down
2. Defining the user and user story
3. Identifying and Designing solution

Guided onboarding process

• Shyam would have assisted onboarding by a sales team member.
• As a 50+-year-old man, it could be challenging to onboard on an app that requires a bank account connection and personal documents.
• Verification requires various documents, which can be painful.
• Many drop-offs occur in the onboarding phase due to its length and complexity.
• Users have security concerns about providing documents.
• Users are often unaware of which information should be given.
• They would be made aware of all the features and capabilities of the product and will be asked about their needs, and post that the experience will be altered based on their preferences

Pain points it solves for
• Overwhelming complexity of digital payment systems
• Fear of making mistakes during setup
• Lack of understanding of basic digital payment concepts

Dashboard design

Initially, the dashboard I designed was not even a dashboard it was a home screen with information about Shyam’s bank account, an option to add another bank account, and a section for recent transactions.

Mistakes that I made

I was solving for the wrong target audience. In my mind, I was just solving for old people in India trying to make a transaction online, and that is why I tried to keep it so simple that there’s nothing you could do here except send money, deposit money, and add a new bank account(and how often does one do that? almost never)

What I realized later

The market would be so small if we designed it just for old people trying to make online payments, and that too through a laptop! I mean, how many old people do you see with a laptop these days?

Defining the New Target Audience

Small business owners in semi-urban and rural India, typically in their 50s or older, who run traditional shops such as bakeries or small retail stores. These individuals are accustomed to cash transactions and manual record-keeping, have limited experience with digital technology, and are now facing the need to adopt digital payment methods due to changing market conditions and the impact of events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

They are often apprehensive about using digital financial tools but recognize the necessity of adapting to maintain their business relationships with suppliers and customers.

Key characteristics of this audience include:

1. Age: Typically 50+ years old
2. Location: Semi-urban or rural areas in India
3. Business type: Small, traditional businesses (e.g., bakeries, local shops)
4. Tech proficiency: Low to moderate
5. Current methods: Primarily cash-based transactions and paper records
6. Challenges: Transitioning to digital payments, overcoming tech anxiety
7. Motivations: Maintaining business relationships, adapting to market changes

This target audience represents a significant segment of India’s small business ecosystem that is currently underserved by existing digital financial solutions, unlocking many opportunities for further development in this space.

New Dashboard

Problems identified

• Difficulty tracking pending payments
• Confusion about current financial status across multiple accounts
• Struggle to understand daily business performance
• Overwhelmed by complex financial interfaces

Breakdown of the page

Prioritized Actions: I designed the “Actions you need to take” section to address the difficulty in tracking pending payments. It clearly shows urgent tasks, using color coding (red for late payments) and simple language to make actions obvious.

How will Shyam receive/add invoices?

• Email Forwarding: Shyam could forward email invoices he receives from vendors directly to a designated email address for the platform.
• Adding invoice manually: A very basic, large-text web form where Shyam can manually input essential invoice details.
• Letting vendors add the invoice: Provide vendors with a simple web link where they can input invoice details for Shyam, requiring minimal action from him.

Simplified Fund Details: To address confusion about financial status, I created the “Fund details” section. It consolidates information from multiple bank accounts, prominently showing the available balance. I used familiar bank logos to build trust and recognition.

Daily Sales Tracker: Addressing the need to understand daily performance, I implemented a “Daily sales tracker.” It mimics a ledger book concept, showing total income, expenses, and net income. I added a comparison to yesterday’s performance to provide quick insight.

Over-simplified Dashboard

Looking at so much information can be overwhelming for Shyam. To reduce his cognitive load, I also created a dashboard with only the MOST IMPORTANT information available.

How can we help Shyam add transactions with ease without him adding them manually?

Shopkeepers in India use a ledger book to keep track of detailed transaction information.
Now, there is a high chance that if Shyam is going digital, his customers will, too.

There have been many incidents in my personal life where I could not buy something because there was no option for an online transaction.

Since Shyam only has a secondhand laptop, he cannot give out his bank details to every customer who wants to pay him online, which becomes a cumbersome task for both parties.

POS Devices

We could give Shyam the option to opt for a POS device, a soundbox that sits in his shop with a QR code and instantly reflects all the transactions made through it.

This will reduce the number of transactions that he has to add manually every day and also help get more customers to buy his products.

The Payout Flow

Step 1: Choosing your bank account for the transaction

The purpose of this screen is to allow the user to select the bank account from which they want to make the payout. The design focuses on simplicity and clarity to make the process intuitive and user-friendly

Design decisions

• Progressive disclosure of each step
• Bank account selection with relevant information
• Visual hierarchy focuses on bank accounts
• Trust elements ensure security and reliability
• Easily accessible help and support

Step 2: Choosing the beneficiary

Shyam can select from beneficiaries he has already added and also add a new beneficiary if there’s a new contact.

Adding new beneficiary flow

Step 3: Adding payment details

In this step, the user can add the amount to be transferred and the mode of payment.

Step 4: Confirming payment through OTP

Shyam will receive the OTP on his phone to confirm the payment and post that the payout will be created and move tothe processing phase.

Step 5: Confirmation screen

The End

Thank you for reading. I hope you got a clear understanding of my thought process and how the design decisions were made. We can discuss this in detail on a call.