How to design a card worthy of a right swipe?

What helps the most before getting into the process of designing?

Accepting that you are a noob at it, and you’ll be required to unlearn all your ideals of design.

Why so! you ask? Well simply because the only way to reach your ideal end product is TRIAL AND ERROR, and research of course! Gather all kinds of information you can about what you’re going to design. Be it a debit card, a vacuum cleaner, or a space shuttle! You need to know everything about the product and its user.

1.Where to start?

Start by opening your eyes! See, look, admire, observe.

Observing user behavior is the key to making a user centric design. Understanding people by observing them always helps. In this case, I analyzed the end user who is no one other than founders of early age startups, finance leads of the company, tech officers or marketing leads. In short, people who are authoritative, innovative, open to new ideas, industry aware, value their time, possess leadership qualities, are passionate, goal-focused, persistent, self-aware and function-oriented.

The purpose of my product is to catch the attention of these people and be able to create an impact on their minds with my design. The design should be aspirational, premium in its core sense. Something that is new, different and lingers in your mind, much after you’ve seen it.

2.What’s next?

USE CASE!

Once the user’s understanding is thorough, it’s important to see your product in the light it will actually be used. In this case, the debit card will be used for SaaS subscriptions, marketing spends, vendor payouts, travel expenses and physical transactions. The product needs to be premium but also worthy of being able to start a conversation amongst the viewers. Loud in the sense that it doesn’t get missed out, and yet subtle.

A vibrant colour but a humble tone.

Premium but achievable.

Superior but also approachable.

So how do you convey so much from just a little 4 inch of a debit card?

YOU BUILD A STORY

3.What’s cookin in the industry

At the end of the day you’re not just designing a product, you’re designing a story. It’s important to know what other brands are doing in the industry and position your product accordingly.

I studied campaigns done by different brands such as, Karbon, Enkash,Happay, Slice, Fi money, Jupiter, ICICI bank, HDFC bank and so on. This helped me understand the different stories being narrated by different brands and how RazorpayX can establish itself in the industry.

4.What’s our story?

The narrative built for the users of the debit card is merely a conversation with them. A conversation where the DC itself is referring to them as a “Disruptor” in the industry. The word disruptor in its meta sense means someone who has found an innovative way of doing business in an existing sector or is creating a new market and in the process, is shaking up the status quo.

The narrative idea is to praise the user/”Disruptor” for the kind of work they’re doing and assure them that now with RazorpayX by their side all the finance related worries are over and they can use their time in growing their business entirely.

The unboxing experience is designed in a way that the user unfolds the packaging of the card and hence ends up indulging into a conversational experience which highlights the above mentioned pointers.

5.Finally getting to the design.

Once the narrative is set, the user is understood and the tone of voice is established, it’s about time for the best part — “DESIGNING THE EXPERIENCE”

The goal is to come up with as many ideas as I can, multiple palettes of colors to see which permutation and combination sits perfectly with the narrative idea. I designed upto 200 different iterations of the debit card followed by feedback rounds from multiple designers, users, PMMs, friends, literally everyone I could think of.

Feedback from everyone fueled the changes to the design. Multiple rounds of iterating, testing, and integrating user feedback helped to reach the final fine-tuned design.The entire process took a few rounds, but with each iteration, I learnt something new and valuable towards the product. Once I had the final design, it was time to move on to the next and final phase.

6.Implementation

It seemed like the hard part is now over but the true challenge is to be able to coordinate with multiple vendors, sample all different iterations and reach the final printed design prototype.

I studied materials, finishing and paper varnishing. Tested the design in various finishes like matt, metal, glossy, selective stickering and hololam effect. After receiving print samples of all different materials we finally landed on a combination that fit well with the personality of the card. All with all these efforts, constant support from the team, it was time to get the design out in the world! :’)

fin.