A long time ago in a galaxy far away...
Back in the days, before pandemic strikes, before apple eliminated the standard audio-jack plug at their phones, when people used to take cash for granted, and contactless payments were struggling because of security matters. There was a pioneer Montreal-based mobile payment app company that emerged to empower businesses enabling them to take credit card payments, facilitating businesses with hardware and software toolkits to convert their smartphones into mobile terminals, so they could escape the expensive bank fees and actual terminal costs and therefore grow their businesses.
The company gave me the opportunity to build the brand identity and participate in the UX-UI process, working closely with developers, payment experts, stakeholders, users, sales teams, and everyone else involved.
So, I had first to investigate, learn, and analyze, how credit card payments are possible and everything that happens backstage when you pass your credit card. How banks, credit card processors, acquires, third parties and security processes work all together in a single swipe.
Problems to solve challenges to conquer and paradigms to break.
It’s obvious that there is a need for businesses to be able to process card payments, so the desirability of the product was there. BUT how to present this “new technology” to people, how to gain their TRUST. How could they be sure this wasn’t a fraud. So good to be true, how come now I would be able to take credit card payments with only a smartphone?
So, the UX – UI
But…there were many different users interacting with the same app, employees, merchant managers, the owners of the businesses, who could have different needs depending on their type of business.
They needed to be able to configure and manage their phones.
…And there were different types of hardware, chip card readers, mag swipe, printers, tokens, OS for different phones etc.
A back-end needed to be created simultaneously in order to manage all that.
In the beginning, all that was branded Hybrid Playtech with the company brand identity, but eventually this needed to be wheelable, so the clients would be able to brand their software with their own colours and preferences.
Of course, there were different prototypes and flows to work (that I regret so much not to have kept with me) but it was a very complex process mostly of try and error, being and start-up we didn’t have the budget, nor the experience nor the time to make a more structured procedure. At the same time, we needed to get clients and investors so mostly I had to create visuals to sell the business and its potential.
at some point, we’ve got lost on all the features and stakeholders demands, our inexperience’s, the number of people involved and the lack of hierarchy on taking product decisions. That, unfortunately, made the product more a sales features list than a product that looks and feels great.
There were many versions, and many other products were developed in parallel, but before we even got finished with the one app to enable mobile payments we had already started 5 different apps and back-ends, to enable coupons, rewards, e-banking etc.
And before we knew it… the business was sold…
The end.
