mint // 2019

Market Research

My research showed that a large majority of millennials and gen-z rely on peer-to-peer payment apps to settle up on a wide variety of payments like rent, eating out, and groceries - in a poll of 750 gen-z individuals run by Billtrust, 1 in 3 had never written a check. They are living with roommates far longer and more often than previous generations, and more frequently share payments that previously might have come out of the joint account of a married couple.

The rise of peer-to-peer payment options has also changed the speed at which users expect to see their transactions complete. Instead of waiting to receive a check from a friend or partner, bringing that check to their bank, and waiting for it to clear, settlement now happens in minutes or seconds. After the bill is placed on the table, a Cash App request and payment can be completed before they leave the restaurant.

User Interviews

In order to get a sense of what potential users would expect when attempting to connect transactions within Mint, I conducted interviews with five participants, each under the age of 35. I got a good sense of typical pain points people encounter when trying to balance a budget that includes transactions on debit cards, credit cards, automatic bill payments, and Cash App payments.

• Everyone used some kind of peer-to-peer payment app, at least once a week if not more
• Most interviewees used p2p apps for rent and utilities, with the exception of one person who sent those payments to their spouse (not married) directly via bank transfer. They were more comfortable sending this larger sum of money through their bank than through a third party
• Many cited being considerate as one of the main reasons they use p2p payment apps - instead of a server having to split a check between 5 cards, they could put it all on one and the group could settle up via Cash App

user persona

I compiled the data from my research, particularly the user interviews, to create a user persona - a realistic representation of the key audience segments.

Feature Roadmap

To organize and prioritize the site features I needed to build, I created a feature roadmap - a list of features based on my user research conclusions, the business’ needs, personas, and the market. They are prioritized by their importance to the user and the business.

Task & User Flows

After sketching out the structure of the site, I identified the main flow that users would follow to complete a main task - confirming a suggested match. I then traced the different paths a user could take through the product to complete other important tasks such as reviewing all matches, manually matching transactions, and requesting repayment. These flows helped to identify the key screens that would be part of the design.

Mockups

Since the UI for Mint was already established, I skipped wireframing and went directly into mockups. I recreated Mint's user interface and edited certain screens to include elements of the integration, then used established patterns from others to create the screens for the integration itself.

Prototype & Test

Once I finished the high-fidelity mockups for each of the pages in my user flow, I linked them together in a prototype using Figma. I recruited 5 people to participate in a test, giving them each two tasks to complete: confirm that a transaction was matched correctly, then manually match a transaction that that was suggested incorrectly.

Each participant was able to complete both tasks.

Priority Revisions

While talking to participants during testing, I realized that I had overlooked transactions that would have multiple Cash App payments to match. One participant in particular brought up members of her sorority repaying her for a large t-shirt order - she would need a way to link all of those Cash App transaction to the original payment for 30 t-shirts.

Final Designs & Prototype