New Story partnered with Galoy and Bitcoin Beach to bring equity for the underserved families through an open-source community banking solution-- the Bitcoin Beach Wallet App.
I synced with Galoy's lead designer and CEO to discuss around a mortgage repayment tab on their app. Families in a small surf town in El Salvador would be the first to pay off their new homes in Bitcoin.
Sole UX/UI Designer
January 2022 [3 weeks]
Research, data synthesis & collection, wireframes, UI design, prototype, usability tests, deliverable hand-off
About 70% of El Salvadorans are unbanked, which means they lack access to credit, bank accounts, and affordable interest rates; an incredibly unfortunate problem that strips away opportunities for basic human needs.
Eight of our families in El Zonte were preparing to move into their new, permanent homes in 3 weeks from the project kickoff. We quickly got together to ideate and execute an accessible tool for their first-ever mortgage repayments in Bitcoin.
To create a simple and intuitive wallet where families can pay their mortgage repayment with Bitcoin, quickly gather information on their mortgage repayment journey, and learn more about sats, Bitcoin, and homeownership.
A win looks like confident and frequent engagement with the Bitcoin Beach Wallet App and families feeling equipped in their first homeownership journey.
As a pioneer in this space, it was encouraging to see the competitive analysis showing that the app checks the important boxes when it comes to functional and user-friendly features for main Crypto-related tasks.
However, there was more applicable insight in the comparative analysis of banking and personal budget/loan management apps, such as Chase, AMEX, and Truebill to name a few.
Bearing our residents in mind, gleaning from these well-trusted platforms to inform design decisions that are comprehensive and reassures a sense of security for the main task of repayments would serve as a good starting point.
We used our data collection tool, Felix, and a multi-part survey process to understand 8 of our families’ needs, particularly regarding the impact of a new home and a Crypto repayment tool in their lives. We learned that:
Maria is our persona who represents our data points collected from our 8 families.
Maria expressed her discomfort and anxiety around using BTC even for smaller transactions such as food despite already practicing it; therefore, larger transactions, especially for mortgage repayments, needed more intentionality in guiding her effectively.
TL;DR Crypto is confusing and daunting. Here are some of Maria's priorities and pain points to consider:
- Quickly check mortgage repayment status
- Make a payment
- Check transaction history
- View upcoming payments
- Request for payment modification
- Learn more about BTC, sats, and mortgage repayment
- Cognitive overload from clusters of info, especially if it’s her first banking & mortgage repayment experience
- Lack of feedback prompts on UI causes discomfort/anxiety
- Lack of details on transaction history
- Lack of education on BTC could leave her vulnerable to scams or mistakes
“When logging into my Bitcoin Beach Wallet App, I want to easily understand my mortgage repayment status so I can confidently make my payment or request for a modification if needed.”
- Maria, 33 y.o. mother in El Zonte, El Salvador
Based on Maria’s needs and goals, the Mortgage Repayment tab should be simple, intuitive, and approachable with clear visual cues, instant feedback to reassure a sense of security, and usage of simple words to promote timely repayments/reach out for help/learn more about sats and BTC.
I gathered samples of crypto wallets, debt pay-off apps, budget planning apps, and credit card apps to make specific call-outs of features that display clusters of information with simplicity, reassures security with instantaneous feedback, and visual components to help users quickly understand their account status.
The great news is, BTC Beach Wallet checks many these boxes and we want to infuse those empathy-inspired details with our own new features while bearing Maria in mind.
Simplicity is king, but it's not just about trimming down the number of steps; it must be comprehensive. However, there were real boundaries to bear in mind to successfully achieve the simple approach:
1. Technical feasibility: engineering team's capacity
2. Urgent timeline: defining must-haves and nice-to-haves for version 1
3. Learned interactions: creating cohesive interactions and design to match app's branding and established culture
It was vital to brainstorm lower-lift options to hit the mark for simplicity by prioritizing must-haves for the main task of making monthly payments.
As a result, I created a flow that would stay close to their existing UI and interactions to minimize the lift for version 1.
Like many other tech-savvy users, I'm one to usually skip onboarding tours because they haven’t benefited me, unless I was logging into a new software with new native features. But it’s crucial to slip into Maria’s shoes in these moments to explore this older practice we’ve presumably grown out of.
Most residents don’t have bank accounts or are new to mobile repayment tools, so a bank-type interface is overwhelming. An interactive walkthrough could serve someone like Maria to support her in her steep learning curve. Additional ways to empower Maria on her new experience include:
1. Simplify steps: pre-fill input fields such as monthly payment amounts [a set minimum that was agreed upon between families and New Story]
2. Accessible and robust UI: maintaining cohesion with branding, implemented features, and learned behaviors
3. Feedback prompts: providing clarity when walking through/completing a task
4. Relevant copy: Spanish-translation and using common, relevant language
After 3 weeks of defining the problem, ideating solutions, and iterating designs, our user testing with our residents in El Zonte rendered positive results, affirming our proposed solution to be pushed for development.
Although version 1 may not include the onboarding process due to time and engineering capacity, our partners on the ground have a dedicated team in educating and training our families in how to use the app. Once the product goes live, there will be much more to learn as we dive back into research and improve the features as needed.
The video below initially showcases the prototype in English, then the Spanish version as our users' primary language is Spanish.
This project was the most challenging yet fulfilling one to date. Knowing that these families' livelihoods were on the other end of it drove me to pursue excellence with intentionality every step of the way.
As an advocate for users, I can't afford empathy to take a backseat. This project taught me that:
1. The world is filled with imbalanced privilege and exposure; a learned behavior for me can be a completely foreign concept for another. Empathy is the bridge to win-win outcomes.
2. Cognitive overload can scare someone away enough from their own personal breakthroughs and unimaginable opportunities. We can provide life-altering care through simplifying complexities for our users.
3. Trust can be built, just as it can be broken-- with empathy, simplicity, and consistency.