Apple SplitPay:
Split your next bill!
Overview
Background
The spread of Covid-19 put us all in a place where stay at home mandates were the primary way of defeating the virus. After a year of doing so, we are now able to live like we once did before. Seeing family, friends, co-workers and more, taking a chance to create the memories that were taken away by the virus.
Apple SplitPay offers a non charging payment splitting platform directly built into the iphone capabilities. No longer will we need to rely on third party applications, stay with apples ability to have one product cover all your future needs. Apple Splitpay.
- Project Duration 03.22.22-05.04.22
- My Role Product and Visual Designer
- Tools Pen & Paper, Sketch, Figma, Adobe Suite
The Problem
Apple is a company that highly values its all for one product. Why is there no way for me to easily split pay with a couple of my buddies while out at dinner? Having to use third party applications to complete one simple task should not be the way to approach payments. Apple’s all-inclusivity should have the function of sharing a split payment between contacts with a function similar to camera qr scanning.
Goal
Redefine a share payment method that enables one to easily share, split, and edit with already added apple contacts. Ultimately helping add apple’s value of an all around one product.
Key Features:
See how it works.
Enter SplitPay
01.
The Splitpay user opens the camera and scans her receipt or bill.
This is an overview of the iphone scaning process. Similar to the QR code scanning, an option will pop up to open SplitPay Bill.
Make IT easy.
SplitPay not, Venmo.
Setup is faster and simpler with SplitPlay. Easily Split or Send an amount for
others to complete.
02
Price, Quantity, Item Name.
The bill is immediately configured into the
SplitPay Interface.
Make IT Accessible.
03.
Price, Quantity, Item Name.
The bill is immediately configured into the SplitPay Interface.
Make IT Direct.
The Challenge
The core of the challenge was to “streamline” the payment splitting process into a sharing process. This transition is something that can be complicated by the extremely necessary components. For example, this involves credit card wallets, contact sharing, accurate splitting, and more. I did not want to jump right into ideating concepts based on lack of knowledge and assumptions. Instead, I wanted to understand the process and individual payment methods that groups of people decided to approach and use. Ultimately, in doing so, I could make sure my concept was effective and valuable to users.
User Research
Interviews and Affinity Mapping
Splitting and Money is a topic where asking twice or even questioning for, can make for a difficult exchange. In the recruitment, I tried to have people different in age and income status for better generalizability.
In order to inquire the pain points and current solutions, I approached five individuals who partake in going out with friends for a semi-structured interview. When preparing the script, I kept the questions open enough for the participant to elaborate on their relationship with both their friends and money. In this phase, it was especially important for me to be unbiased and open so that I could spot the pain points.
Persona Development
I quickly coded the responses from the interviews and found that splitting the meal with friends while going out was a central closing point and task because this took place almost everytime and this is where the most pain points came to exist.
Interestly, there were two other frequently mentioned elements - splitting ability and not fully receiving the splitted amount.
Fashion is also a social subject. Most people do want to get complements from others to credit their effort spent on clothes.
Last but not least, I narrowed my scope to mobile apps because when splitting and tipping, the participants immediately went to grabbing their phone to either venmo or calculate splitting cost on the mobile calculator. Mobility and Ease of Use is key.
The communication with the partipants helped me create the following two personas.
Going Out Enthusiast 24
“How am I the one that’s always covering for the bill and not getting paid back in full!”
“Back in college, things like buying a 30 pack would always be a pain. One person would take a couple beers and say, “I only had two beers dude”.”
He wants/needs...
- to easily be able to split without there being any complications
- have something that doesn’t have to be extra like venmo
Date Night Connoisseur 22
“Dinners can get expensive, thats why having a boyfriend can be a plus. Just kidding lol”
“I don’t really like the idea of covering a bill fully myself or having my boyfriend cover the entire bill. Splitting gives us a chance to try everything without having to worry.”
She wants/needs...
- something that connects easily to her phone
- doesn’t like having to use venmo because in order to get money back into her bank account it takes a whole process to put information in
Market Analysis
Now after experiencing the high and low emotions when conducting payment actions, I could look at some existing solutions to see how they are handling the similar issues. I picked the highest rated apps in the finance category and here are three of them.
Welcome, home.
Apple SplitPay
Future Steps
I am proud of what I have created. However, I don’t believe Splitpay is any where near being completed. Unless the idea isn’t fully adopted into apple products, I won’t see this as fully complete!
Flesh Out the Rest of the Functionalities
As the research process showed, shopping and social feedback are just as crucial to one's wardrobe experience. My design touched on the issues there but did not fully flesh out them. It would definitely be beneficial to add depth to the design and test the concepts out.
Detail the Incorporation of Camera Detecting and A.I.
Two significant features of Wardrober are the mirror image of the physical wardrobe and a intelligent recommendation system. It is necessary to define how the itntelligence blends into the habit-forming product.
Design The A.I reading Capability
It can be foreseen that, when introduced to Wardrober, the user would feel overwhelmed by the need to register every single item in their wardrobe. What could be a easier onboarding process?
Reflections
I gave my best in the design project and learned a ton.
The Importance of Planning
With such a used product and topic, I needed to plan the research and design process in order to narrow down to the core of the challenge.
The Voice of the User
I am glad that I kept the process user-centered. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to look at the problem with neutrality, nor can I spot some of the most fatal usability issues in my original design.
The Just-Do-It Attitude
I have always found it hard to make decisions, especially design decisions that would potentially influence way more people than I could imagine. This time I practiced forcing myself to use not just what I learnd from the user, but also instincts as a designer, to quickly get the ball rolling. It is always the iterative process that brings a design to a better state, and I just have to start somewhere.
Apple SplitPay
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