Unplex | Cash-Gifting Feature
A 1.5-week project to design a cash-gifting feature to simulate the traditional experience.
Figma
Slack
Zoom
Meet
Forms
Overview
For this stage of the project, we were asked to improve upon an app that is currently in development. Our clients were members of the Indian community and valued the tradition of cash gifting. They wanted to bring their sense of community to the mobile app and make the platform something more than a banking utility.
Challenge
After finishing the first sprint, which focused on a WhatsApp integration, we only had 1.5 weeks before starting the second sprint. We arranged a meeting with our clients to discuss what we could possibly deliver within this timeframe, and we reached an agreement to focus on one feature instead of the entire app. We believed that prioritising the quality of the work was more important than the quantity of work.
About cash-gifting
Cash-gifting is considered a customary practice, particularly during special occasions such as weddings, festivals, and religious ceremonies. It is common for family members, friends, and well-wishers to give monetary gifts as a gesture of blessings, good luck, and support to the recipient.
Problem space
It’s difficult for Indians abroad, especially first-generation immigrants, to engage in cash gifting with family and friends back in India. While there are plenty of platforms that offer money transfer services across different countries, they often lack a personal touch. Sending money is not the same as giving a cash envelope.
Digital experience
(Mobile banking notification)
From Son
+£101
15 May
Actual experience
(Indian cash envelope)
‘How might we create a cash gifting solution that leverages the excitement and tradition of physical experience?’
Outcome
A convenient way to send money online while also providing users with a traditional cash gifting experience. This feature helps the business stand out from other mobile banking platforms because while others only offer money transfer services across multiple countries.
Be with your community
Upcoming occasion feature to get users closer to friends and family back home.
Numbers hold special cultural significance
The user is able to specify the desired amount they want the receiver to receive. In the case of India, odd numbers, particularly number 1, are considered lucky.
Choose the right special envelope for your loved one
Choose the envelope for your special occasion, just as you would have done by visiting a shop to make a purchase in the old days.
The design here is meant to showcase the selection of designs. We suggested to the client that commissioning Indian artists to create these envelope designs could make this feature even more special.
Research
To understand the competitive landscape, I conducted a competitive analysis. The research revealed that only Venmo offers a similar concept, primarily targeting the US market, while other mobile banking platforms focus on traditional banking services. This analysis supports the value proposition of our designed feature for our client’s product.
Comparative product analysis
The initial client conversation reminded of the cash gifting culture in Asia so I researched features such as WeChat Red Packet and Line Red Envelope. I felt the features in these apps could have valuable insight for this project.
WeChat Red Packet and Line Red Envelope are features that incorporate cash gifting culture into a digital platform. In both cases:
The user is able to choose the envelope design: This gives the user the same experience as when they purchase a real envelope design in person.
The user needs to open the envelope to see the amount of money: This simulates the actual cash envelope receiving experience and still creates excitement even if the experience is digital.
Line
User Interview
In order to know more about cash gifting culture in India we then decided to interview users. The goal was to understand:
Users’ feelings on cash gifting culture
What occasions call for a cash gift
Understand users’ pain points around gifting money online
Understand positives of gifting money online
How often our users participate in cash gifting online
After 13 interviews we found out:
In person only
“You are unable to convey emotion with bank transfer.”
“Gives cash gifts only in person usually.”
Users preferred to take part in cash gifting when it could be done in person. They felt that the excitement of doing it in person couldn’t be matched online.
Occasion
“I did cash-gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings or like a milestone birthday, something more special.”
“ A lot of times gift money is given in a nicely decorated envelope similar to red envelopes in China.”
Cash gifting is tied to a lot of traditions in India, such as giving the cash in a special envelope with different colours depending on the occasion.
Alternative
“Gifting lots less cash - more Amazon vouchers and all inclusive gift cards.”
“I prefer to send gift cards rather that sending a sum of money, because cash gifting doesn’t feel special online.”
Users also said that transferring someone money so that they get a random notification from their banking app didn’t hold the same meaning so people found alternative ways to give people money such as Amazon gift cards or just not gifting the person altogether.
Define
From the insights we gathered we shaped a persona, a problem statement and HMW questions to help us focus on our target users.
‘Virat has stopped partaking in the tradition of cash gifting, as he is unable make the experience feel personable and capture the cultural significance’
‘How might we create a cash gifting solution that leverages the excitement and tradition of physical experience?’
Design
Lo-fi sketch
The lo-fi sketch was based on the original design with some changes we have seen in other mobile banking apps to create familiarity for users.
Mid-fi wireframe
After sketching our ideas and creating a wireframe, we decided to make changes to the input amount page based on one interview insight. Users gifted a meaningful number according to their culture. Also, we added video and voice note features to make the experience even better.
Major changes after mid-fi testing
User is able to save it to the draft
User can undo the action.
Larger icons and title
Schedule for future payment
In-depth summary page
Larger icons
Add scheduling feature
Cancel pop-up and draft function
Transform mid-fi to hi-fi prototype
Deliverables
A convenient way to send money online while also providing users with a traditional cash gifting experience. We implemented a cash gifting feature that matches the company vision to stay financially involved in their community while living abroad.
With features such as:
Upcoming section to stay connected with community
Be able to send the meaningful amount of money to receiver
Special cash envelope simulate the actual experience
Next Steps
The timeframe of this sprint was 1.5-week, but if we had more time working with Unplex, we would have tried to cover some of these features:
Explore where to place the ‘send’ and ‘gift’ features: explore in more detail the send and gift buttons and their relation to each other and where they sit in the app.
Build out the scheduling feature: We didn’t get to visualise how this would look in a short time frame.
Understand more about the challenge of adding video: We also wanted to play out how every message would appear in the envelope, including messages with a video attached.
Explore further plans for the envelopes: We thought that commissioning Indian artists to create these envelope designs could make this feature even more special.
Deep dive into the UI of the app: We want to do a deep dive on the UI and question how we can portray the brand’s identity through this.
