Resources

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Resources

Read.CV

Resume

Resources

Read.CV

Resume

Overview

The Problem

Research Summary

Our Users

The Process

Final Designs

Impact

Prototype

Learnings

Shiga — April 2022

Building a Solution Stack to make Cross-border Payments for Africans.

My Role

Lead Product Designer

Timeline

6 months - Launched in August '23

Platform

IOS & Android

Tools

Overview

Shiga is a mobile payment app that makes it easier for Africans to make cross-border payments.

I was the Lead/Founding Designer of this project, and I played a crucial role in shaping its design direction. My role involved delivering a vibrant design system (confidential), user-flows, interfaces, and occasional "meets' with developers along product development.

Overview

Shiga is a mobile payment app that makes it easier for Africans to make cross-border payments.

I was the Lead/Founding Designer of this project, and I played a crucial role in shaping its design direction. My role involved delivering a vibrant design system (confidential), user-flows, interfaces, and occasional "meets' with developers along product development.

1.0 A showcase of some of the final designs

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Let's Identify what we already know..

There is an existing market gap for an app that makes cross-border payments seamless and accessible for Africans that has been gathered from social media and also reviews from the App and Play store. I was able to outline the some common insights;

Limited Access to FX

The limited access to FX (foreign exchange) & unregulated currency devaluation decreases the value of payments.

Complex Transaction Flows

There is not a wide ranges of methods implemented to make deposits and withdrawal.

Security Concerns

Fraud and scams amongst other security challenges & schemes are rapidly diminishing credibility, trust and fidelity on most platforms

Hidden Fees and Charges

Already existing solutions has taken advantage of hidden fees and inflated charges for processing payments.

Exploring opportunities with existing solutions

They are solutions currently available in the market we can learn from. So I carried out a competitive analysis to identify areas of opportunities to leverage on.

Chipper Cash

Chipper thrives as one of the most popular popular solutions for payments across Africa. However, you only have access to one additional currency besides your base currency, making international payments difficult..

Finding opportunities amongst competitors

Lemfi (ex Lemonade Finance)

Today, Lemfi is also a top cross-border payments solution. Their focuses is exclusively on diaspora Africans (Canada, Uk, USA etc) . Their services are not available to Africans living in Africa.

2.0 Finding opportunities amongst competitors

A quick recap

We are building Building a Neobank Solution Stack to make Cross-border Payments for Africans.

In order to validate the data from findings gathered so far, I carried out an informal research by utilizing google forms on forums and amongst friends and family affected by this problem within my local network.

Card sorting and affinity mapping

Gathering the solutions and recommendations, I sorted them for an affinity map. This part is always fun for me, because it really helps me see the pain-points from the user's perspective

1.0 Some showcase of the final designs

Let's define our users

Here, i analyzed the insights gathered from the research to capture the various needs and motivations of potential users. Creating personas enabled me to ensure user-centric features and functionalities.

3.0 User Persona

Journey Maps

To visualize the process and emotional responses from each user above, I created a journey map to map the current experience.

3.1 User journey maps

..with these insights gathered from research,

“How might we design a mobile app that makes cross-border payments accessible while remaining relevant to Africans?”

These principles were adopted

Here are the principles I adopted to help guide decision making for designs.

Designing for Accessibility

Considering all user groups from various locations. We made sure the solution is accessible.

Transparency builds trust

Stay clear and transparent about fees, balances and every from of service charge for every transactional process.

Adopting a room for Scalability

Introduce designs that has the the ability to scale and adapt as the user's need(s) as well as the business need(s) continues to evolve with time.

Proactive with Feedbacks

Provide feedback when users take actions that are contrary to whats expected and continuously iterate screens and flows for a better experience.

Putting Ideas to action

I tried various ways to create a dashboard that shows the primary features of the product gathered from user's insights.

However, this was short-lived because we needed to balance user needs with business goals. This required that I make some changes to the wireframes I presented. In order to make the product even more valuable, more features were proposed.

4.0 Wireframes

…and now, the final designs

This is where I implemented all of our visual design within the structural logic of my wireframes. The goal of Shiga was to become an everyday app, we decided to go with a dark mode first. Dark mode can reduce eye strain and save battery as many of our user base are always on their phones every now and then.

An inclusive Solution

Shiga is made accessible to Africans in Africa and those living abroad. This strategic move addressed a market gap that exists with current solutions.

5.1 Onboarding Flows

An Intuitive Dashboard

This comprehensive dashboard, offers the users an apt overview of all Shiga's primary product offerings. This was a result of meticulous testing and iterations driven by valuable user feedback.

5.2 An intuitive dashboard

Access to FX and Assets

A mandatory review process is implemented for every transaction throughout the app, in order to foster transparency, credibility and trust.

5.3 Swap currencies

An everyday solution stack

Irrespective of the primary objective, other services were also implemented to make Shiga an everyday app for every user.

5.4 Bills payment

Multiple Layers of Security

We implemented a multi-layered security approach, empowering users to customize the level of protection for their accounts based on preference.

5.5 Layers of security

Monitor your Devices

Real-time alerts to monitor new login attempts. Additionally, users can conveniently manage logged-in devices from the app's security settings.

5.6 Tracking logged in devices

Some recorded impact so far from Beta Testing

As of now, we have a select group of closed Beta testers. Let's explore some of the commendations and feedbacks we've gathered from several weeks of testing;

Commendations

They value the level of transparency at every level transaction they perform
The app is simple and extremely easy to navigate.
Offering bill payments has increased customer retention.

They value the level of transparency at every level transaction they perform
The app is simple and extremely easy to navigate.
Offering bill payments was a very good business decision

They value the level of transparency at every level transaction they perform
The app is simple and extremely easy to navigate.
Offering bill payments has increased customer retention.

Feedbacks

Users wants more currency offering from some remote African countries
Beta testers are requesting for more slots to bring in their family and friends.
Some users had issues registering from remote African locations

Users wants more currency offering from some remote African countries
Beta testers are requesting for more slots to bring in their family and friends.
Some users had issues registering from remote African locations

Users wants more currency offering from some remote African countries
Beta testers are requesting for more slots to bring in their family and friends.
Some users had issues registering from remote African locations

A sneak peek to a prototype

A brief prototype to show how the mobile app works;

View Live Outcome

1.0 Some onboarding screens

What I learnt from this project

Over-communicating is very important especially within a remote team

Over-communicating is very important especially within a remote team

Over-communicating is very important especially within a remote team

Seeking more clarity when you do not understand feedbacks received.

Seeking more clarity when you do not understand feedbacks received.

Seeking more clarity when you do not understand feedbacks received.

Always provide your suggestion(s) and recommendation(s) no matter how small they are.

Always provide your suggestion(s) and recommendation(s) no matter how small they are.

Always provide your suggestion(s) and recommendation(s) no matter how small they are.

As a lean startup, Burn-outs can be expected due to the level of workloads sometimes.

As a lean startup, Burn-outs can be expected due to the level of workloads sometimes.

As a lean startup, Burn-outs can be expected due to the level of workloads sometimes.

There is no limit to the amount of iterations allowed during a product development cycle

There is no limit to the amount of iterations allowed during a product development cycle

There is no limit to the amount of iterations allowed during a product development cycle