Google Pay
Worked closely with the google pay team. Understand how underrepresented groups use apps to pay & save and explore product ideas to build inclusive financial experiences for 18-24 years old in these communities.
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09/2022~ 12/2022
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Product (UX/UI) Designer
UX Research/ Concept Ideation/ Information architecture/ User flows/ Low-Fidelity Wireframing/ Mid-Fidelity Wireframing/ Visual Desinger
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Figma, Adobe Suit, Miro, Slack
Problem & Brief
Concpt 1: Mock Credit Card
Increase financial confidence by educating users on credit scores &cards.
Through this project, we introduced a user-centered financial tool designed to:
Instill confidence in underrepresented users when navigating digital financial services.
Alleviate financial stress by providing tailored incentives and savings opportunities.
Empower users to make informed financial decisions while feeling secure and supported.
Concpt 2: Value-Based Rewards
Increase users’ day-to-day saving, while intergarting their personal values
Result & Impact
Solution & My Contribution
Design Preview
Key Takeaways
Understand how underrepresented groups are using apps to pay & save, explore product ideas to build inclusive financial experiences for 18-24 year olds in these communities.
To uplift the financially coping segment of GenZ through implementing features designed to empower & educate the user, improving their overall confidence & financial health.
Revamped the mobile app to cater to Generation Z's distinct financial requirements through collaboration with the Google Pay team. The features were adopted by the team in their further developing stage and helped them increase the number of users of the target group by 32%.
As a team, we collaborated closely with the Google Pay stakeholders to develop a comprehensive and innovative product offering, introducing two key concepts aimed at enhancing financial inclusivity for Gen Z users.
My focus was on designing a solution that aligned with Gen Z’s values by seamlessly integrating offers, rewards, and coupons into their financial experience. I led the end-to-end UX process, from conducting initial research and synthesizing insights to sketching early concepts and developing high-fidelity designs in Figma
How Did We get There
1️⃣ Research: Understanding Gen Z & the Market
Goal: Identify Gen Z’s financial behaviors, challenges, and expectations to uncover opportunities.
Next Step: To better understand how these behaviors impact their financial decision-making, we deepened our research through user interviews. This allowed us to gather more specific data, uncover pain points, and define the core problems Gen Z faces with managing their finances. These insights set the foundation for defining the design direction and solving their unique challenges.
💡 Key Takeaway: Gen Z prioritizes value-driven spending, financial security, and brand ethics. Unlike past generations, they balance digital-savviness with emotional spending. To design better solutions, we need deeper insights into their financial health across daily management, resilience, goal setting, and confidence.
2️⃣ Analysis & Defining the Problem
Goal: Uncover deep user insights to inform design solutions.
Gen Z’s Financial Mindset
🔹 Trust & Security Matter Most – Digital payment and saving solutions must establish credibility.
🔹 Financial Insecurity is Common – Many struggle due to debt and low financial literacy.
🔹 Value-Driven Spending – Gen Z supports brands that align with their social values.
The FinTech Challenge: Standing Out in a Crowded Market
The financial sector is highly competitive. Success depends on trust, ease of use, and relevance to user aspirations.
Four Pillars of Financial Health (Based on UN research)
📌 Day-to-Day Management – Simplifying everyday expenses.
📌 Resilience – Preparing for financial uncertainty.
📌 Goals – Helping users set and track savings goals.
📌 Confidence – Strengthening financial control & decision-making.
User Interviews & Affinity Mapping
📌 14 interviews → 1,200+ data points → 12 key insights
Key Findings from User Insights
🔹 Emotional Spending & Guilt – Money-related stress impacts financial habits.
🔹 Need for Personalization – Current financial tools feel impersonal and rigid.
🔹 Lack of Trust & Transparency – A major barrier to financial platform adoption.
🔹 Spending vs. Saving Struggle – Users struggle to balance short-term spending with long-term goals.
Addressing the Core Needs
How Might We…
💡 HMW empathically connect with vulnerable Gen-Z users to better understand their financial motivations and needs?
💡 HMW reduce the complexity of the Google Pay platform to make digital finances more approachable for Gen-Z?
💡 HMW develop personalized and impactful Pay & Save experiences for Gen-Z users on the Google Pay platform?
💡 HMW improve the financial literacy of Gen-Z users through educational tools and materials provided by the payment service?
💡 HMW bridge the gap between Gen-Z users’ financial mindsets and their actions to understand cause and effect more effectively?
💡 HMW create financial tools that encourage safe, effective peer-to-peer financial advice within the Google Pay platform?
3️⃣ Ideation: Turning insights into Actionable Design Solutions
After defining the challenges, we shifted our focus to translating insights into tangible solutions. Our goal was to design financial tools that are:
✔ Personalized – Adapt to individual spending habits and financial goals.
✔ Engaging – Encourage financial wellness through gamification and interactive features.
✔ Trustworthy – Transparent, easy to understand, and built for long-term value.
Concept Development & Storytelling:
To bring these ideas to life, we explored different experience models, including:
Scenario-Based Interactions – Users engage with tools based on their spending behaviors.
Progressive Learning – Bite-sized financial insights delivered at the right moments.
Gamification & Social Features – Encouraging healthy spending habits through interactive challenges and peer influence.
4️⃣ Testing & Iteration: Refining the Solutions
We conducted three rounds of testing to evaluate concepts, prioritize features, and fine-tune usability. Each phase helped us validate ideas, eliminate weak ones, and refine promising solutions.
Round 1: Concept Testing – Validating Initial Ideas
📌 Goal: Assess desirability and relevance of key concepts.
🔹 What We Tested: Low-fidelity prototypes and idea sketches.
🔹 Findings:
Mock Credit Card generated curiosity but needed more gamification to sustain engagement.
Visualized Goals was highly favored, as users wanted better financial visualization tools.
Value-Based Rewards & Round-Up appealed to value-driven consumers, but some were skeptical about brand alignment.
🔹 Key Decision: Strengthened the Mock Credit Card’s interactive elements, refined the Value-Based Rewards messaging, and ensured Visualized Goals remained a core feature.
Round 2: Kano Testing – Prioritizing Features
📌 Goal: Identify must-have vs. nice-to-have features.
🔹 What We Tested:
1️⃣ Mock Credit Card – A simulated credit card for financial education.
2️⃣ Visualized Goals – A highly visual and customizable savings tracker.
3️⃣ Value-Based Rewards & Round-Up – A feature linking savings with personal values.
🔹 Findings:
✅ Must-Have: Visualized Goals – Users loved the ability to set, customize, and track savings in a visual way. It reinforced financial resilience and reduced impulse shopping.
🔶 Performance Attribute: Mock Credit Card – Useful for financially uneducated Gen Z, but it needed a more engaging learning process (e.g., simulated real-world consequences).
🟡 Attractive/Niche Appeal: Value-Based Rewards & Round-Up – Some Gen Z users found values-aligned coupons meaningful, while others questioned brand authenticity. Round-Up savings was widely liked, but some users wanted flexibility.
🔹 Key Decision:
Kept Visualized Goals as a priority feature.
Enhanced Mock Credit Card with gamification and simulated financial impact.
Refined Value-Based Rewards with clearer transparency on brand partnerships.
Round 3: Usability Testing – Ensuring a Seamless Experience
📌 Goal: Test interaction flows, ease of use, and engagement.
🔹 What We Tested: High-fidelity prototypes with real user interactions.
🔹 Findings:
Visualized Goals needed more flexibility in setting and adjusting milestones.
Mock Credit Card onboarding was confusing, leading to drop-offs.
Users loved Round-Up but wanted to control where the spare change goes (e.g., emergency fund vs. investing).
🔹 Key Decision: Improved goal-setting customization, streamlined Mock Credit Card onboarding, and added Round-Up fund allocation options.
Check the Whole Testing Process
Challenges & Learnings
⚠ Balancing automation with user control – Some users wanted manual settings, while others preferred automation. Solution: Provided adjustable automation settings.
⚠ Trust in Value-Based Rewards – Users questioned whether brands genuinely aligned with their values. Solution: Enhanced brand transparency in reward partnerships.
⚠ Financial education needs to be engaging – The Mock Credit Card feature required more interactivity to sustain engagement. Solution: Added gamified elements like credit score impact simulation.
Concept 1: Mock Credit Card
A hands-on learning tool designed to boost financial confidence by educating users about credit scores and credit cards. This concept helps users understand how credit works, compare different credit card options, and find the best fit for their financial needs—all in a safe, interactive environment.
Concept 2: Value-Based Rewards
A personalized savings experience that aligns with your core values. This concept helps users discover exclusive offers and rewards from brands that share their beliefs, making everyday savings more meaningful. By seamlessly integrating personal values into spending habits, it encourages smarter financial decisions while reinforcing what matters most.
