The Process

Goal: 

Provide additional benefit that a physical wallet does not

Solution:

Group payment card, loyalty card and coupons in one place for easy access

Initial concept

We first tried to go for automatic grouping:

Users scan their ID barcode at a store and all payment items would pop up on one screen.

Users just have to tap 'Pay' to complete the transaction at one go.

However, as we went into research and started discussing this concept to the business team, we learned that the infrastructure just wasn't there.

So I suggested that we start small.

We would group payment items simply by merchant, and place these groupings on Home screen and in widgets for quick access.

I called this concept "Brand Bundles".

It did not involved any innovative technology but still made a good solution that would make user's life easier.

Result

Below is how the final visuals turned out:

Home

Payment cards were displayed separately at the top because they're applicable at all stores. Membership cards, coupons and tickets were grouped into Brand Bundles so that users can access all the items they need at the store in one place. 

Drawer

We had a drawer menu to accommodate the numerous feature updates.

Brand bundle detail

Tap a brand bundle in the Home screen to view a list of items in the brand bundle. Tap an item to view the detail page. Swipe left and right to view the rest of the items in the brand bundle.

In-store payment flow

We supported NFC, barcode and QR code in-store payment.

Tap a payment card and enter the PIN code. Pay by scanning the barcode/QR code or tapping the phone on an NFC reader.

Online payment flow

We also supported online payment.

Unfortunately, brand bundles were not applicable due to the existing structure of payment gateways.

Click 'Pay with Samsung Wallet' on a merchant site. A notification pop up will appear on the phone. Select payment options, enter the PIN code and tap 'Pay'. Confirmation will be provided on the merchant site. 

Below is a video presentation of the final outcome:

App updates after the launch

Challenge

After the launch, we still had to face constraints due to varying policies coming from multiple partners. The design had to adapt to these intermittent changes.

Solution

The goal of the UX team was to provide holistic solutions to segmented requirements from various partners. For instance, it turned out that some of the credit card companies provided online payment only and some others provided both online and offline payment. Having these online payment cards in the 'Brand Bundles' would conflict with the usability. After careful consideration, we decided to pull the cards out of 'Brand Bundles' and created a dedicated section in the hero space of Home screen. As a result, these payment cards became the face of the app and first-time users found it easier to recognize the key functionality of the app.

My Role

I worked in close communication with the Planning and Development team to respond to the constant change in requirements and to provide UX solutions that remained within the initial key concept. I also took part increating a roadmap and setting the objectives for each app update.

Trial and Error

We expected Brand Bundles to take off to a good start after launch, but it turned out that the infrastructure was not mature enough to support the concept.

Each payment item had a different type of meta data and it was not easy to identify whether the items had the same merchant or not.

Also, we failed to sign adequate number of partners and there just weren't enough loyalty cards or coupons to group.

Without useful content, users did not stick and the service was closed within a year. 

Although the project did not turn out to be a success, it became a solid foundation for Samsung Pay because we gained experience in the fin tech industry through this project.

We knew how the back end system worked and we learned what the actual market needs were.

Without Samsung Wallet, I believe the success of Samsung Pay would not have been possible.