Solution

Wouldn’t it be great to keep track of which card to use to ensure that you’re getting the most possible points?

The Rake app is a powerful tool that determines the user’s “best credit card” when making a purchase. Users can also choose to integrate Rake with mobile payment to make transactions even easier. Rake updates the default payment within Apple Pay to the card that is best for the purchase.

With the design thinking methodology of empathy, define, ideate, prototype, and test, I designed an app that allows users to do the following:

1. Know which credit card to use for each transaction

2. Build a wallet that contains and tracks points for each credit card

3. Keep track of special credit card offers that earn additional rewards

Exploration

Research Questions

1. What motivates people to open up multiple credit cards?

2. How do people keep track of their points?

3. How do people stay up-to-date with new products or changes?

4. What are some frustrations people experience with earning points?

To start off the process, I needed to know who I was designing for and wanted to find answers to the overarching questions. I sent a screener survey to my personal network to identify individuals who fit my target audience in order to collect thoughts, ideas, and concerns about the way credit card points are earned and managed.

Interviews

I conducted virtual interviews with 6 participants to carry out my research and asked them the same set of questions.

Characteristics

• Age: 27-31

• Own multiple credit cards

• Are familiar with rewards points

• Own a smart phone

Common Pain Points

1. The point system and the conversions to actual value

2. Having to go to multiple bank websites or apps to interact with points

3. Often no access to service or Wi-Fi when trying to login to bank apps

People with credit cards want to maximize earnings and track value. Currently, the standard is checking on the bank websites or apps but is often a negative experience as it is not readily accessible. There needs to be a solution that allows the user to see all credit card points, across all banks, in one location for a reliable and rewarding experience.

Competitive Landscape

There are a number of financial management apps that track activity and suggest the best credit card to use. However, the apps lack clarity and can overwhelm the user. Rake’s objective is clear, and users will confidently rely on its functionality while the other apps take on too many features. Rake is designed to to be a tool that helps the user spend smarter, rather than serve as a financial management tool.

Personas

Using the above research results, I created two personas to represent the thoughts and behaviors of two possible users.

Frustrations

• Point systems and conversions are confusing

• Sometimes, there is no service/internet available to check which card to use

• Hard to keep track of separate credit card offers

• Need to google my perks when I forget what they are

• Bonuses that rotate on a quarterly basis are hard to track

Frustrations

• Having to go through each bank app is tedious

• Current info and guidelines can be more accessible

• Overlapping deals can make it confusing to know which card to use

• Current apps are confusing or have features you have to pay for

• I use other websites and blogs to learn about points not the banks

Ideation

Owning several credit cards has become a norm. However, that means having to check and maintain your finances on multiple websites or apps. Having one app that ties in all points and rewards would simplify daily spending and earning. Especially when on the go, users need a way to quickly be reminded of which card to use for a certain purchase.

With a general idea of who the user and the solution needs to be, I sketched a sitemap concept for a “typical” user journey.

Three journeys that immediately come to mind:

1. Adding your credit card(s) to build your “wallet”

2. “Raking” to have the app pin point your location and determine which credit card to use

3. Searching for and adding new credit card offers

Adding credit card(s)

“Raking” to determine best card

Searching/Adding offers

Other screens

These sketches served as a starting point and, even before testing, I made minor adjustments that I felt were needed to improve the flow. I refined the screens by creating high fidelity prototypes in Figma, and below are two major adjustments worth noting:

1. I wanted to test the idea of a simplified the navigation by removing the traditional menu bar.

2. I also wanted to test the idea of having Rake available on wearables.

Prototype

Testing

Moderated virtual usability testing allowed me to see how potential users would interact with the app, as well as help me gain new insights and new perspectives. I tested with another 6 participants that were a good fit with my target audience.

Test 1

A set of participants were given several tasks to carry out with high fidelity wireframes.

What I was looking for:

• Any glaring issues with screens and functionality

• Suggestions for improvement by asking what the user expected to happen

• Ways on how to refine the “happy path”

Results:

• Users were confused by certain buttons did and were uncertain where it would take them.

• Users expressed that they wouldn’t rely on the analytics for financial management.

• Users expressed that they wanted an easy way to know what card to use.

Test 2

Another set of participants were given several tasks to carry out with the high fidelity wireframes.

What I was looking for:

• How users felt about the overall navigation

• How intuitive the users the app was

• What users liked/disliked about the app

Results

• Users expressed that there were areas of improvement that can be solved with automation.

• Users found certain pages more valuable than others, but found that they were not designed accordingly.

• Users found that there were too many layers that made navigating home a pain point.

Top Findings

1. Wrong home screen - Users were not sure which screen was the home screen or if the assigned home screen merited the title. The prototype had the “Wallet” as the home screen, but feedback suggests that it should be the “Guide.”

2. Edge cases:

   • Not viable for ALL credit cards to display in a list on the search screen as there are too many in the market

   • Users with more credit cards than the average person. Certain menus and screens would become too busy and cumbersome to navigate.

3. Unnecessary information - Whether it be total points on the home screen or certain spending analytics, users found that these features took away from the main objective/function.

4. Missing tutorial - Users needed further guidance when initially exposed to Rake. There was uncertainty in what the “Rake” and “Guide” button did.

Other Findings

• Users would not handle finances on this app.

• The main thing users want to know is which card to use.

• Having offers loaded automatically would remove a pain point.

• Users imagined that “My Activity” would track points and not just spend.

• Users with Apple Pay or Google Pay wanted to see an easier way to integrate mobile payment.

Reflections

The Rake app was set out to allow credit card holders to earn maximum points when making purchases. Though there are similar apps in the market today, they have too many other features to effectively carry out the sole purpose of helping the user determine the best card at any given time. Multiple rounds of testing allowed me to adjust the prototypes and designs with the true objective in mind.

Lessons Learned

• Compromising my designs - Determining the best card to use at the right time is the main objective of the app, but some of the designs morphed into a financial management app that took away from the simplicity of Rake.

• Setting artificial boundaries - The beauty of design is that anything is possible. However, I limited my designs to current technology and capabilities which held back advancements in certain areas. For example, an app that interacts and overrides mobile payment settings.