Paze Digital Wallet
In order to compete with digital wallet platforms such as Apple Wallet, Google Pay, PayPal, etc., a group of US banks partnered with the company behind Zelle to create a competitive digital wallet plaform called Paze. This was an entirely new product, so it had to be built from the ground up. Each bank was tasked with building their own Paze experience within their online banking platform, where the users can add and remove cards to their Paze digital wallet. Once their wallet is set up, users can use their cards with select online merchants.
The Ask
EWS required four main features for the initial release of the wallet:
Opt in
Before being able to manage which Truist cards are in their Paze wallet, the user had to be taken to the Paze site to accept terms and conditions.
Remove card
Once a user has accepted Paze terms and conditions, they return to their wallet, which now holds all Truist cards that are eligible to use with Paze. If they do not want to see certain cards in their wallet, they may remove them.
Add card
If a user removes a card from their wallet and later decides that they want it back in their wallet, they may add it back to their Paze wallet.
Opt out
If a user decides that they do not want to use Paze wallet at all, they may opt out, which prompts Paze to delete all of their card information.
1) Understand requirements
The Process
This project required collaboration with EWS, the company that is behind Zelle and Paze. This company set the business requirements for how the digital wallet should work. It was then up to the designers to understand those requirements and collaborate with business partners and software developers in order to bring the requirements to life. I met with business partners multiple times a week to discuss requirements in depth and ask clarifying questions.
2) Map out flows
Based on the business requirements, the user must be able to opt in to Paze, remove a card from their wallet, add a card to their wallet, and opt out of Paze if they decide they don’t want the wallet. However, there were many edge cases and technical considerations that meant we had to think through complex flows. Below are pictures of flows that we mapped out on a Miro board. Note that the project is referred to as “Alta Wallet” in the beginning phases for confidentiality reasons.
3) Design
4) Thinking ahead
We began the design process by exploring multiple ideas and focusing on the main use cases. From there, we iterated on the designs as we investigated edge cases and received updated requirements from EWS. There were technical limitations to consider as well as complications due to each bank having their own experience that can impact ours if the user decides to update their personal information stored with Paze. The designers met with developers and product managers multiple times a week to discuss every edge case we could think of in detail, and we used whiteboards in the office to map things out together. Below are a few initial ideas we explored.
After weeks of iteration and carefully thinking through flows with software devlopers and product partners, we had our final designs. Unfortunately, our research partners did not have capacity to test our designs until after the project was completed. However, when product managers took the designs to a meeting with EWS and the other participating banks, we were praised for having thought of many edge cases and our experience was in line with top banks that had conducted research. Below is the final UX. Note that the final UX is in wireframe form and does not reflect the final UI, which is shown farther down the page. Also note that the third screen is a placeholder for the external experience in Paze where the user accepts terms and conditions before returning to the Truist experience.
These wireframes were handed off to the UI designer, and the final screens are shown below.
After delivering the final design for the current feature, I wanted to think ahead and have feedback from users that can be referenced in the future, so I went to the research team to get a study conducted. The study asked users to located Paze wallet within the Truist app, gauged their understanding of how Paze works and uses their personal information, and asked them to opt out. Additionally, the study tested what the users thought of the various card statuses that are possible in the wallet. The findings from this study gave us helpful feedback and suggestions that can be implemented in the future.
Challenges and Takeaways
The biggest two challenges with this project were evolving requirements from EWS and the inability to share certain data with other banks. This meant that it took time to get clarification on how things worked, especially on the backend side. We would get answers and updates that meant we had to do some rework, but that motivated us to get as many answers as we could upfront so that we did the least amount of rework possible.
This project, more so than any other I have done, taught me the importance of asking questions and investigating every single detail of how something works. My technical background was helpful in this project because it allowed me to understand how data was moving between parties and what we could do with it on the design side. There were so many technical considerations to take into account when designing, but we responded to this by speaking with the developers constantly to ensure that nothing was missed. We pored over every single detail and edge case we could think of to create the best experience possible for the user.