PB App Redesign - Atharva Dahotre's Portfolio

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Designing for 30 Million Merchants

This project included a complete revamp of the PhonePe Business App. The scope was to improve the overall information architecture, visual design and creating a dedicated space for offerings.

Timeline

January - May 2023

Industry

Fintech, Merchant Ecosystem

Merchant Ecosystem

Role

Product Designer

Introduction

Since the UPI revolution, people have started adopting it like never has been seen in history before. Since money exchanges hands between a buyer and seller, it became increasingly important to curate experiences catering specifically to both these audiences.

The main challenge was to revamp the existing information architecture and design language to keep with the scalability issues cropping up. This meant envisioning a completely new design language for scale and a reworked, revamped better overall experience for the merchant.

Payment Collection

The challenge here was to bring more transparency and clarity tot the payments being made.

The next set of challenge was to create a sense of connectivity with the entire app and its payment related ecosystem.

The challenge here was to bring more transparency and clarity tot the payments being made.

The next set of challenge was to create a sense of connectivity with the entire app and its payment related ecosystem.

Settlements & Validation

Settlements is the most important thing to a merchant since it directly translates it to "money in bank"

So naturally, there was a considerable amount of research and experience revamp to be done here.

Settlements is the most important thing to a merchant since it directly translates it to "money in bank"

So naturally, there was a considerable amount of research and experience revamp to be done here.

Bank Account Management

Bank account addition and management experience is something that has a significant impact on the overall merchant's experience with the app.

Simplifying and making the interactions more natural was of key importance.

Bank account addition and management experience is something that has a significant impact on the overall merchant's experience with the app.

Simplifying and making the interactions more natural was of key importance.

Service Offerings

Devices like SmartSpeaker, POS and loans have the ability to further business scalability for both the merchant and PhonePe.

This was a tricky challenge since the impact here was for both the parties.

Devices like SmartSpeaker, POS and loans have the ability to further business scalability for both the merchant and PhonePe.

This was a tricky challenge since the impact here was for both the parties.

User Segmentation and Research

This project's particular research methodology is based more on observational studies for the analysis of merchant - consumer interactions. A separate questionnaire will delve more into the merchant psychology and the various decisions which influence the business style and ultimately give insights into how the business systems (organised chaos).

The objective of the survey was to:

To analyse the behaviour and affinity for a payment app.

To look for patterns in the mental model i.e, how they conduct business in real life.

To observe day to day interactions with the customers and how the trust factor plays into overall ecosystem.

The objective of the survey was to:

To analyse the behaviour and affinity for a payment app.

To look for patterns in the mental model i.e, how they conduct business in real life.

To observe day to day interactions with the customers and how the trust factor plays into overall ecosystem.

How was the target audience determined?

User segmentation was done on the basis of Transactions-per-day (volume) and Amount-per-transaction (weight) to better account for their individual needs and frustrations while using business apps.

This also informed us about how to design for users who would be using the app on a timely basis i.e, frequency of usage throughout the day

How was the target audience determined?

User segmentation was done on the basis of Transactions-per-day (volume) and Amount-per-transaction (weight) to better account for their individual needs and frustrations while using business apps.

This also informed us about how to design for users who would be using the app on a timely basis i.e, frequency of usage throughout the day

Key insights ⭐️

Merchants with lower volume of transactions had their default transaction history set to ‘Today's transactions’. For someone who opened their shops in the afternoon or had customers come to them directly mid-day, they always noticed the ‘Recent transaction history blank’ which made them feel uncomfortable.

They used to manually switch between tabs to see past transactions and that was the most important part of their day!

Just a simple observation but merchants REALLY liked to see their money come in or at least be in front of them on the screen.

They used to manually switch between tabs to see past transactions and that was the most important part of their day!

Just a simple observation but merchants REALLY liked to see their money come in or at least be in front of them on the screen.

Affinity Mapping

To synthesise all the research findings, an affinity mapping was created to easily and effectively convey the problems faced by merchants in the business app in clear and concise categories.

User Archetypes

Defining how a particular audience reacts to change and a new experience is of paramount importance when you are designing for scale.

Keep in mind, for PhonePe, the numbers stand in millions.

These classifications helped me develop and ideate an ideal solution which could satisfy all these segments.

With varying needs and opinions, this segmentation provides a deeper insight into how the human psychology adapts and adopts newer solutions.

Defining how a particular audience reacts to change and a new experience is of paramount importance when you are designing for scale.

Keep in mind, for PhonePe, the numbers stand in millions.

These classifications helped me develop and ideate an ideal solution which could satisfy all these segments.

With varying needs and opinions, this segmentation provides a deeper insight into how the human psychology adapts and adopts newer solutions.

Competitive Matrix

The merchant ecosystem has 4 major players in. These have either been early movers or more innovative with their offerings. This matrix provides an insight into how users/customers perceive different brand offerings in terms of understanding and interpretation.

PhonePe Business

PB is excellent in terms of reach due to brand image of PhonePe app. Though the app is basic, it still has all the needed services like SmartSpeaker and POS device available. Support is average.

Google Pay Business

Brand name of "Google" has its own advantages.

Minimal services/devices available and not many unique features to boast.

PayTM Business

The widely-known business app to have due to the vast coverage of merchants all over India. It has the most number of offerings and has a good support team as well.

BharatPe

One of the more widely known apps specifically for merchants. They have a good set of services catering to the merchants but not good support and settlement process.

Research Synthesis

Collating all the research put forth 4 main insights which needed to be worked upon. Something which would make PhonePe Business an (almost?) all-rounder app!

Conduct

Why does user seek/expect validation and reviewing of payment here?

That is because seeing their money upfront is of prime importance to any merchant.
The most frequented actions are just validating if the intended amount has come into their account (naturally).
Needs this section upfront since they use it on a DAILY basis.
Placing important and frequented actions which help them conduct their business faster and efficiently.

Why does user seek/expect validation and reviewing of payment here?

That is because seeing their money upfront is of prime importance to any merchant.
The most frequented actions are just validating if the intended amount has come into their account (naturally).
Needs this section upfront since they use it on a DAILY basis.
Placing important and frequented actions which help them conduct their business faster and efficiently.

Manage

The bottom navbar serves the user best by containing actions they take most of the times at their fingertips.

Most of these frequenting actions revolve around managing their stores which need to be done on either daily or a frequent basis.
Due to this, the navbar has to always be upfront and visible containing the actions NEEDED by the user.
This could be payments for the devices, repayment of loan instalments or managing the staff.

Grow

Growth of business will occur when the user doesn’t face obstacles in conducting their business in the first place.

Once they have proper validation about what is happening, they will WANT to become more efficient and quick in conducting their business.
This is where devices and loans will be shown upfront in an informational and clear manner. Having them along with illustrations brings more clarity as to what the user is going in.

Support

Support is the most used section in Business app. This signals that queries are being resolved but queries ARE coming up in the first place.

The goal here was to reduce the number of tickets generated and dependency on the support section.
This meant providing education on new and relevant touch-points and giving more clarity to the merchant's moving forward.

Ideology for the Home Screen

To keep the homescreen free of clutter and distractions so the merchant can conduct his business without any hindrance.
Have relevant entry points for business needs (services, devices etc) which is available at a glance and easily accessible to the merchant.
Make the overall experience pleasant since the merchant might be dealing with a lot of customers and their priority will be to see the payments coming through.
Have the merchant discover and explore different services provided at a convenient pace and not force them through it.

With the insights gathered, a redefined scope allows for a better solution statement

Improving the "quality" of business conduction via an

"engaging" merchant payment platform

Improving the "quality" of business conduction via an

"engaging" merchant payment platform

Improving the "quality" of business conduction via an

"engaging" merchant payment platform

Concept Sketching

Putting all the synthesis obtained into rough preliminary sketches helped me to pen down all the best ideas down in one place. These are the final sketches for homepage. There are a lot more though!

Introducing,

The new PhonePe Business

Karte Jaa, Badhte Jaa

A homescreen for everyone!

A homescreen is the merchant's first ever interaction whenever they open their app. It should give as much of information possible in the shortest amount of time without overloading them.

Be it notifying them about their pending dues, showing the day's total collection or providing them with more business solutions to expand and better their business further, this homescreen puts all of that into the picture.

A homescreen is the merchant's first ever interaction whenever they open their app. It should give as much of information possible in the shortest amount of time without overloading them.

Collection Widget

With the entire focus being on payment validation and collection, the new homepage conveys a sense of relief and gives instant look-up for the last 3 transactions.

Dues Widget

Placing dues upfront with relevant styling according to severity at a quick glance helps them keep conducting their business normally and without any interruptions.

This widget is a carousel which can accommodate different kinds of dues at once in order of priority.

Placing dues upfront with relevant styling according to severity at a quick glance helps them keep conducting their business normally and without any interruptions.

This widget is a carousel which can accommodate different kinds of dues at once in order of priority.

Page End Illustration

A small illustration whenever the merchants reach the page end.

This was something I tried on the side and it got in :0

A small illustration whenever the merchants reach the page end.

This was something I tried on the side and it got in :0

Service Subscription

A redesigned service section on homepage gives the merchants easy and distraction free view to learn more about and subscribe.

This also acts as an entry point for the merchant to access their services once subscribed.

A redesigned service section on homepage gives the merchants easy and distraction free view to learn more about and subscribe.

This also acts as an entry point for the merchant to access their services once subscribed.

Revamped Settlement Experience

Since the original design was causing anxiety to the merchant, the new design aimed to solve that by creating more muted error cases and brighter and fuller successful ones.

Providing relevant help and messaging to clear doubts and reduce support dependency was also incorporated.,

Since the original design was causing anxiety to the merchant, the new design aimed to solve that by creating more muted error cases and brighter and fuller successful ones.

Providing relevant help and messaging to clear doubts and reduce support dependency was also incorporated.,

A whole new QR Experience

A new QR Experience

A whole new QR Experience

This new redesign was a step in the scalability direction. Since merchants can have multiple QRs, it becomes easy to just swipe through whatever QR you want to use.

Download and share were the most used after "Show QR" so it made sense to just club al the QR related actions and give them a dedicated space.

This new redesign was a step in the scalability direction. Since merchants can have multiple QRs, it becomes easy to just swipe through whatever QR you want to use.

Download and share were the most used after "Show QR" so it made sense to just club al the QR related actions and give them a dedicated space.

Details for your devices

Status updates about device like their battery and network levels were introduced to better help the merchant understand potential problems when the devices were not working along with upfront support.

Important details like their plan and next billing date helped avoid potential delays in payments and incurring a charge or discontinuation of service.

Important details like their plan and next billing date helps avoid potential delays in payments and incurring a charge or discontinuation of service.

Important details like their plan and next billing date helped avoid potential delays in payments and incurring a charge or discontinuation of service.

Bank Account Change

Since settlements is of utmost importance to merchants, changing their bank account in case there is some problem to receive settlements also becomes of paramount importance.

The goal here was to keep the entire process hassle free and rid of confusing terminologies for the merchant to effectively and efficiently get through to the desired bank account and setting it to primary.

Since settlements is of utmost importance to merchants, changing their bank account in case there is some problem to receive settlements also becomes of paramount importance.

Let's talk numbers!

All this redesign would mean nothing if it didn't meet our goals. Specifically how much has the experience improved for our merchants and how does it translate into actual numbers.

16%

Decrease in support tickets for device related problems!

This has significantly cut cost for business since they do not need to rely on human intervention again and again.

09%

Decrease in support tickets for device related problems!

8.2L

Organic new merchants onboarded since the new redesign launch!

This means that the merchants' word of mouth has spread considerably well and are nudging their fellow friends and neighbors to try out this app!

24L

New devices subscribed in 1 year due to better discoverability and ease of access to most used tools.

54%

Success in bank account addition and changing success rate.

This has relieved the merchants of unnecessary anxiety whenever their settlements are stuck.

92%

In user engagement for settlements and transaction related clicks