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Venmo Donation Feature

TYPE: 

Team project

Group of 4

Conceptual design

MY ROLE:

User Research

Usability Testing

Wireframing

Hi-Fi Mock Ups

Prototyping 

TOOLS:

Invision

Sketch

Google Forms

Pencil and Paper

DURATION:

2 week design sprint

CHALLENGE
Venmo wants to expand their services to make a difference in the world. 

With users accustomed to sending money quickly, Venmo wanted to introduce a way for users to send money via their app to causes they care about.

SOLUTION
Our solution was to integrate a donation element that stayed true to Venmo's identity.

Solution:

  • A fast and easy way to donate to charities that resonate with them.

  • Our solution - build out this element with user needs at the center.

  • Make sure to not turn the focus away from the core of Venmo

  • Matra: "Keep Venmo, Venmo."

Approach:

  • Went between round-up option or customizable donation amount 

  • Further research lead to giving our users the option to donate a dollar.

  • Why just a dollar? Our primary Venmo users make small and quick transactions and a dollar wouldn't hurt their budget. 

  • We found that if 20% of Venmo users donated a dollar at least once a month, that would equate to $4 million. 

Final solution showing the 3 flows we built out. 

RESEARCH

User Interviews 

Competitive Analysis

Data Synthesis

The team conducted 12 user interviews. We split the interviews between Venmo users and users who donate. There was cross over between Venmo users who also donate which was helpful.

I ran the competitive analysis and split the competitive analysis up like we did with the interviews. One assessment of apps like Venmo and another assessment of donation apps.

The team came together to affinity map and analyze the data to better understand our users goals, behaviors and pain points. 

Understanding our users was key.

We divided the user interviews and affinity mapping by Venmo and Donation. From there we synthesized the research findings and found key behaviors, pain points and user needs.  â€‹

Affinity mapping our Venmo and donation data. 

Personas

After synthesizing our data we found some emerging patterns and created a primary and secondary user persona. 

Primary Persona 
Goals + Needs:

  • Split a bill easily without thinking too much about it.

  • Add personality to what I do.

  • Supports causes that resonate.

  • Avoid unnecessary complication.

Behaviors:

  • Social.

  • I use Venmo like a bank.

  • Use Venmo many times a week. 

  • Willing to donate when the process is quick. 

  • I am likely to donate when I see my friends are. 

Secondary Persona
Goals + Needs:

  • Want small financial transactions to be quick.

  • Need to know where their money is going.

  • They need a quick and easy way to donate to causes that move them and are familiar to them. 

  • Want to be able to donate anonymously. 

Behaviors:

  • Want to conduct monetary transactions quickly.

  • Enjoy time with friends and family.

  • Uses Venmo several times a month. 

DESIGN
From sketching to hi-fi mock up.

We conducted a design studio to brainstorm possible layouts for our wireframes. Once completed, we agreed on elements that worked and merged them into finalized sketches that lead to our wireframes. We ran usability testing on multiple rounds of our wireframes till we arrived at our final design.  

Iterations
Venmo Iterations
Venmo Iterations
REFLECTION
Next steps

  • Our team would like to conduct a couple more rounds of usability testing and iterate the design more.

  • We would like to build out the entire map of flows a user could go through. For example, picking a charity. 

  • We would also like to test some different iterations on the green donation highlight color. 

  • Potentially add some blue undertones to raise the colors more towards the Venmo style.

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