Google Wallet - Usability Evaluation
Client
Google Wallet
UX METHODS
Usability Testing, UX Research,
Interaction Mapping, Comparative Analysis,
Survey Design, Heuristic Evaluations
Duration
Jan - Apr 2017
Client Brief
Learn about needs and pain points of university-age consumers.
Research GOAL
How can Google Wallet make the experience more social/emotional?
We conducted user interviews and created personas to understand the app's user base.
Through those findings, we generated interaction maps for each user action and performed qualitative analysis to heuristically evaluate the specific pain points of Google Wallet users and gave our recommendations for making Wallet more 'usable' and appealing to the millennials.
Interaction Map
Focusing on our core users - college students on a smartphone, we mapped all possible interactions that they as users could perform on the Google Wallet app. We represented them in the form of an interaction map inspired by those interaction patterns.
Initial Research
User Interviews & Surveys
We conducted a series of user interviews for our target demographic (18-24 year old undergraduate students) & recorded our observations. Based on them, we developed user personas and scenarios for our product.
Our approach was twofold- firstly, we wanted to conduct research that would produce actionable findings for Google & secondly, wanted to focus on the key pain points of the user.
“A lot of my friends use similar apps so I just go with the flow. It’s all about convenience. ”
“I always feel a little bit uncomfortable requesting money...”
“I always get confused between Google Wallet & Android Pay.”
Heuristic Evaluation
In order to adequately assess Google Wallet’s usability and to pinpoint areas of frustration, the Tree Town Usability team performed Heuristic Evaluations using Nielson’s Heuristics. Understanding these pain points gave us direction as we continue to pursue our overall research question as to how Google Wallet can be a more emotional experience for users.
We found that
Google Wallet is Aesthetically Pleasing and Easy to Use but;
- No Information or Help for App Crashes
- No Assistance for Card Scanning Errors
- Card Payment Errors Provide No Feedback
- No Nicknames for Payment Methods
- No In-App Retrieval or Memory for Contacts
- Language to Change PIN is Confusing
Comparative Analysis
We compared Google Wallet with a broader set of competitive products intended for same or similar use and drafted a comparative matrix highlighting Wallet's advantages and/or disadvantages over its peers.
Through this, we identified additional features and inspiration for how Google Wallet can gain a competitive market advantage.
Key findings:
- Highly social platforms tend to be multi-purpose
- More focused platforms tend to be highly formal
- Venmo is not only the closest direct competitor to Google Wallet.
- Venmo is also the platform closest to occupying the unusual space of a highly social/emotional app that is nonetheless focused primarily on peer-to-peer transfers.
Our Recommendations
Encourage user participation
Alternative onboarding and advertising for Google Wallet
Emojis to animate the amount 🍔
The ability to “illustrate” the amounts being discussed so the initial request message has, for example, 25 burrito emojis behind the text requesting 25 dollars
Add a congratulatory animation after transaction
Utilize features that could allow for the P2P system to be integrated into social media
The ability to send short animations along with offers and requests in a manner similar to Google Hangouts
A more readily available emoji keyboard button (taking cue from Google Hangouts