Physical and virtual cards as a growth strategy for Lemfi.
Contribution
UX/UI Design
Research and Analysis
Visual Direction
Credit
Afeez Ajigbotosho, Product Head
Mirela Oviatt, Card Lead
Dimeji Ezekiel, Visual Design
Year
2022
Challenges
Although our service allows customers to receive and send money across borders, they still cannot spend their money directly. Instead, they need to transfer the funds to another bank account that is linked to a card for spending.
Offering a card-issuing as a service to provide our customers with more ways to spend and manage their money. The service seeks to provide customers access to their money from their Lemonade balance with a debit digital, virtual or physical card.
Approach
Outlining the requirement of a card feature by benchmarking competitors. Define what is necessary to own a debit card and strategically find a reliable partner.
Follow by defining the issuance strategy, activation, usage, and management criteria with the partner. Then defining the card function for our users by discussing what is needed and how to enable them request and receive a debit card, activate it, use it for transactions, and manage the card for security reasons.
From strategy, to the implementation, to the optimization
Strategy of the cards
- Definition of the payment strategy
- Definition of the IT infrastructure
- Formalization of the Business Case
- Defining where to start
Operational efficiency
- Organization of flows and usage streams
- Analysis of the risks, the fraud and the cyber resilience
- Management of the feature and the partners
- Support for card issues
Optimization of the service
- Improvement of the user experience
- Economic and profitability assessments
- IT infrastructure and processes audit
- Complying with the regulatory directives
Guiding principle to designing the card feature
It is paramount to prioritize the activation stage. A streamlined and seamless activation process should be designed to encourage immediate action upon learning about the card. Subsequently, a well-structured onboarding plan must be in place to ensure continued engagement and usage.
"In our daily lives, debit cards have become a ubiquitous tool for managing finances and making purchases. As the popularity of cashless transactions grows, so does the importance of providing solutions that will make day-to-day transactions easy for our customers."
Afeez Ajigbotosho - Head of Product
Making the card beautiful and colourful
When someone first encounters a piece of technology, their initial impression can heavily influence their overall experience. A well-designed visual can make a great first impression, while a poorly designed one can turn users off before they've even had a chance to explore the product's features. I collaborated with our visual designer to design the card's visual style to best represent the experience we want to provide.
The huddle of personalization
If implemented correctly, personalization can generate a 40% increase in satisfaction and motivation to use the card. Unlocking the selective attention of consumers through personalization is vital. While personalization offers significant business benefits, we try to keep it as minimal as possible for sprint one to move swiftly due to the heavy workload already on the development team.
Minimal, blend and simple to use interface
The influence of design on spending habits is an important aspect of consumer behavior that merits attention. The impact may be subtle, but design elements of debit cards usually influence our spending decisions. This is why I took a careful approach to designing the debit card to empower our customers manage their finances effectively, leaving room for personalization so that our customers can be more confident when using the card.
Conclusion
The card feature enables Lemonade Finance to serve customers with a range of needs, aligning with the company's goal to empower those historically overlooked by the traditional banking system, especially in newer regions. This helps them build a healthy financial future, send money home, and have access to the money they own using the card as leverage. Lemonade Finance is set to pilot the card in the USA and UK and continues to expand across other countries soon.
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Location
Berlin, Germany
Ismail Ahmad (c) 2024
