apple wallet

Proposing a feature to store and organize receipts in Apple Wallet.

overview

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Over the past few years, digital wallets and payment methods have become almost universally accepted within stores. These wallets also allow storage of boarding passes, concert tickets, transit cards, and more in addition to simplifying the payment process. While already feature-rich, virtual wallets offer an area ripe for innovation.

problem

Receipts are an important function of wallets that are still in the gray area of being physical, received via text, or received via email. Due to this amalgam of receipt storage options, it is easy to lose track of receipts. Furthermore, filtering and searching on receipts is limited as they are spread across text messages and email addresses.

Goal

The goal is to design a new ‘Receipts’ feature within the Apple Wallet. This section should automatically gather receipts from any purchases made through the Apple Wallet and act as an easily searchable receipt storage location.

01: RESEARCH

OBJECTIVES

  • Research the current features of the Apple Wallet

  • Identify new features beneficial to the Apple Wallet

  • Ensure features can be smoothly integrated

COMPETITOR RESEARCH

While researching competitors, I realized that there are similar apps to Wallet, however, none of them provide an organizing receipt feature. Apps like Google Pay and Samsung Pay are ways to make effortless, contactless purchases, but there is no feature to save receipts after the purchase is made. On the flip side, apps like Expensify have the option to scan and organize receipts but do not have the ability to conduct payments. 

USER RESEARCH

PARTICIPANTS

  • Total participants: 5

  • Age Range: 23-30

  • 5/5 have iPhones

  • 5/5 use the Wallet app

  • 4/5 use Apple Pay

SUMMARY

I recruited people who use Apple Wallet and/or Apple Pay to better understand how they use the app and determine any challenges they face. I found that everyone I interviewed uses Apple Wallet for tickets like flight boarding passes, uses their phones for important data like banking info, and all of them have lost printed receipts. Most of them would like a way to organize their receipts.

02: DEFINE

user PERSONA

I analyzed the user research and created a persona to fit a realistic user of an Apple Wallet ‘Receipts’ feature.

Dylan Brown is a tech-savvy male who uses Apple Wallet and Apple Pay regularly. He likes managing his finances online and would love to be able to leave his house without always bringing his wallet. 

I decided to move forward with just a Tech-Savvy persona. I considered creating a second persona for a less technical audience but decided to focus on users already familiar with the Apple Wallet. Intuitively, these seemed to be the most likely users of a new receipt feature.

UX PRIORITIZATION MATRIX

After creating my personas, I made a prioritization matrix by categorizing features based on levels of importance. I had many feature options that I wanted to include, but I had to narrow it down to what I thought was the most important.

site map

With the prioritization complete, I began creating a site map with low effort and high-impact features. I created the site map using Whimsical. I started by mapping out the current Wallet app and then injecting my proposed features. 

The current Apple Wallet contains all credit cards, tickets, and passes within one page. I briefly entertained the possibility of adding receipts to this page but discarded that option as it added too much clutter. The next problem to tackle was reaching this new 'Receipts' page. I considered:

  • Navigation bar: A strong option, but did not fit the simplicity of the existing design.

  • Swiping Action: Swiping right on the Apple Wallet homepage would lead to the `Receipts` page. This was also a strong option, but after testing multiple other apps offered by Apple it did not seem to fit into any of their existing design patterns.

  • Button Press: Finally decided on this option as it was simple and easy to understand.

user flows

Using Whimsical, I created the user flows based on my sitemap. The first three flows outline different types of transactions— Apple Pay in-store, in-store without Apple Pay, and online/in-app purchases. All the transaction flows lead to the receipt being added to the Apple Wallet. The fourth flow outlines a user's interactions within the feature.

03: DEsign

Sketches

Using the Procreate app on my iPad, I began sketching the receipts feature. I was careful to study the Apple Wallet and mimic the existing components to ensure smooth integration with the new feature. My goal was to make it as seamless as possible.

UI Design

Since I was designing for a preexisting app, I decided to skip the wireframes. I went straight to designing after completing my sketches. Again, I tried to keep it as consistent with the Apple Wallet design as possible.

04: test

USABILITY TESTING

To prepare for user testing, I prototyped the design in Figma. My goal was to observe users and note any challenges they face. I was keeping track of the positive and negative feedback I received.

I had a total of 5 participants ranging between 24-57 years old. All of the user testings were remote. I took audio and screen recordings of user testing to refer back to in the future. I asked the participants to complete three tasks:

  1. Turn off notifications for Whole Foods

  2. Add/Scan a physical receipt

  3. Delete the Best Buy receipt

final design

The user testing was surprisingly smooth for the key tasks. I didn’t receive as much feedback as I anticipated. Two of the five people I interviewed couldn’t distinguish the receipt icon immediately, but they were able to find it within a few seconds. I decided to change the receipt icon to a more simple one to better align with the effortless Apple design. I did not make any other iterations.

I was able to accomplish my goal to include all the necessary features without complicating the design. I focused my efforts on creating relatively few feature-rich pages.

After completing the design, I created a design handoff explaining the features and pages.

06: NEXT STEPS

CONCLUSION

For this project, I chose to focus on an issue I face in my life. Whenever I shop in stores, I tend to lose many printed receipts. Sometimes I even lose digital receipts in my email because I don’t have a good way to organize them. Since I use Apple Wallet and Apple Pay quite frequently, I decided to add a receipt feature that conveniently collects and stores receipts while simultaneously allowing users to organize, filter, and search these receipts in one location.

I forced myself to work within strict constraints. The Apple brand is non-negotiable and I had to ensure my design would align with the app. I enjoyed creating an extension of the app because it was a different type of challenge to tackle. 

I didn’t expect the user testing to go as well as it did. I was honored as the users were shocked that this feature didn't already exist. They commented on how smoothly this fit in with the existing Apple framework.

Since I had previous experience with the Apple UI Guidelines, it was much easier to incorporate the design elements and follow existing protocols. 

Next Steps:

  • Use the component for all receipts

  • Develop a system for smaller companies and/or companies without logos

  • Add share function

  • Have an option to archive receipts

  • Introduce mail integration

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