The UX Inside Your Wallet
Over the weekend I sat in my kitchen sipping coffee and decided to sort through a small pile of unopened mail. One of the envelopes was my new and updated Citi Simplicity credit card as my previous card was about to expire. I opened the envelope and there it was, my fresh new credit card affixed to the top corner of paper covered in activation instructions and the value propositions of downloading the Citi mobile app. What caught my eye was a large headline that read: “Your Citi card is contactless-chip enabled!”
This actually surprised me because, at first glance, the card looked almost identical to my older card that was soon to expire. After I peeled the card from the paper and all the stringy bits of gummy glue from the back of the card I finally saw it: the sideways wireless icon that indicates contactless payment capability. But why was the icon on the backside of the card?
With my curiosity peaked, I decided to look through my entire wallet to see if my other cards displayed the contactless symbol on the front or the backside. In fact, only one card out of six credit cards and two bank cards had the contactless icon displayed on the front side of the card, and that was my Monzo card.
For those who may not have heard of Monzo before, Monzo is a mobile bank that is widely known in the UK. I studied User Experience Design in London, and while abroad I opened a Monzo bank account. Monzo has a “chef’s kiss” user experience for mobile banking and by far the best user experience of any mobile banking app I have ever used. And it’s clear that Monzo takes User Experience seriously, and because of that, they have garnered user loyalty and trust, and have become a disruptor in the world of big banks. I could seriously rave on about how much I enjoyed my experience using the Monzo app, but I’ll save that for another day.
A quick aside about living abroad. The UK and much of Europe run almost completely on a contactless payment infrastructure. Most of my American bank and credit cards, however, did not have this capability and I would have to swipe my cards while abroad which seemed to bewilder and annoy the clerks or bartenders. In fact, to ride the tube, trains or buses in the UK, they all require a contactless form of payment. It still surprises me that the infrustructure here in the states hasn’t caught up with our neighbors across the pond.
So let’s take a look at how Citi could improve the user experience of the cards themselves by following a few common best UX practices by deploying correct signifiers or indicators and factoring common human behaviors and the context in which humans interact with cards to improve its overall user experience.
Signifiers & Indicators:
It seems obvious that there should be some kind of quick and clear indicator to a user that their credit or bank card is indeed contactless-enabled. But looking at the Citi card at face value there was no indication on the front of the card and I had to turn it over to verify this capability, which is problematic and poor design.
In his book, The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman writes:
“…Signifiers signal things, in particular, what actions are possible and how they should be done… People need some way of understanding the product or service they wish to use, some sign of what it is for, what is happening, and what alternative actions are”…
So, let’s take this very common thing we use every day — a bank card or credit card. In what ways can we use them? What actions are available to us? A user can swipe, insert, and tap their card (albeit not always reliably here in the states) but these are typically the most common available actions when using a card, outside of the online shopping experience.
So what is an Indicator? Well, it’s kind of the same same thing as a signifier. The Nielson Norman Group describes indicators as visual cues intended to stand out to inform the user that there is something special about it to warrant and attract the user’s attention.
With contactless-enabled cards and infrastructure slowly becoming more available here in the states, cardholders now have a brand new way of engaging and interacting with their cards. This new capability is essential information for users. Remember when the EMV chip cards became the norm? Cardholders had to learn a new way to interact with their cards.
Let’s use my personal wallet as a use case. I, the user, have a wallet chock full of credit and bank cards but only one card tells me it’s a contactless-enabled at face value. I would have to go into my wallet, pull each card and flip it over to assess which card is contactless-enabled. This isn’t exactly an ideal user experience.
But we should also think beyond the obvious lack of visual signifiers. As designers, we also need to think about context and how common human behavior can be leveraged as clues into smart, thoughtful, and human-centered design.
Context of Use:
Now we understand the importance of designing with clear visual cues to help users quickly assess what actions or options are available to them. Studying common human behavior and contextual use alone would lead us to understand that placing the visual cue on the back of the card isn’t helpful for users because this is not how users typically engage with their credit or bank cards.
I want you to visualize your wallet and what goes inside it. How do you see it? Your identification and cards are typically face up, right? This is a commonplace practice among many of us. Most of our cards are even designed with the name of the institution or brand in the top margins of your card for quick identification and easy access.
So, when a user pulls a card from their wallet or phone case, it is assumed that the users’ interaction with the card will primarily be face up. This may not always be the case for every user, and certainly might not be the norm in other parts of the world, but, here in the states, this interaction is representative of a more commonplace practice and should be considered when thinking about design and good user experience.
We have learned that by simply placing the contactless symbol on the face of the card, the user can quickly identify the new capabilities of the card without having to turn it over to verify the options of use. And we’ve learned that good user experience design is all about taking these small details into account. By considering the context of use, common human behaviors, and what is actually useful or helpful to the user we are empathizing and putting ourselves in the user’s shoes, something many of these giant corporate banks could stand to do a bit more of.
Perhaps this notion would be different if all cards were contactless-enabled? But unfortunately, for most of us in the United States, we are still a bit behind in the contactless payment revolution. Half of my wallet isn’t even contactless-enabled, and it’s 2021! Only three of the eight forms of payment in my wallet are contactless-enabled and that is my Monzo card being the only card with a front-facing contactless indicator, my updated Citi Simplicity card as mentioned above, and my Southwest card which also displays the contactless symbol on the backside.
Some may think that this is a small or inconsequential detail, but as a UX Designer, this is an example of a poorly thought-out design and a sub-standard user experience for cardholders. Surely these large financial institutions, like Bank of America, Citi Bank, or Chase have the means to put considerable energy and focus into their product design? The good news is that there is a pretty clear and easy solution to this problem. I think we could all agree big banks could practice a bit more human-centered design. So, what’s in your wallet?
