UI Design Challenge: An app for credit card usage through UPI

24-hour design Challenge

Published in

Bootcamp

7 min readSep 12, 2022

👋 This was a 24-hour challenge where we had to showcase our UI skills. It was a fun activity in our UX community of Growthschool under the guidance of Anudeep Ayyagari and the team.

🟢 Challenge Kickoff: Saturday, 10:00 pm
🔴 Challenge Submission: Sunday, 9:00 Pm

“Courage is grace under pressure.” Ernest Hemingway

🚀 UI Design Task

Design an app for credit card usage through UPI

The app should be able to pay through UPI using a credit card, and you should also be able to control and manage your UPI-based credit card payments.

“ Design is the gap between what currently exists and what you aim for — Erika Hall.

🤔 Before I started this project, I wanted to understand my problem space and goals, so I went ahead with some quick research by answering these basic questions:

👉 How do People use credit cards and why?
👉 How does my solution going to help users and why?
👉 What business opportunities Does it creates?
👉 Understanding who are you building this product for?
👉 When and where they gioing to use this produc? what problems they are experiencing and how I'm going to solve this?

🥅 Understand my goals ( Why)

Every day, more than 26 crore digital payment transactions are processed by India’s payments systems, two-thirds of which are processed just by the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI.

Many users already own credit and debit cards, and paying with cards requires the users to carry the card everywhere, swipe, and sometimes authenticate with an OTP. On the other hand, UPI offers the convenience of making payments using your mobile phone, which most consumers always have with them. They need to scan the code or enter the mobile number of the recipient to make a transaction.

Once this new option is available, it will open up more avenues for consumers to carry out transactions with ease and Linking credit cards with UPI would further boost UPI payments in the country and lead to higher utilisation of credit cards

It will encourage users to continue using UPI even when they do not wish to use their savings/current account for a transaction; they can use their credit cards for UPI transactions and, at the same time, avail the short-term credit facility offered by credit cards.

👨‍👩‍👦 Defining the Audience (who)

In a sense, just one mistake kills startups, not making something users want. — Paul Graham, Founder of Ycombinator

I asked myself — what are the categories of people with significantly different motivations for using this product?

👉The percentage of women credit card users grew almost 50%, from 8.41% last year to 12% this year.

👉 The below 25years age group has been the most aggressive in adopting credit cards.

👉 Salaried People had better Credit Score compared To self-employed people

👉 Not All people understand the importance of credit scores; some gaps need to be filled.

👉 Out of all credit card holders in the youngest age bracket of 18–25, 81% have one credit card. 12% of these customers have graduated to 2 cards, 3.6% with three cards and 2.4% with ownership of more than three cards as of Sep 2019.

In the slightly older age bracket, a larger proportion of customers are in possession of 2 or more cards compared to the 18–25 age group, while the proportion of customers with 1 card only is lower in millennials. This segment of customers has high disposable incomes and lower liabilities compared to their older counterparts.

In the age group 36–50 years, customers likely to be more debt conscious and cautious about over-spending have a lower proportion of customers in the 2–3 cards segment, while customers in >3 cards segment are highest among all groups as these customers are likely to have graduated to >3 cards and retained them. Customers >50 years have a high proportion of ownership of a single card, attributable to their increasing weariness towards personal debt. Source

👉 Due to the time limit, I had to pick the biggest audience:

Age: between 22 to 35
Gender: Men and women
Location: Tier 1-2 cities in India
Occupation: Sallarried and self employed, Who always prefers digital payment over Cash

♾️ Understand the customer's context and needs (When and Where)

👉Indians spend 76% more on their credit cards online than they do in stores. Link

👉 One of the critical factors contributing to low savings among credit card holders is that they lack self-control, enabling them to use their smart card technology efficiently. link

Credit card traps can lead to overspending

01. “Credit card rewards are a way for credit card companies to shift our loyalty”

02. A credit card or shopping addiction is not the occasional “treat yourself” shopping trip. Instead, it’s a behavioural addiction: a compulsive drive to engage in an activity that makes you feel good despite the negative consequences.

🌀The Cycle of Compulsive Buying

Compulsive buying behaviour involves 4 phases:

Anticipation: constant thoughts about buying things especially when sad, anxious, or angry.
Preparation: making shopping lists, planning where to shop, online research, or talking about it.
Shopping: the temporary euphoria experienced from buying items online or in person.
Spending: the act of paying for the purchase, often followed by guilt and regret.

Multiple studies have found that compulsive buyers frequently suffer from depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people.”
— Dieter Rams

👤User Stories

It helped me Explore the user’s context and needs and their connection.

As a <role>, I want <goal/desire> so that < Benefit>

Gaol/Desire — what users want to achieve with my product
Benefits — the reason they want to achieve this goal

👉 As a working woman, I want to connect my credit card with minimum steps to UPI so that I can start using it to pay less with offers.
👉 As a frequent card user, I want to know my credit availability before payment so that I can use a debit card if my spending is too much.
👉 As a working man, I want to have a quick transaction with minimum steps so that I don't have to bring out my card to know my CVV.
👉 As a Businessman, I want to choose a credit card between multiple cards so that I can avoid paying everything with one card.
👉 As a working person and daily credit card user, I want to know my all weekly/monthly spending so that I can improve my spending habits.
👉 As a daily credit card user, I want to know my CIBIL score whenever possible so that I can improve/maintain my credit profile.