top of page

Circa

MOBILE
DATE
LENGTH
CLIENT

March 2021

5 weeks

Circa

ROLES

UX Researcher

Information Architecture

UI Designer
Content Designer
Interaction Designer
Rapid Prototyping
GROUP PROJECT: BROOKE WERTMAN, XAVIER GRULLON
Usability Testing

Brief

Circa is an innovative rent payment app that provides residents with a more flexible rent payment schedule. Offering a new model of paying rent by a mobile app with multiple payment methods and credit reporting. Circa has the vision of giving people more control and less stress around their finances.

01. Empathize

User Research
 

User interviews and surveys were conducted to determine how users are currently implementing rent payment applications, and if there is a need for a more payment model.

We also wanted to gain better data on how users felt about creating and maintaining an "alternative rental history".

Proposal: Redesign the payment history feature to create a visual narrative that residents can participate in, one that communicates the factual payment history but also includes context from the resident.

Methodology: Design Thinking Model 

UX Strategy Blueprint
Survey Results
Pain Points

Using an affinity diagram, we synthesized the data to flesh out pain points and design opportunities.

After synthesizing the user research data we determined the following pain points:

  1. Residents have some degree of volatility with expenses

  2. Many residents work in gig-economy or are job-to-job

  3. There is a need to move away from the punitive payment model 

Affinity Diagram.png
Market Research
 

Next, we began researching competitors to better understand what products were already being offered. Circa's main competitors were:

  1. Zibo

  2. Flex.

  3. Avail

  4. Till

During the interview with the stakeholder, the main goal for circa was to remain renter-centered.

Frame 60.png
Frame 58.png
Frame 57.png
Frame 54.png

02. Define

Persona
 

Based on user research we created a User Persona. Tamon Roman is a single father who has been recently laid off due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.  Like many Gig-workers, Tamon's pay schedule does not align with his rent payment due date.  Our goal is to provide a product that allows him to add context to his payment history, which will allow him to meet his goal of building a positive credit history without being penalized for circumstances that are out of his control, such as a global pandemic.

Journey Map

Tamon's journey map shows multiple design opportunities including:

  1. Logging changes of financial circumstances in Circa app

  2. Ability to include proof of life events in payment history with photos

  3. Provide landlords access to the resident’s alternative credit contextual payment history

Frame 55.png
Frame 56.png

03. Ideate

MoSCoW

Based upon the market research, we used the Crazy 8's method to ideate potential features that we prioritized using the MoSCoW method. 

Frame 62.png

Concept Sketches

The current user flow for inputting payment history did not give the user the ability to add context to payments.  We added a contextual feature in the form of tags, as well as photo uploads.

Frame 64.png
Frame 63.png
Frame 65.png

To revise the payment history screen, we included visuals that added to the personalization of the app.  The main feature of the concept sketches is the ability to add an event to a payment action.   This was done so that actions such as late payments, could be given real word context.  The purpose behind this addition was to help the user create a narrative payment history that could then be exported and sent to a prospective landlord.

04. Prototyping

Mid-Fi

Because Circa already had a functioning product, we created a Mid-Fi prototype of the revised payment history flow, then conducted usability interviews.

Frame 66.png

06. Solution

To ensure our final prototype was in line with Circa's current branding, we created components to match the current design system using Figma.

Frame 72.png
High-Fi Prototype
 

Using our design system, we completed the final prototype with updates to the Dashboard and Payment History screen.

Frame 69.png
Frame 71.png

The Prototype

bottom of page