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Venmo Case Study

Timeline

Duration: 7 days 

November, 2021

My Role

UI/UX Designer

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Overview

Venmo is a digital wallet app where users can transfer funds quickly and can use it as a social network. It is one of the most downloaded digital wallet apps which was launched in August 2009 and has grown to have 52 million users on their platform in 2020. From a simple social network and digital wallet platform, Venmo has expanded its brand with Venmo Debit Card, Venmo Credit Card, Business Payments, Pay Anywhere (apps, online, stores), and Crypto Wallet.

This is a case study I decided to make for business owners and users in the United States that use digital wallet apps to transfer money quickly and to manage expenses. 

Users & Audience

Venmo users are mostly under 34 years old. According to the demographic statistics of Venmo users, 7.4 million of the P2P payment are aged between 18 and 34, 4.1 million between 25 and 34 age group, and 3.3 million are from 18 to 24 years old. Only a small portion which is 1.4 million users are between 34-44 group age.

Problem Statement

The reason why I wanted to create a case study about this topic is that Venmo is considered to be one of the most successful digital wallet apps but since 2009, users are still having trouble accessing their monthly statements, tracking their past transactions, and are unfamiliar with Venmo navigation on different platforms.

User Complaints

  • Struggles with navigation differences between the desktop and mobile app versions. ​

  • Users have no access to PDFs of monthly statements on the app. 

  • Users have no access to spending summaries on the app. 

  • Users can't search for past transactions without scrolling through the users' profile's social feed (stories). 

  • Users have no access to view users' friend lists. 

Goals

Project Goals

  • To design an application that can help Venmo users to have an easier and quicker secured digital transaction on the Venmo platform 

  • navigation experience 

  • Learn what features/services Venmo users want to improve 

  • To design a simple and user-friendly interface

Personal Goals

  • Learn how to conduct personal interviews.

  • Learn how to analyze user research data.

  • Improve design skills: color schemes, sketches, motion design, user flows, and wireframes.

User Research

What are the users saying? 

The goal of this research is to create a user-centered design project, I spent time having online discussions with 4 of my friends about their experiences with using the Venmo app: 2 of them are students and 2 of them are employed.

  • 2 out of 4 (all employed) are slowly switching to transferring money with other competitors such as Splitwise or Zelle. 

  • 1 of them knows that Venmo sends transactions monthly statements through email and desktop versions. 

  • 2 of them want Venmo to have a categorized spending summary. 

  • Overall, users have a hard time finding their friend list to request or send money and getting used to the app version compared to the desktop version. 

Key Findings

The key findings have given me more understanding of why users are not having a pleasant experience with using the Venmo app. I decided that there are three main solutions to solve user pain points.

  1. IMPROVE PROFILE PAGE 

  2. SIRI ASSISTANT 24/7 

  3. CREATE MONTHLY STATEMENTS SYSTEM 

  4. CREATE A SPENDING SUMMARY SYSTEM

Proposed Solution

1. Improve Profile Page

Based on the current version of the Venmo app (9.7.0), the profile page includes many options for users:

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  • Transfer balance 

  • Past transactions 

  • Stories

  • Search Transactions 

  • Incomplete transactions 

  • Notification 

  • Settings 

  • Create a business profile 

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Screenshots of User Profile Page on Venmo app (version 9.7.0)

Though there are many options for users to navigate within the profile page, users still want to have access to their friend list, monthly statements, and spending summary from this page. Based on users’ pain points, I decided to come up with an improved user flow for the profile page so that users can have more options accessing information or sections they need without navigating to another page.

2. Siri Assistant 24/7

A prototype page for the Siri Assistant Feature. 

Based on the current version of the Venmo app (9.7.0), they have excluded the side menu bar which can navigate users quickly and efficiently out of the app. Currently, Venmo is using the bottom taskbar which includes 4 sections: Social Feed, Debit/Credit Card, Crypto Wallet, and Profile Page.

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​It’s simplified but users are having a hard time navigating on the Venmo app. I decided Venmo should include Siri assistance so that users can easily navigate within a voice message. My solution is to create a mode in settings in which users can click enable Siri on the Venmo app and navigate or get questions answered in seconds.

3. Monthly Statement

Based on the current version of the Venmo app (9.7.0), there is no access to the monthly statement of user spending or past transactions. The transactions can only be accessed through desktop versions or email and in .csv format. Most of the users find this format is inconvenient for them to view their monthly statements.

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My solution is to create PDFs of monthly statements and included them on the profile page and search engine so that users can have access to their monthly statements and download files as PDFs or save them as pictures on their phones.

A screenshot of the desktop version of the Venmo page of user access to the .CSV file of their monthly statements.

4. Spending Summary

Based on the current version of the Venmo app (9.7.0), there is no spending summary and users are demanding Venmo to have this feature available for non-Venmo credit/debit card users. The outcome of having this feature encourages Venmo users to use the app to pay in-store, to pay shared bills, or do online shopping.

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My solution is to include this feature along with the monthly statements on the profile page.

A prototype of the profile page which has options for users to view spending summary or monthly statements.

Userflow

Low-Fidelity Prototype

Left - Profile Page Stories

Right - Profile Page Transactions

Left - Spending Summary

Right - View of a specific category (ex: groceries)

Left - View all Monthly Statements 

Right - Download a specific monthly statement

View when users ask Siri for assistance to navigate within the Venmo app

Designing User Interface & Experience

Profile Page

The profile page will now include Stories and Transactions for Venmo users. 

Stories feed is going to be the same as the original version which allows users to see past transactions as a social media platform. Users can set privacy settings, like and comment on transactions. 

The transactions slide will have 2 options for users. To go to view all monthly statements as PDFs or to access categorized spending summary for this current month. 

Siri Assistant Navigation

Siri assistant navigation is available in settings. Once users activate Siri in Venmo settings, users can ask for assistance from Siri to navigate. 

Siri navigation is helpful when users are not familiar with the navigation of the app. For example, if users don't know how to navigate to access last month's statement, the process of Siri assistance would be: 

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User: Siri  

Siri: How can I help you? 

User: Where can I find my monthly statement for last month on Venmo? 

Siri: You can access your last month's statement on your Venmo profile page under the transactions tab on the Venmo app. Say yes to confirm open the Venmo app. 

User: No (Siri cancel) 

User: Yes

Siri will open the Venmo app and load the profile page transactions tab for users. 

Monthly Statement

To access monthly statements, users can click View All Statements under the Transactions tab on the profile page. 

When users click on PDF, the Venmo app will load previous statements links organized by year and month. When users click on a statement option, for example, Oct 20, users will have options to view PDF on the current page or save it as a file. 

Categorized Spending Summary

To access Spending Summary, users can click Spending Summary under the Transactions tab on the profile page. 

Users have access to a donut chart of current month spending. Users can also click on each category such as Groceries, Shopping, Dining, etc. to view transactions in that specific category. 

What I'd do differently next time

  1. Iterate as much as you can. In the beginning stages, I’ve explored so many different options to try to find the right solution for Venmo users, I ended up planning and sketching my project over 3 times. 

  2. Be consistent. Throughout my project, I struggled with keeping the same energy and consistency. I’ve explored many design elements with Adobe and Figma and having trouble using these tools. It took me longer than I thought to finish the final prototype for the Venmo app but without patience, I wouldn’t have completed the project requirements. 

  3. First Case Study. This is my first UI/UX case study where I get to collaborate on both data analytics and web design skills. I’m thankful to have completed this project and will keep improving to have the app as best I could.

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Thank you for taking the time to read through my case study. Check out my Figma file. 

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