Venmo Case Study | INFO 1998
I. User experience analysis
When asked about their experiences with Venmo, the people I inquired had much accolades and praises for the app. They enjoyed the ease of use of the application and that it accomplishes what it promised. However, even Venmo could not elude raising concerns.
One of the biggest concerns pertained to the security and privacy of the app. One person pointed out that Venmo’s default setting for payments is public, so everyone could see who you were paying and what you were paying for, unless you physically changed the setting to private. Another user expressed alarm over friends being able to see each others payments. Still others were apprehensive towards Venmo storing their payment history, bank information, and card information. They were concerned about the security of Venmo and were uneasy about having their information stolen. One user expressed that Venmo should be more transparent and let customers know what they use all the information for.
Other critiques dealt with the usability of the app. One user noticed occasional delays in transactions which led to him paying twice for the same thing. Another found that the history interface made it hard to find a specific transaction. Still others were frustrated that the web version of Venmo lacks the ability transfer their Venmo balance to their bank account.
II. Pain point
While security and privacy are important concerns, I chose instead to focus on a usability issue. A crucial feature of a good product is good usability; the customer must be able to understand the interface and comfortably interact with it. More specifically, I was interested in how to make the transaction history more navigable.
I had also encountered problems with the history panel. I used Venmo to pay a friend after a meal at Moosewood Restaurant. Days later, not remembering if I had repaid her or not, she asked me about the bill. Going into my Venmo history, I learned that I had to scroll all the way down until I had found the desired transaction as proof that I had paid my part.
People Problem Format:
When I view my transactions, I want to easily navigate my history, so I can find the transaction I want.
But I can’t do that well because my transaction history is long.
But I can’t do that well because my transaction history is long.
III. Developing Solutions
In order to make the transaction history more maneuverable, I brainstormed ways to organize and find the information.
A. Organize Transaction History:
Divide and conquer. Splitting up and grouping the transactions would make the app more navigable. One way to implement this would be to arrange the history by years and months, which intuitively reflects aspects of online banking.
View your transactions during a specified year & month.
B. Search Feature:
Another method is to add a search bar to narrow down transactions. One use for the search bar would be to look for keywords in the Venmo payment. For example, if you searched the word “cupcake,” your transactions containing “cupcake” or a cupcake emoji would appear.
Searching for the keyword “cupcake” will allow you to view all transactions with the word “cupcake” or a cupcake emoji.
The other use for a search bar would be to view your transactions between a certain friend. Just have to type their name into the search bar, and the Venmo history between you two pops up.
Searching for “Amy” would let you view all transactions with people named Amy. Searching for “Amy Dai” would display transactions with just Amy Dai.
To me, the keyword search bar seems to be the most intuitive and effective solution out of all the ideas. It allows the user to be very specific when navigating their history and is a commonly used feature. This search bar takes up minimal screen space and does not distract from the main purpose of the app.
IV. Mockup
Here is a mockup (designed in Figma) of how the keyword search would work:
The user taps on the search bar, types in “cupcake,” and only relevant transactions are displayed.
