User Research: Google Pay
2020-2021
Our student team at UW wanted to explore how a finance app like Google Pay could help users to better manage their money. Using our research findings, I created updated designs for Google Pay.
Research questions
What barriers do users face when paying or requesting from friends?
How easily do users find information about businesses or transactions?
How fun is the app to use?
Methodology
Screening survey sent out to candidates (28 respondents)
Candidates selected for usability tests (6 selected)
Remote usability tests conducted via Zoom
Analysis and reporting
Candidates were selected for the study if they met the following criteria:
iOS (iPhone) users
Uses payment apps like Venmo frequently (at least once a month)
Has multiple (2+) credit cards
Age 26-35
Uses a Gmail address (for simple account set up in Google Pay)
Why these candidates?
These candidate traits were selected because they reflect the target user base of Google Pay. Young professionals with active social lives looking to spend and save money.
Usability tests
We created a test script and asked candidates to complete four different tasks using Google Pay
Add a friend and request money
Use the Help Documentation to dispute a transaction
Search for a local business and find a special offer
Find a specific transaction in your spending history
These tasks reflect the distinguishing features of Google Pay. This app promotes itself as a quick and simple app to pay friends and track money, so we put that to the test!
Highlight clips
Issues uncovered
The Search Bar is inconsistent and hard to find
Adding Friends is difficult and unintuitive
Navigation is confusing
The Search Bar is inconsistent
These search buttons have different behaviors
Ironically, the Search Bar is one of the most confusing aspects of Google Pay.
The search bar is hard to find. It changes location based on the page, and on some pages it is completely missing.
The Search Bar has many different uses based on context. Sometimes it searches for people, sometimes it is searching for local restaurants. Overall, the search bar does not clearly communicate its filters, which led to unexpected behaviors and search results.
“Where is the search bar?”
“I was expecting some search results to show up here, but it looks like nothing is here.”
“Now I have to step back and see if there are other places I can search for Panera (businesses).”
My recommendation
Search is always visible, always accessible from the top of the screen
Search doesn’t filter for you. You control how the filters are applied
Adding Friends is difficult
The app only has one button to Add Friends: “Invite”
But the Invite feature is confusing. It is designed to invite people who don’t have Google Pay accounts. If your friend already has a Google Pay account, the Invite feature is useless.
“The request tells me to add your phone number and download Google Pay, but I already have Google Pay.
If your friend already has Google Pay, you can use search to find their profile but this is not made apparent. Most users thought the only way to Add Friends is through the use of a QR code.
“If I click into your profile, I don’t see an option to add you as a friend.”
“I end up using a QR code, so I physically have to be there to scan it unless they can send me a photo of thier QR code somehow.”
My recommendation
Consolidate all the different ways to add friends into one page.
Make the search bar a clear choice when adding friends
Navigation is confusing
Users are unsure what the icons on the bottom represent. There are no Call to Action buttons on the home page except “Pay friend or group.” The lack of recognizable patterns creates a meandering experience for user navigation.
Users don’t have any prompts on how to explore the app. The only type users can clearly see on the home page is the People feature. There are no directions on how to find transactions or find special deals with local businesses.
“At first, I didn’t know I could search at the top (of the screen). So I was exploring a lot but I couldn’t find what I wanted.”
Navigation on Google Pay is scroll dominated. There’s a lot of different information packed onto a single screen. Users have to scroll through long pages to find information, instead of using menus or recognizing patterns.
“I’ve been using Google Pay for the last hour but I don’t feel like I know how to use it any better than when I started.”
“Oh, I found it! But you had to tell me (where to look).”
My recommendation
Reorganize the layout from Pay, Explore, Insights into more concrete categories: People, Businesses, and Your Money.
My learnings
The user is in control during the research session. Let them explore, make mistakes, and have fun.
Usability studies are intense and users can feel drained after an hour of testing and talking out loud. It’s important that the users feel empowered to explore the app. The most interesting insights were discovered when the users went off-script and I didn’t know what to expect. Being able to adapt to the flow of the user is key to successful research.
Don’t assume users will check every page, make things available immediately.
Google Pay did a great job of creating a full set of features for users to interact with friends and businesses. Unfortunately, many of these features were hard to find. Instead of hiding features deep down in scrollable pages, try to surface everything in one page with call outs and labels to direct users.
Keep similar objects and features together. Don’t get fancy with your hierarchy.
Adding friends is a basic feature of any social app. But Google Pay spread out three different ways to add people across three different screens. This only led to headaches for users. Instead, try to group things up and keep similar features together.