3 Lessons to Guide Designing Better Financial Tech For The Developing World

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

On a recent development project in Pakistan, researchers and designers watched closely as a woman picked up a smartphone and opened an app. For someone with a low literacy level, and who had never used a mobile money app, she moved across the screens with surprising ease. This was an important test because Faiza manages her family’s finances and regularly needs to transfer money. She needs it to build financial independence, which is hard for the rural working class who have very few banks.

The design world is in the middle of an “empathy explosion” that would seem to have Faiza as their ideal end user. We know that access to financial technology is essential for development, and even more essential to improve the status of women.

But on the next screen in the test, Faiza got stuck. Even though there was an “X” in the top corner, she didn’t know how to close it. Why? Because unlike most of the people who design apps, she didn’t grow up surrounded by an MS Windows operating system that makes that “X” button second nature.

Source: Fast CoExist (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Technology
Tags
financial inclusion, fintech, mobile finance