Overview

LOC Coin is a South African based fintech company that’s creating a marketplace where South Africans can find, use, consolidate, and share their rewards points from hundreds of thousands of merchants. Their product will eventually transfer unused rewards points into a cryptocurrency called LOC Coin.

My team was tasked with designing personas, user flows, wireframes, and a few high fidelity screens for the the mobile and desktop versions of both the consumer and merchant sides of the new company. I worked on research and flows for both the consumer and merchant sides, and then took the lead on the merchant wireframes while my colleagues focused on the consumer. This case study will talk about both sides but focus on the merchant experience.

Merchant Solution

Businesses can grow their customer base through LOC Coin’s marketplace, learn more about their customers and rewards through in-depth analytics, and join a community of fellow merchants to keep up with news, tips, and tricks of running a rewards program.

Team

UX Designers: Kora Feder, Tessa Veto, Bre Walker

Founder & CEO: Tshibangu Kalambaie

Tools

Figma, FigJam (Beta)

Timeline

April - June, 2021

Step 1: Secondary Research

We combed through about 8 articles and white papers on how South Africans use rewards programs. Here are some of the insights we gathered, and how they informed our UX decisions.

• 73% of South African consumers still prefer the use of a physical loyalty card. Many leading loyalty programs still offer more than one loyalty identifier (card, App, and cell number). So, the consumer experience of using the app needs to be as seamless and easy as swiping a card.

• When asked what frustrates them about rewards programs, almost 40% of people noted the lack of rewards relevant to them. This is a sign that personalization will be important for user experience and retention. This will impact the merchant side as well, where rewards need to be able to be personalized.

• Many frustrations came up about getting too many texts and emails from rewards programs, complicated redeeming processes, and frustratingly long registration processes. This adds to the need for a frictionless, easy experience that replaces all texts and emails with one app. Merchant side needs to focus on less spam, and fewer rewards per merchant.

Step 2: Competitor Analysis

After reviewing many merchant or business side experiences such as Yelp, Groupon, and Etsy, we came up with a few things we thought we should carry into our design phase:

• Simple bottom navigation, similar to Etsy Sell.

• Analytics organized in cards, similar to Groupon Merchant.

• Interface needs to be insightful and useful while not overwhelming users, especially small business owners who may not have marketing/data experience.

• App needs to include: Team Control, Analytical data on rewards and members, Profile or Business Info, Easy Photo Upload, Easy Cancel/Change Reward.

Step 3: User Interview & Personas

Based on interviews and data collected by LOC Coin before I came on to the project, and data from our secondary research, we came up with two simple guiding personas for our merchants. One, a Small Business Owner who is looking to grow their business and learn about the rewards world. The second, a Rewards Manager at a larger chain store, looking to utilize LOC Coin’s marketplace.

Step 4: App Map

In order to make sure that we were on the same page as the founder in terms of how the Consumer and Merchant products actually work, I suggested we create rough app maps. We did so for both consumer and merchant sides and used them as talking points in our meeting with the founder.

Left: Early Merchant App Map, to make sure the LOC Coin Founder agreed with the early navigation decisions.

Step 5: MVPs, Tasks, & User Flows

Next, I started putting together a more in-depth user flow that considered the four main MVP’s for our merchants.

• Create an account in order to offer and control rewards for members.

• Add and change information about business, rewards, and surveys.

• Understand consumer patterns with an analytics dashboard.

• Be in the know on LOC Coin merchant news, from merchant stories to consumer trends.