I joined Chase Pay, the bank’s digital wallet, in 2016. This was my first role as a designer. I had a previous career as a middle school math teacher. So, this particular opportunity meant a lot to me in terms of learning craft and operating within a mature design team.

Case Study

My Role and Collaborators

I led the design of the ‘Merchants’ experience between 2016 to 2018. I collaborated with other designers who led other surface areas of Chase Pay like Payments, Offers, and Design Systems.

I played a large part in prototyping for the team and often crafted end-to-end prototypes so that the team could test and validate concepts in user research.

In addition, I often collaborated with UX Researchers, Content Strategists, and Product Managers.

Understanding an opportunity to support “Payers” and “Merchants” in the Chase ecosystem

Prior to “Merchants”, the user could pay for something at a store with ChasePay, but they couldn’t find the stores where the app could be used. For example, if the user was at a shopping mall with 10 stores, maybe half of them would accept Chase Pay. A frustrated user might be at a coffee shop wanting to use Chase Pay but then quickly denied by an equally confused cashier. Thus, we needed to discover and implement a solution to help the user understand where Chase Pay was accepted.

Moreover, at this time, users weren’t accustomed to digital payments. Tools like Apple Pay were just reaching early adopted, and it was often easier using a physical credit card than digital payment methods. Thus, we needed to provide stronger incentives as to why users should use Chase Pay.

Learning about User and Merchant needs

Using Lean UX methods, I collaborated with Product Managers and Researchers to develop hypotheses we could validate and learn from. We created artifacts like user stories, user journeys, and low-fidelity prototypes. We interviewed users and merchants to understand their needs. These Discovery and Definition activities drove us towards Design.

Letting users save time with “Order Ahead” and save money with “Offers”

We attempted to solve the why problem with two Merchant features: ‘Order Ahead’ and ‘Offers’. While ubiquitous today with apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash, the concept of Order Ahead was relatively new at the time of this launch. It allowed the team to explore user experiences beyond fin-tech which benefited the overall company’s design language. The ‘Offers’ feature was already expanding in the flagship Chase app, and we had the opportunity to further support it in Chase Pay.

Reflections

Ultimately, adoption of Chase Pay never accelerated between merchants and users. Other forms of payments like Apple Pay and tried-and-true methods like credit cards proved superior to that of Chase Pay. Moreover, it proved costly to make Chase Pay ubiquitous across businesses. In 2021, the bank discontinued the app.

Regardless, the development of Chase Pay allowed the bank to experiment and innovate. New design languages and interaction patterns outside of fintech were jolted into the digital team’s ethos. Having been my first role as a UX designer, I was grateful for my time and learnings there.