Dedicated app and web design for currency conversion

Helping travelers exchange currency confidently

Role
UX/UI Designer

Industry
Travel

Skills
Design Ideation, Wireframing, Protoyping, Usability Testing

Research Insights

Bridging the gap for international travelers in fintech

Through an in-depth competitive analysis, I identified a significant market gap: despite the plethora of fintech solutions for currency conversion, global travelers are largely underserved. By conducting interviews with frequent international travelers, I discovered a pressing need for secure and user-friendly currency conversion services. This insight drove me to innovate and incorporate value-added features into my app design: a currency exchange locator to easily find nearby physical exchange services and an AR-based conversion tool that instantly translates currency data from items like menus and price tags using a smartphone camera.

Flow Maps

Simple intuitive flow for fast use

Having completed primary research, I gained valuable insights into user needs and identified the key features I would be designing to improve the experience of a world traveller needing fast, accurate currency conversions and real time locations of currency exchanges. With this understanding, I designed detailed flow maps for an app aimed at expediting and simplifying this process.

Conversion Flow

Exchange Locator Flow

Early Design Ideation

Visual brainstorming through hand sketches

I created sketches of the home, conversion, and location screens to develop and refine my concepts for various aspects of the app design.

Wireframes

Lo-Fi wireframes shaping user-centric functionality

I created a series of wireframes for various concepts to create an intuitive look and feel for users on the go who need quick access to information. I prioritized making the currency converter the first screen users see upon opening the app and incorporated historical exchange rate data. My goal was to ensure users have immediate access to essential tools, enabling confident currency usage with all necessary information easily accessible in one place.

Insights from testing

Early usability testing revealed key areas for improvement

I designed and conducted a usability test with five users from diverse backgrounds and locations. Each user was given the same four tasks to complete while I recorded their screens and prompted them to think aloud as they navigated the app. The goal was to assess the app’s ease of use and the functionality of its main features. I meticulously documented their actions and feedback in a spreadsheet, ranking the difficulty each user experienced in completing the tasks. The tasks were:

Convert 118,000 JPY to the equivalent in USD.
Save the conversion to your profile and view it.
Find the nearest currency exchange bank to your location.
Change your language setting to French and your home currency to Euros.

Here's an example of one tester completing the first prompt:

User feedback highlighted the desire to easily swap the top and bottom currency positions.
Feedback revealed areas where my design needed enhanced clarity, the user’s location and where saved items went.
Location pin needed to be at center of map screen - emphasizing the importance of familiar conventions.
Button for AR camera-based conversion feature required clearer labeling to help users understand its location and purpose.
Users were confused by the notion of changing their language in the app, they felt that was something that they would have already done in their device settings (this insight led to the removal of this feature).

Below are some examples of how I incorporated these insights into my first high-fidelity designs:

Final Designs

Continued iteration for enhanced usability and user delight

After further usability testing, I refined the designs to enhance clarity and user experience. Text and layouts were simplified for better readability, and spacing was adjusted for improved visual balance. A clean, aesthetically pleasing UI was implemented to infuse joy and simplicity into the user experience. Core features were made more intuitive through cohesive color schemes, a simple and familiar design system, and easy-to-read fonts.

Using feedback from test users, I streamlined the app by identifying and retaining valuable elements while eliminating unnecessary ones. For example, the “Feed” section, which contained news about currency and finance, was removed as it did not align with the app's primary goal of providing quick access to currency exchange information. The “Profile” section was reworked into a “Saves” section, allowing users to quickly access their previous conversions and exchange locations for easy reference.

Below are examples of how these insights informed my first high-fidelity designs.

Additional Features

“Convert from Camera” gives users freedom to point a camera and automatically input the currency values into the converter.
The Saves section allows users to store and quickly recall previous conversions and exchange locations at-a-glance

Desktop Website Version

Extending the experience to larger screens

After finalizing the mobile app design, I transitioned the experience to desktop view, aligning with my mission to provide users with seamless access to currency information wherever and whenever they need it. This shift allowed me to enhance the design by leveraging the larger screen size to add more value. For instance, the "Find Exchange" section was optimized to display the map, live location, and list view of results all within one above-the-fold space. This layout ensures that users can access all necessary information at a glance, enhancing readability and flow.

Project Insights

Small wins for all users

I discovered an elegant way to present simple currency conversion information that meets the unique needs of travelers without alienating other user types. This approach demonstrated how designing for an underserved population can benefit all users. The AR camera conversion feature and the exchange locator offer significant value to users in their home country who are either investing in foreign currency or preparing for future travel.

Usability testing continued to show speed and ease of use, with the time-on-task being reduced by an average of 25% after the second round. This shows that this design will work for the most demanding situations. The times when people need to depend on it the most, when they feel isolated in a foreign land. This app can give users the confidence to know what amount they are actually paying for something.

For the future

Expansion creates more control

Future iterations of this would include the creation of an account system where money could be banked and then converted virtually, to be withdrawn in a foreign currency when needed. Additionally, I see a lot of value in a social component where money could be transferred from user to user and converted into the desired currency at the same time. If I were to start my design process over again, I would expanded more at the ideation phase to allow for a larger more feature rich set of experiences to sit behind the main experience. I feel like that would create an even better value proposition for CurrencyFX.