Tranformative Transactions:Designing for New Banking ExperiencesBrief

by Alexis MorinMA Interaction Design, year 216 November 2012

Design ThemeMoney while traveling

Traveling implies spending money and time. Too manypeople view this as an impediment to traveling.Rent needs to be paid, the dog needs to be walked, time needsto be taken off work, etc...So many questions arise at every stage of travels.Can you accurately plan how much a trip will cost?How can you use your money efficiently and not spend it toofast [budget]?How can using your money enrich a travel experience andhelp you remember it better afterwards?Is it possible to earn some money while traveling?More questions such as these need to be raised throughresearch as they help identify pain points and opportunitiesfor improvement.They are so many steps related to travelling and most of theminvolve someone taking at least some of money from you. It istherefore important that people feel like they have controlover their money.This situation needs a revamp; something that encompassesthe whole travel experience, enriches and facilitates it.I want to look into this situation and propose a solution. Thissolution should be tangible but may also contain elements ofa service.

Budapest by Moyan Breen, FlickrTravelers Cheque von American Express - Valentin Wittich, Wikipedia

Screen capture from PayD video - Payson, Sweden

Research & MotivationSome inspiration and companies who've done it right

There has been many services available for planning trips orvacations over the pre-Internet years.We can think of travel agents, organized tours, all-in-onevacation packages and such.In recent years though, there have also been many online andmobile services that attempt to improve the travel experiencethrough many lenses. Most of these are available on adesktop and/or a mobile offering.TripIt offers to rid you of the paper trail of tickets and bookingconfirmations. The Pro version also tracks flights for refundsand manages your airline fidelity program points balance. Itis available on desktop and mobile platforms. Offlineavailability of travel information is a big plus.Google Now offers a location-aware currency conversion,translation widget, interesting locations nearby andpredictive transit directions to your next destination. GoogleNow only works on Android platforms and requires anInternet connection.Hipmunk offers fantastic visual flight and hotel search basedon price, location, agony or ecstacy. It makes you feel like youactually have a say in your choice of airfare. Hipmunk isavailable on desktop and mobile. They make use of a clevertechnique to bring mobile users to desktop computers in orderto complete bookings.Mint.com is an easy way to connect all of your bank accounts,credit cards and mortgage payments in order to get oneconsolidated view of where your money is going. It containstools for budgeting and goal setting.AirBnb Neighborhoods introduces you to neighborhoods ofvarious cities and sweetens the deal by showing you availablehosts who will take you in during your stay. AirBnb isavailable on desktop and mobile.Choosing payment methods for use abroad highly depends onbank policy to ATM withdraws and POS payments. There is noeasy way to decide.

Tripit.com, Tripit LogoGoogle Now logo

Mint.com logo & screenshotHipmunk.com chipmunk

Possible OutcomesWhat this project may yield

I am choosing to address this space because there are already many services oriented at making people savemoney and use their money in a more transparent way.These existing solutions are only seldom meant for use during travels. They, at times, tend to lack missioncritical and location relevant information for travelers.

I am eager to design a solution that:empowers travellers into going to more places and using their money as an agent of freedom,helps travelers to plan ahead and have a clear idea of how to build a budget for a trip,helps people to get around while on a trip,balances the budget after the trip,maybe even a little more...

Deep

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Using the four keywords:Transformation,Transparency,Thoughtfulness,Tangibility,I plan to present a welcome change into the experience of travelling through the lens of money, banking andtransactions. I am choosing to address this problem with travelling because of how frustrating it can be towant to travel and be overwhelmed by the information scarcity and disparity.I will maintain a process log at the following URL http://2013ixdconcept.tumblr.com/I will deliver a mid-project presentation and updated brief on November 29,a video of the final concept, tangible prototype & presentation document on January 18.For my full timeplan, see page 6.

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ruifipieggio,Flickr

MethodsHow I will work and go about this project

For this project, I will make use of user-centered design. User-centered design focuseson producing grounded ideas and designs. Iwill therefore use only some elements of UCDin order to extract key insights about mytopic.Based on this modified UCD technique, I willperform research-style open-endedinterviews. These interviews will help me geta better idea of the design space surroundingmy topic. Segmenting and breaking down thedata from interviews will help expose goodareas of opportunity around which to focusmy work.Using these areas of opportunity as aspringboard, I will generate ideas for aconcept about the future of money, bankingand traveling.Once a sufficient number of ideas has beengenerated, I will focus on creating a designwhich improves some insights gained fromresearch.After the design is deemed complete, I willproduce a visualisation of the concept bymaking a video as well as a physical sketch ofthe tangible element.

Woman designed by Luis Prado from The Noun ProjectSpeech Bubble designed by Mateo Zlatar from The Noun Project

Thinking designed by Dirk A. Rowe from The Noun Projectallert, Flickr

Timeplan

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M SSFTWT

Brief

Mid-pres.

Pres. to Itaú

Brief writing and prelim. research

Research Interviews, workshops Compile research data

Concept development Pres. document

Concept refinement, workshops

C. refinement Pres. document Ski trip to Tärnaby

Canada

Sweden

Christmas

New Year

Physical prototype building Physical prototype building

Video production & prototype refinement

w. 03 Final Pres.

Video production

Video production & presentation document

Presentation document

Documentation, video, presentation, prototype adjustments

Res. planning

About MeBackground, interests and contact info

Hi. I'm Alexis. I'm currently in my second yearstudying Interaction Design at UmeåUniversity in Sweden. After having studiedfine arts and programming, I thought thatboth could well integrate into something trulyuseful, creative and magical: InteractionDesign.I've been involved with a lot of programmingwork though I now prefer to address the morecreative side of things. To me it's equallyimportant that things are delightful to use aswhat drives them.I love languages. I currently speak six(English, French, Spanish, German, Swedish,and Mandarin Chinese). I love sports and thegreat outdoors. Being challenged withinteresting work is what keeps me going.Here's how you can reach me.mail@alexismorin.comSkype: carignan_boy+46 (0)70 396 3721www.alexismorin.comProject blog: 2013ixdconcept.tumblr.com/