BNPL platform concept & UX/UI design

About client

“Slice Payment” is a new online BNPL (Buy-Now-Pay-Later) broker that enables e-commerce customers to select the best financing option for their purchases and get almost instant approvals, including credit or instalment plans from various BNPL providers in the market.

Challenge

Nika Tech Family resident needed to quickly develop product concepts and validate product-market fit before making multi-million dollar business and investment decisions. The challenge was to do this within an extremely tight timeframe of 3 weeks from idea to minimum viable product (MVP) ready to market test prototype, while also involving multiple stakeholders such as end-customers, “Buy Now Pay Later” (BNPL) service providers, and e-commerce platforms.

Project goal

Develop a minimum viable product (MVP) prototype, test its market fit, brand and monetization model.

Solution

We used the “design sprint” approach based on the Google Design Sprint methodology. We conducted research on multiple customer segments simultaneously, held fast co-design sessions (almost on daily basis) with stakeholders, and performed live technical validation with a development team.
The methods we used included:
– User and Expert Interviews
– Service Safari
– UX Audit
– Co-design Session Facilitation
– Usability Tracking Testing
– Iterative Prototyping
– Brand Creation

Process explained

1. Based on our initial kick-off meeting with the customer, we began by building an initial product hypothesis that needed validation. This led us to design a research strategy that included:
   In-depth interviews with end-customers, financial and product managers of merchants, and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service providers (potential platform partners).
   UX research of best practices in the niche. Sentiment analysis of BNPL customer feedback from open sources to identify key pain points in their experience.
2. Recruiting participants was the toughest part of the process, as our goal was to complete the research stage within 72 hours of kickoff. However, with the help of key stakeholders and our research team, we successfully achieved this by talking to over 16 people within 48 hours.
3. The next stage involved creating conceptual designs and wireframes based on the research data, technical requirements from the development team, and user interaction experience prototyping. 
One of the main challenges was to simplify as much as possible KYC process, at the same time meeting regulatory and compliance requirements form our BNPL partners. Thanks to some UX technics we have designed a seamless application process for consumers and make scoring and decision-making on the backend perceived as almost real-time by the applicants. This approach helped Slice Payment stands out from its competitors on the market, especially traditional banks.
4. With the mid-fidelity prototypes in hand, we conducted a second round of research to validate concepts and user flows. This involved realistic emulation of product availability on key e-commerce platforms, as well as presenting workflow and discussing integrations with merchants and lending partners.
5. In parallel, our visual design team worked on the branding and user interface (UI) of the platform. This included crafting custom illustrations, designing the main hero image, logo, and all other necessary design elements.
6. Ultimately, Craft Innovations successfully completed the scope of work within the required three weeks and provided ongoing support to the development team throughout the product’s life cycle.