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Western Union

 

An app built with isolated, multi-owner businesses in mind.

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SUMMARY
Western Union needed a straight-forward, certification app their field reps could use on the road when visiting small businesses at the farthest reaches of the planet. Think a dusty gas station in northwestern Africa. Their goal was to replace the piles of paperwork these reps carried around with a clean, modern app that was not reliant on an internet connection.

 

ROLE
Senior Product Designer

WHAT
iPad and laptop app for Western Union reps on the go.


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Bucketing the information.

Above: We broke the certification process into three, solid sections: business details, defining the structure/ownership of the business, and forms that needed to be filled out in order to qualify.

Below: The business details section had to be broken down into multiple parts, as well. The amount of information Western Union requires from a small business owner is immense - and rightly, so, as this has to do with money and trust. We sketched, white-boarded and wire-framed ways to nest sections within sections within sections, making our UX decisions primarily around the customer: a small business owner who may already be overwhelmed by day-to-day business dealings. How could we design an app that would streamline the process, and allow the business owner to stop and start, as customers came in? Within the business section, we used an accordion approach. The yellow checkmarks easily identify which sections are complete, and the owner can easily see how many sections are left to fill out.

When the owner has finished a section, we wanted them to feel satisfaction with a congratulatory message, and with as little text as possible.


Finding simplicity in layers.

Below, screens depicting just how complicated business ownership can be when you get down to the details. A single, small business can have multiple owners, big and small, as we found out through user research and by speaking directly with Western Union agents. Owners can be individuals, or they can be businesses themselves. If Business A is partially owned by Business B, and Business B has multiple owners, well…all of this needs to be documented in order to qualify as a Western Union Money Transfer Agent.

I tackled this layering of business ownership with - what else? - layered UX. Our designs allowed small business owners to deep dive into every aspect of ownership, from corporations to individuals, from a 5% owner to a 95% owner. I used color coding as a way-finding tool.


Fun with forms.

Forms were tricky. We needed to make sure that every owner would have access to the forms. Ideally, the forms would be filled out online. But an option to download and send, and an option to simply print out and mail, needed to be made available.