Blind Faith
Making digital payment accessible to people with visual impairments
Blind Faith Overview
What is it like to pay with mobile phone as a blind person? In this UX design & Research project, I collaborated with experts with visual disabilities to design a new payment flow in ING's mobile App.
The new payment function reads out the final amount and allows user to confirm payment on their own device, which gives visually impaired people a better sense of control with their digital payment.
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The new flow is now live in the ING App on Android.
The Problem
Contactless payment has been gaining popularity in the Netherlands. According to the Dutch Payment Association annual report, about 79.5% of the transactions are contactless payments with debit cards and mobile devices. (Dutch Payment Association, 2021)
Unfortunately, this trend is challenging for people with visual impairments to adapt to. As payment infrastructures become increasingly touch-screen based, PVIs struggle to complete a secure payment independently.
Mismatch
“Disability is a mismatched interaction between the features of a person’s body and the features of the environment in which they live”
— World Health Organization, 2011 World Report on Disability
Design Approach
This project takes an inclusive design approach to understand the mismatches between people with visual impairment (PVIs) and the current payment infrastructure in the Netherlands. The research applies existing Inclusive Design toolkit by Microsoft and general UX design methods to map the context of payment to reveal latent user needs and co-design solutions. Moreover, we used interaction aesthetic and design for positive emotions method developed by Dr. Pieter Desmet to ensure the design not only fulfills PVIs' accessibility needs, but also ensures they feel empowered and independent, qualities that are missing in many existing accessibility designs.
In total, I interviewed and tested the prototype with 15+ visually impaired people with the support of Visio.
the Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit
Interviews & Shopping with Target Users
Desk Research
Interview with Inclusive Design Experts
Simulated Visual Disability Test
Major Mismatches between PVIs and the Payment Infrastructure
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The payment infrastructure is not offering accessible cues and feedback
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PVIs don’t have enough time to assess their payment environment
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PVIs cannot assess the final amount
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The transaction happens while PVIs are still assess the payment environment
Ideation
Co-creative workshops were hosted with stakeholders such as accessibility experts, visually impaired users and ING's payment experts to brainstorm design directions and evaluate technical feasibility of each design direction
Prototyping & Testing
Prototyping with Arduino and Figma to simulate a direct POS-mobile connection experience
Testing the prototype with visually impaired users to identify usability challenges and to iterate the design
Final Prototype
Testing & Iterating
Bringing it Alive with ING Factory
On November 24th, 2022. We organized a 2 days Mackathon with ING Factory. Together with experts and professionals from IT, Payment, Branding and Accessibility. We were able to implement the new payment flow into the ING App and tested with our dear guest: Debby Buis, host of the blog to share how she live with her visual impairment everyday.
