When I started to work on the wireframes, I had to think about which Operating System (OS) to use. I own an iPhone and I’m familiar with iOS, however in Kenya, Android dominates the market. That informed my decision to design for an Android phone. The main challenge was the lack of familiarity. I utilized the Material Design Guidelines to bridge the knowledge gap.
Sketching by hand was a useful tool because it allowed me to follow my stream of consciousness and work in a free flowing manner.
Based on my mentor’s feedback after the first round of digital wireframes, I showed more permutations to give a greater picture of the user journey. Given the market, it became clear that the user checkout flow required further design development due to the different methods of payment utilized in Kenya. In the U.S., credit/debit card is the dominant form of e-commerce payment, however in Kenya, cash and M-Pesa, a mobile money payment system, are the dominant method. Credit cards have a lower penetration rate, however it’s still included as a payment option in addition to M-Pesa and PayPal.
I refined the “Pick up” and “Delivery” flow and function. Designing a checkout flow with minimal steps took several iterations. While larger online market platforms in Kenya include an option to pay cash on delivery, I decided to not include that option due to cost and logistics. I would rather focus on design efforts to build long term trust with consumers in order to ease them into online payment.