A customizable Point-of-Sale System on the blockchain for event organizers
Squarelink EventPass
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Problem:
How can Squarelink create a PoS (Point-of-sale) system on the blockchain that could be intuitive and simple to use for any mainstream user?
Image Source: https://accessventures.org/blog/demystifying-blockchain-adoption/
Case Summary
Product Team:
UX Designer, Full-stack Developer, Product Developer
My Role:
UX Designer, UX Researcher, Product Management
Tools:
Sketch, InVision, Whimsical
Project Plan:
1-2 weeks of discovery and ideation, 3 weeks of prototype development
October-November 2019
Interactive Prototype:
View prototype here: https://invis.io/3TUQ81YNZ2C
Exploration - Context
Product Launch & Pilot
Squarelink had recently launched the EventPass and the product was being piloted for the first time at ETHBoston, a global blockchain conference and hackathon. The EventPass creates a customizable pop-up economy on the blockchain for small businesses and event organizers, and the core services offered to ETHBoston consisted of: 1) venue check-in, 2) a food payment system, and 3) workshop registration.
1) venue check-in for hackers and sponsors
Source: https://twitter.com/hashtag/ethboston
2) a payment system for vendors to create invoice and attendants to pay for their food.
Source: https://twitter.com/hashtag/thealexpatin
3) workshop registration
Source: https://blog.enigma.co/community-update-enigmas-ethboston-trip-report-9bfb79faa782
Examples of business goals aligned with my responsibilities
After business objectives and KPI’s were determined, I laid out my responsibilities for this project:
To seamlessly onboard new and existing attendants to the the Squarelink platform
To design an intuitive payment system for first-time users (vendors and attendants)
Refinement - User Flows
Because ETHBoston was our first time testing our product, we had to anticipate a sequence of events and come up with all possible scenarios. To minimize hiccups, I created two separate user flows for 1) onboarding users, and 2) paying for food.
1. Onboarding Users
Every attendee receives a card with a QR code that, when scanned, imports a wallet into their Squarelink account that has been pre-funded with the currency created for that event. Since there was a mix of new and existing Squarelink users, we ran several tests within the project team to make sure the tasks in the flow were seamless for everyone.
2. Food payment
The payment system between the attendants and food vendors were implemented through a web application that we referred to as the Merchant Console (accessed through the main Squarelink account). Vendors can request transactions via Merchant Console and an attendee just has to scan and confirm to get going.
Refinement - MVP & Card Sorting
Functionality requirements were discussed and fleshed out as a team. Then, I translated requirements like “show menu items in list,” and “button/link that leads to QR code” into actionable features.
MVP
Card Sorting
Refinement - Wireframing
Referring to the master site map, I sketched modules of the console, then created multiple iterations of the design on Sketch. Changes were made based on technical limitations and capabilities discussed with the developer in the team.
Sample low-fidelity wireframing
High-fidelity wireframes
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Final Solution
My designs were assembled to create a simple and secure payment system for ETHBoston. Below demonstrates a vendor creating an order, a task that generates a unique QR code, and in response, an attendant scanning the QR code and confirming payment via her Squarelink account.
Reflection
If we were to quantify the feedback we received, all the problems that arose during the event were reported from the Attendees and none from the Vendors. This implies that the EventPass payment system was an overall success, especially because all of the food truck vendors at the event were novices in crypto. However, feedback from the Attendees manifested shortcomings in our existing Wallet Console.
Feedback mainly consisted of onboarding issues, including switching cryptocurrency, short login session times, and etc., which could have been alleviated if Attendees were more familiar with the inner workings of the blockchain and crypto wallets. Next time, I would like to invest more time understanding the user’s behavior and analyzing the user flow because I realized that a single foreseen or unforeseen user task could have a substantial effect on the user’s experience.