Deepak J T
The Idea as a Solution
The Problem:
Younger generation are finding it harder to recieve money from banks due to rising costs and lower income. Credit borrowing seems to increase with each generation. While the wealthy rely
on their parents, working siblings and other passive modes of income, the middle class in India seem to have nowhere to go to when it comes to borrowing money without a good credit score.
To have a good credit score, he/she has to have paid up past credits if any. Banks and lending organisations find it risky to provide loans to students and fresh graduates with a new job.
The Solution:
- Develop an application that allows students to get credits for their daily expenses.
- Encourage them to repay on a timely manner but starting off with a lower credit amount.
- Similar to a credit card but digital and with amounts of credit much lower that a Bank based credit card
- Micro-credits are much easier to process and manage than larger credit amounts.
- Payments and credit reciepts can be done on a shorter and faster time span.
- As you use the app borrowing and repaying, credit worthiness increases allowing larger amounts to be borrowed.
- Links with multiple service providers such as mobile networks, restaurants, cafes, bookshops etc allowing instant payment using spoon.
Research
Research was conducted amongst a vast number of users in the age groups of 16-35 to understand their credit needs, the problems faced and frequency at which they require such small amounts of credits.
Users point out the lack of smaller credits as well as the painstakingly long process that is required by lending services to avial any form of credit.
Meetings were held with various banks, lending services and vendors of services to understand why the hassle, as well as how to improve the situation. To reduce long wait times for credit approvals and
ensure vendors recieved their money in a short span of time. Following up with banks and 3rd party lenders also on simpler solution for repayments of the credits availed to the consumers.
The process and Methods used:-
- Field study & User Interviews
- Demographic study
- Competitor product analysis
- Data gathering from other digital financial services
- User journey & Information architecture
- Stakeholder meetings (Banks and Financial Advisors to the company)
- Usability testing: Spoon had a sister concern that enrolled students for training, valuable inputs, and assistance from the students who worked
with this entity helped shape the product better
Wireframes
Further Research and Testing:
- After further beta tests of prototypes, the demographic of the user went up from the ages of 35 to 50
- Users had access to one click registration due to government provided data bank on one ID (Aadhaar Card)
- Over 80% of the users of such credits had access to one or other form of digital device that had internet connectivity
- Keeping the overall structure simple and easy to use ensured user growth during the test stages
- Adding emotional touches to the design in terms of colours, typography and space usage made sure of a personalised connection between users and the app
Final Outcome
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