CHALLENGE #1: DESIGN THE PERFECT WALLET FOR A FRIEND
(Join in on the challenge here at 2is0.com or follow #DailyUX hashtag on Twitter!)
Getting started
Whenever I'm told to "Make this thing", my first reaction is always, "Why?"
This makes me a pain-in-the-arse to some, but inevitably valuable to the business once they realise the benefits of the customer-centred pushback I’m bringing.
In this first #DailyUX challenge, the task was to design the perfect wallet for a friend, so let’s set a timer and dig in!
Even with a problem statement so straightforward, there was one basic set of questions that I knew I needed answers for up front:
How many wallets might they own? If more than one, why?
What types of wallets do they use and why?
Did they purchase these or receive them as gifts?
When have they replaced them before, and what was the trigger?
Given this task was to design a wallet “for a friend”, then a friend I shall ask! There’s no sense jumping straight into the wallet design phase if I didn’t understand the problems their wallets are currently trying to serve.
Travel wallet sketch (courtesy of https://www.goodfreephotos.com/vector-images/wallet-vector.png.php)
Initial interviews
As I was tackling this as a lean design exercise, I kept my approach and materials simple—sticky notes and pens would suffice.
I began by brain-dumping all the interview questions that came to mind on two sticky notes before I approached and introduced this purpose to my friend. I’m talking about the initial value proposition discovery phase to understand why we’re designing a wallet in the first place and what new value it’d need to provide to be enticing enough for her to buy it.
The informal interview proceeded.
"So, how many wallets do you have right now? Two, okay. And are you using them both interchangably, only one at a time… Ah, okay, one for everyday use and the other as a travel wallet. Makes sense. I’m curious about this travel wallet in particular. Could you tell me a bit more about when you got it and when you last used it?"
The magic of user research is recognising the potential gold mines world digging in deeper.
Might travel wallets be a more unique, viable business opportunity than competing against all the other everyday wallets? After all, I know I’m not the only one doing this #DailyUX challenge. So, whilst 80% of people are probably chasing that dragon-skin wallet, perhaps I might find less competition in the travel space?
Investigating alternatives
If we take a tangent for a hot minute and look back at userfocus.co.uk's assignments for designers looking to build their own portfolio or Jaime Levy's UX Strategy examples, we're reminded to be determinedly focused on what the customer needs, not necessarily what the business stakeholders originally think is going to be the winning idea.
So, after enquiring a bit more in the interview about this friend’s travel wallet needs and getting hopeful that I might be onto something big, I found out that she got it as a gift and was really only using it out of a sense of obligation than desire—it was fairly expensive, so she didn’t want it to go unused.
However, despite how nice it looked and what the price tag said, it was bulkier and heavier than she preferred due to the many layers of authentic leather. She had owned this travel wallet for about a year, but in that time had only used it once or twice—one of those times because she was moving countries and was bringing all of her belongings anyway, so thought she might as well give it a try.
You see, what she wanted out of a travel wallet was for it to be a “one-stop shop” kind of item; something that would hold her passport, IDs, cards, cash, and hotel check-in documents she’d need to access quickly without having to rummage through all her bags to find them. This particular product she owned was not it.
The more she talked about the value she sought and the needs she had, the more firmly she believed that after being gifted this one and not feeling satisfied, she’d be unlikely to go shop for a replacement. The everyday wallet she already owned and used would likely solve the majority of her needs as it was also lighter, more compact, and more durable. Even the thought of taking the time before and after each trip to switch all of her IDs and cards over from one to the other felt too troublesome to bother.
I asked where the travel wallet is now. It was tucked away in her closet; relegated to being a catch-all storage container for everything she might need overseas like SIM cards, local transportation passes, foreign currency, and the like.
Identifying opportunities
Persistence pays off. As I continued to delicately prod into her travel wallet needs, a new potential opportunity reared its head.
I learned that in lieu of bringing her existing wallets with her on a recent tour of eastern Asia, she had purchased a very cheap and lightweight “bum bag” (aka money belt) because she didn’t care if it got lost or torn, so long as it survived this one trip. Knowing she had exchanged money for this specific product immediately made my eyes widen—now we’re onto something!
As she planned to be going on both urban and country-side expeditions, she wanted her IDs and money to feel more safe; being held in something that couldn’t be as easily snatched off her like a wallet or bag. To not draw attention, she was looking for something more discrete in not showing what she had inside, but was also comfortable enough to wear over many miles of walking.
Friends, I think we just stubmled into a blue-er ocean!
Defining the design
After capturing the pertinent details about this money belt and very loosely defining the opportunity at hand, I jumped into the design phase for the sake of an efficient exercise.
It seemed to me like the type of product that might desire is one that afforded more organisation for items held within as compared to others in the market. I saw it looking similar to the front or middle pockets of many backpacks with their various slots and zippered sections.
I’m not the best sketcher by far, but it was time to get some ideas down on paper.
Thin, rectangular profile that can sit flat or wrapped slightly to the contours of the someone’s waist or back
One passport-sized pocket designed for direct access
Two to three vertical slots just for ID and credit cards
One full-width, separated pocket for foreign currency notes and other folded documents
One to two slots for pens or e-cigarrettes if that’s their thing
Another open pocket that’s sized appropriately for a phone
One very small zipper pouch for some loose change or lip balm
A padded and comfortable adjustable strap with a clasp positioned where a thiefy-type is less able to undo it
For the less sensitive belongings, something like a tiny leather tassel to easily grab and pull to access what’s inside
Optionally including scam-proof shields to prevent credit card details from being swiped from the outside
All of these were just ideas; something to test and iterate on.
Validating viability
Whilst asking people what they’d buy isn’t worth betting money on, I needed to start somewhere if I was to wrap up this effort. I didn’t have time to go through the perfectly phased approach in designing this ‘perfect’ wallet, and funnily enough, this isn’t likely be different in the working world either.
I drew up what this conceptual money belt might look like and slapped a random price on it of $10 to see how she’d react. It wasn’t an instant win, and that is okay because that’s the whole point of testing.
She said that if she was travelling tomorrow and couldn’t find her existing one, then grabbing this one at the airport wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Whether or not it’d be feasible to build and market this type of product for less than $10 to make a profit would be another whole study in itself. This would be enough to bring back to the stakeholder group to share what was learned and discuss next steps.
Sticky notes outlining my quick interview questions, answers, and design notes for this #dailyux challenge of designing the perfect wallet
Wrap-up and reflections
If I can say one thing, it’s that there’s no harm in trying. In less than a hour or two, I had gone from reading about a challenge to having something sketched out that wasn’t completely designed in a silo.
If the powers that be in an organisation wouldn’t be comfortable spending what amounted to the same amount of time as watercooler chats can take over a week, that’d be a red flag enough to know it’s not where I’d want to be and knowing is half the battle as they say.
This was a fun challenge, and I encourage you to try out your own. Pick something you see everyday but rarely talk about, and dive in.
What makes a good computer mouse? The perfect bluetooth speaker? A laundry hamper worth recommending to your friends? Now that’d be a challenge!