Improving usability and engagement in a multi-currency travel wallet

A speculative redesign of YouTripoutbound , a multi-currency wallet app, focused on improving usability, discoverability and engagement. 

I identified key usability gaps in the YouTrip experience, benchmarked against its competitors, and introduced new features like a real-time exchange rate table, perk search and onboarding overlays to encourage app usage beyond travel. Testing revealed improved task success and satisfaction.

Category

Personal project

Scope

UX audit, Research, UI design

Year

2022

info Disclaimer

I am not affiliated with YouTrip and this redesign was done completely of my own volition, mostly to expand my proficiency with Figma and remote usability tools such as Maze.

The Problem

Why this began

Youtrip had not updated it’s wallet experience since 2018. When COVID-19 curtailed travel, YouTrip introduced newer features like Perks (partner discounts) and regular blog and Telegram updates to drive engagement.

However, as a user, I found:

• Poor discoverability and usability in new features
• Disjointed access to marketing content

Despite new initiatives, the app felt stagnant, especially compared to its competitors.

My personal experience with YouTrip during recent travel experiences also pointed to clunky usability and inconvenience. I decided to explore how to make the app more useful, both during and outside travel periods.

Market research

Online reviews

First, I analysed online reviews shared by customers on review boards and forums on their YouTrip experience.

Select review snippets taken from the iOS App Store, Google Play Store and Seedly review forums

Summary of common feedback observed

Certain common feedback, such as those pertaining to payment security and customer support, goes beyond the scope of interface design. Feedback comparing YouTrip to  “better” options available in the market led me to perform a competitive analysis to see how YouTrip stands in the increasingly saturated market.

Understanding YouTrip's key strengths

Competitive analysis

Compared to its competitors, YouTrip offers considerably fewer features. It was clear that YouTrip’s primary differentiator was being the “free and simple” option in the market for travel payments. Hence, this became my key guiding principle in my redesign approach.

YouTrip's main selling point was being the "free & simple" option in the market for travel payments.

Heuristic evaluation

Assessing interface and information architecture

Identifying issues with the existing experience

YouTrip's main selling point was being the "free & simple" option in the market for travel payments.

To identify key friction and pain points with the existing travel payment experience, I evaluated the existing interface and assessed the app’s architecture, revealing –

• Limited convenience: No easy overview of exchange rates across currencies
• Lack of customisability: Currency wallet arrangement could not be personalised
• Suboptimal information architecture: Redundant tabs (e.g. A whole tab for a single travel insurance perk)
• Poor discoverability: Essential functions like transaction search were hidden due to poor contrast

User research

Survey

To validate these issues, I conducted an online survey with 16 YouTrip users.

Survey conducted using TypeForm.

Key findings

• Most used YouTrip mainly for travel, less for online shopping
• 70% Googled exchange rates instead of checking in-app
• Perks were underutilised due to poor discoverability and onboarding
• Only 27.3% knew about YouTrip's blog despite active marketing

Persona and journey mapping

I summarised my findings into a persona and journey map to identify key opportunity areas to improve YouTrip as an effective go-to travel payment mode.

User persona

User journey map detailing key usability barriers and friction points in the existing payment experience

Defining the problem

With my gathered insights, I framed this re-design project in the form of a problem statement and identified the key opportunity areas.

Problem statement

How might we transform YouTrip from a travel-only utility into an engaging financial tool that delivers value both in and outside travel, while preserving its market position as the simple, fee-free option for travellers?

Key opportunity areas

Currency management transparency

• Provide direct and accurate exchange rates in-app
  
• Support the decision-making for currency conversion / overseas cash withdrawals
• Allow personalisation of currency wallets

Feature discoverability and engagement

• Improve navigation architecture
• Enhance onboarding for new and existing features

Value beyond travel

• Improve the usability of Perks
• Increase visibility of cashback and rewards to incentivise usage

Deriving the solution

Key conceptual solutions

I listed down key feature additions/enhancements that would improve the current gaps in the travel payment experience:

• Real-time exchange rate table & converter: To provide at-a-glance visibility of all supported currencies, differentiates between available exchange currencies and others
  
• Calculator: Allow quick price conversions in-app to support informed decision-making when making currency exchanges or ATM withdrawals using travel
• Enhanced perks: Intuitive search, filtering and categorisation for greater usage convenience  and visual tracker for cashback earned to incentivise usage and promote transparency in rebate-earning
  

Bonus features that will also boost the overall YouTrip experience based on key insights gathered, but are further down the prioritisation list:

• Auto top-up: To reduce friction in the travel payment experience in the event of poor connectivity during travel
• Integrate marketing content access: Increase cohesion of marketing initiatives into the overall YouTrip experience
• In-app customer service support channel: To facilitate customer support liaisons and reduce service turnaround time
  

Ideation

With the above concepts in mind, I recreated the app's site map to serve as a base for my redesign, before proceeding with my initial sketches and digital wireframing.

Re-vamped site map

Initial sketches on pen and paper and digital wireframing on Figma

Validation and refinement

Remote usability testing

I conducted unmoderated remote usability tests with five YouTrip users to test my preliminary solutions.

Participants were encouraged to enable permissions to record as they work through their tasks.

Key findings

• Navigation issues: New features in the navbar weren't easily discoverable, partly due to the ambiguous navigation label i.e. Marketplace
• Onboarding gaps: Users skipped important 'How to' instructions when using Perks
  

Users typically did not discover the newly introduced 'Marketplace' tab and instead reverted to the app's existing entry points of accessing exchange rates.

Participants also tended to skip ahead of reading “How to” when redeeming their perks.

Refinement iterations

Based on testing insights, I implemented several key refinements:

• Introduced progressive onboarding overlays to highlight new features
• Refined label copy to improve clarity
• Integrated instruction steps during critical moments during perk redemption, so instructions are difficult to miss
  

FInal solution

High-fidelity prototypes

The final design synthesises all research insights and testing feedback into a renewed experience that addresses the key problem statement while maintaining YouTrip's brand identity.

Real-time exchange rate table & Converter

A comprehensive dashboard that:

• Provides at-a-glance visibility of all supported currencies
• Differentiates between available exchange currencies and others

This feature directly addresses the initial disruptive travel payment experience, where users had the behaviour of leaving the app to check rates elsewhere.

Calculator

An in-app calculator that:

• Helps users convert prices quickly
• Supports informed decision-making when making currency exchanges or ATM withdrawals

This addresses the initial friction and inconvenience in decision-making around foreign currency usage during travel

Enhanced Perks & onboarding

A reimagined perks experience featuring

• Intuitive search and filtering functionality
• Logical categorisation
• Improved onboarding to raise engagement
• A cohesive visual tracker that reflects total rewards earned via transactional rebates with partner merchants and referrals, to boost engagement
  

This transforms Perks from an afterthought to a core element of their value proposition, driving engagement during non-travel periods.

Figma prototype

Feel free to click around the prototype below, which also features bonus functions such as auto wallet top-up, integrated marketing content access and customer service support chats: 

Reflections

Learnings

Stage usability tests carefully

It was my first time conducting a usability test in an unmoderated, remote environment. Even when using an established tool like Maze, setting clear instructions for participants is essential to yield meaningful test outcomes.

Constraints

Limited user access

Survey size was small (<20 users) and skewed towards tech-savvy adults.

Testing medium mismatch

YouTrip is a mobile app; Maze is desktop-first, which created disconnects from the expected experience.

Future areas for development

Security and support improvements

Beyond UI/UX, a dive into online user reviews during the research phase revealed deeper trust and security concerns in the platform that will require backend and service-level enhancements to address. These point to potential strategic directions for YouTrip's product roadmap that are beyond the scope of this re-design.

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