Append Inc
APPEND Inc. is a non-profit organization focused on empowering low-income communities through enterprise development. AppendPay, developed in collaboration with APPEND Inc., is a mobile payment app designed to streamline financial processes for micro-entrepreneurs, linking them to microfinance institutions and providing them with secure, convenient access to financial and e-commerce services.
Third time's a charm
This case study delves into the third iteration of the AppendPay app. While the reasons for the redesign remain unclear to me, AppendPay and the management decided to relaunch the platform in 2024. I led this redesign initiative.
Accessibility
The project manager mentioned that the new app should improve the accessibility of the app, mentioning that the target demographic primarily consists the elderly population. I proposed that increasing button sizes, improving text contrast, along with optimizing the app's color scheme, could effectively address this need.
Aesthetic
I noticed that the aesthetic of the app is a little dated. I grabbed the opportunity to propose a redesign. I was given the signal, and opted to go for a more simple and neat look instead of gradients and colors that can add to the users' cognitive load.
Branding
I also updated the app's branding and logo, featuring the initials "AP" to resemble a wallet. I selected a sans-serif font for improved readability across all platforms and adjusted the purple tone to ensure better accessibility for white text.
Mobile App
The mobile app is the primary concern of the project, and had the most design work involved. In a span of three months, I worked with one System Analyst to create prototypes out of the given business requirements. Since this is the third iteration, it was helpful that there were existing references to expected functionalities. I updated the UI to reflect the new brand and attempt to address the opportunities I mentioned above.
Admin Portal
The admin portal oversees AppendPay's day-to-day operations, featuring a comprehensive array of tools to ensure all administrative needs are met.
Partner Portal
Partners can be seamlessly added and onboarded to the platform, where they receive essential tools to monitor their operations with AppendPay. They provide micro-financing to users who sign up for their service through the app
Intial Release
After a relatively brief period of design and development, the AppendPay development team was able to release an initial version of the app in August of 2024.
What's Next
The team is hard at work building the next set of features both in the mobile app and in the web portals. I believe a design QA is also necessary to better visually polish the currently released version of the app. I'll update this case study in the future.