Solving growth challenges with a custom POS solution

Date

2023
Client

Hydrogen
Role

Product design, workshop facilitating, developer liaising

HydrogenPay initially had a whitelabel POS solution in the market that allowed merchants to accept card payments in-store and retail environments. While this solution helped the company gain traction and acceptance, it soon became evident that relying on a third-party platform introduced a series of limitations that stifled the company’s ability to scale, innovate, and meet merchant needs.

To address these challenges, we decided to develop an in-house POS system that offered greater control, flexibility, and compliance with industry standards as well as introduced new tools to further help merchants run their buisness

As the lead product designer, I owned the entire product end-to-end and worked very closely with the product owners and software development team.

The Impact in numbers

Over 10x

average daily merchant revenue

40%

monthly increase in merchant acquisition

22k+

active merchants monthly

80%

faster in partner integration time

Due to a signed non-disclosure agreement (NDA), I am unable to disclose certain details as they would reveal company intellectual property and internal processes. This case study highlights the overall design challenges and solutions without revealing proprietary information

What were the challenges?

HydrogenPay’s growth in the POS market was hindered by several key issues tied to its reliance on the whitelabel product, including:

The old system lacked an efficient CRM system that could effectively validate merchant data during onboarding. This resulted in numerous manual errors, leading to inefficiencies and incorrect information being recorded.
Vendor’s slow development cycles and lack of innovation stifled HydrogenPay’s ability to grow and adapt quickly. The platform’s delayed updates and bug fixes meant that we could not deliver new features or improvements at the pace needed to meet merchant demands or industry standards.
The whitelabel product was a rigid system that prevented HydrogenPay from offering custom solutions that could be integrated with some of our merchant’s ERP system. A segment of our merchants required POS systems that could work seamlessly with their existing software infrastructure
The lack of certain key features meant that we could not comply with industry regulations

Shadowing merchants

Designing the new POS required a deep understanding of the physiology and psychology needs of our users. As part of my research, I spent some time with merchants learning about their pain points with current market solutions, observing how they interacted with various devices and their satisfaction levels. This later involved iterative feedback loops where prototypes were tested with real users and adjusted based on usability testing.

Some insights and considerations that guided me include

Minimal cognitive load: Busy merchants need systems that reduce cognitive load during usage.
Ease of use: Merchants often have busy environments where precision and speed are essential, and need a system that is quick to learn and use with minimal training
Transaction flow simplicity: Merchants need a fast, smooth flow from initiation to completion of a transaction. Each step in the process should be streamlined and predictable, reducing the need for frequent error recovery
Task familiarity: Many users may not be technically savvy, so avoid introducing radical new design concepts that differ from the typical POS system unless absolutely necessary.

Home screen

I designed a home screen where merchants could easily access their most important tasks- accept card payments, view transactions, view end of day report and also print out receipts when needed.

Virtual account in minutes

HydrogenPay POS empowers merchants to accept both card payments and bank transfers seamlessly. With just the tap of a button, merchants can generate a virtual bank account for quick and secure bank transfer collections from their customers.

Business bank accounts were powered by another product called InstantPay

Expanded Card Transaction Options for Merchants

HydrogenPay POS allow merchants to perform advanced functions like issuing refunds and reversing transactions, meeting industry standards and ensuring that merchants had the tools they needed to manage payment issues efficiently

Transactions as they happen

Merchants can check and verify transactions as they happen. We also added an easy way to locate transactions which greatly improved the merchant experience

End of Day report

We provided merchants with end-of-day reports, allowing for easy reconciliation of transactions. This automation saved time and reduced the risk of manual errors in tallying payments at the end of a business day

Receipt

Merchants can print out receipts for the most recent transaction or print a specific transaction via its Retrieval Reference Number (RRN)

Reflection

A lot of actionable data and insight can be gotten from observing users in their natural state of usage. Immersing ourselves in the merchants’ day-to-day operations helped me design flows that genuinely met their needs.

Designing for physical POS devices meant we had to focus on making the interface touch-friendly and layout-efficient, keeping hardware limitations in mind. This experience underscored how crucial it is to create adaptable, user-friendly designs that work seamlessly across different device environments

Building a POS system demanded tight collaboration between design, product, engineering, compliance, and customer experience teams. This project highlighted the importance of clear communication and aligning goals across departments to deliver a cohesive product.