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Faux Pas during Digital Payments
“One of my relatives was supposed to digitally pay me 100 Rupees. However, when I checked the notification after 2 hours I was surprised that instead of 100 Rs, he sent me 400 Rs. What bothers me the most is that he had no realization about his lost money until I told him”
This was one of the real-life incidents that happened with one of our team members. There can be many more instances like this in everyone’s life.
We all use digital payment apps nowadays frequently. While transferring money to someone, we have to type the amount. What if someone types it wrong, and transfers it without even realizing it? Have you all encountered such incidents in your life? I am sure, if not you, someone you know must have encountered this.
Let me share my experiences with you. Frankly speaking, I am always afraid of digital transactions, especially the ones involving cell-phones. Not even the transaction amount, sometimes I recharged wrong mobile numbers and lost the money. This fear of typing wrong numbers still haunts me to such an extent that I get anxious whenever I do digital transactions especially the ones using cell-phones. So the important question is whether there is any mechanism in the current digital system to address this fear. Since we are moving more towards a digitized financial system, it is high time that this concern is addressed.
Some of our team members have come up with some ideas regarding why these problems occur, and how they can be addressed. According to Syiam, this mistake may be generated due to the number keypad designing issue. Currently, we have to type the amount we want to transfer, and mistyping leads to the wrong amount of transaction. This may happen because the keys on the keypads are close enough. For example, users can type 4 instead of 1 because they are very close.
In order to mitigate, another team member suggested that like in UPI, the current digital payment system should check the number and ask to confirm the beneficiary details.
Our team member suggested an intervention around the input from the users’ perspective. He stressed the use of voice augmented technology. During digital transactions, users can speak instead of typing, and then the chances of errors will be less. This will also be helpful for visually impaired users. The likelihood of error may further be reduced if a voice confirmation of the amount may be obtained. In addition, many of these errors may also be avoided if users have the opportunity to use the language of her/his choice. In fact, it has been shown that during numerical entry tasks, entries using one’s own mother-tongue courts have less error (Salve & Yammiyavar, 2014). These observations give a call to the researchers to inculcate the issue of language in the digital payment system.
To reiterate, we are moving towards a heavily digitized transaction system, and many people are yet to adapt completely to this ambiance. This leads to error, and loss of money. Uncertainties like these may deter people from making full use of the wonders of the digital transaction system. Only some smart intervention techniques can abolish this fear and hesitation. We have come up with some of our own ideas.
We would like to open up a discussion with the community and together we can contribute to making digital transactions more user-friendly and clear the cloud of uncertainty. So, let us join our hands and minds together and march towards a more financially secure future.
Happy and safe transactions!
References
Salve, S., & Yammiyavar, P. (2014). Towards proposing an intelligent error limiting User Interface for rural Indian data entry operators. Australian Journal of Intelligent Information Processing System, 13(4), 1–10. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258925047_Towards_proposing_an_intelligent_error_limiting_User_Interface_for_rural_Indian_data_entry_operators
For more information please contact shanu.shukla11@gmail.com
Article Contribution
Deepak Paddhi: Head, Industry team at the UXWhale. Besides, he is an Interaction Designer and researcher with a specialization in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) from IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay
Shanu Shukla: Head, R&D at the UXWhale. Besides, she is a Research and Academic Associate in the Indian Institute of Management Indore, India. She did her Ph.D. in Psychology from the Indian Institute of Technology Indore, India. She was also a Fulbright Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
Syiam Dhingra: Design Researcher, at the UXWhale. Besides, he has worked with Shopify, Accenture and a couple of UX research consultancies in the past. He did his master’s in human-centered design from Srishti Manipal Institute of art, design & technology. His practice involves applying design research methods. His special interests are in Embodied Interaction, novel interaction design techniques and service design.
