Zap App - P2P Payment App

Zap – Validating a Frictionless P2P Payment Concept

Role: Product Designer & Researcher
Timeline: 2 Weeks
Scope: Product Concept, User Research, UX/UI Design, Prototyping & Validation

The Opportunity:

While existing bank transfers solved the functional need for peer-to-peer payments, they created significant social friction.

The process was so cumbersome that users preferred the inconvenience of cash.

I hypothesized that a dedicated mobile experience, designed around social habits rather than banking protocols, could unlock a more fluid and frequent payment behavior.

Uncovering the Social Cost of Banking Friction

The project began with a simple, personal pain point: splitting bills with friends was awkward. The real discovery was that the problem wasn't financial it was social and experiential.

My research revealed a critical insight:

The 8-click process, security questions, and manual contact adding weren't just minor annoyances. They interrupted social interactions.

A simple reimbursement after a meal required a tedious, solo task that felt completely disconnected from the social event itself.

User Quote: “I prefer paying my friends with cash than through the app.”
Behavioral Observation: The average transaction involved switching between a banking app and a messaging app to confirm details, creating a fragmented, error prone experience.

This framed the core problem not as a "transfer" issue, but as a communication and trust issue.

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Defining the Product Principle: Frictionless Social Settlements

The goal wasn't to build a bank. It was to create a seamless layer for social finances. The product principle became: Payment should feel as quick and natural as a conversation.

This principle guided every design decision:

Auto sync contacts: Eliminate the bureaucratic step of "adding a payee." If they're in your phone, they're in your Zap network.
Integrated messaging: Instead of forcing users to switch to SMS, payment confirmation and context live within the app, creating a continuous thread.
One tap payments: Reduce the cognitive load and number of steps to an absolute minimum.

Strategic Trade-offs and Validated Learning

Since i've been a senior product consultant for many years i understood that i need to make some intentional trade-offs. Early usability testing with a medium-fidelity prototype provided crucial validation and led to strategic pivots.

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Pivot 1: Abandoning the "Business Payments" Feature

Initial Assumption: Including businesses would make the app more versatile.
User Feedback: This was met with confusion. Users saw this as a personal tool and already used cards/Apple Pay for businesses.
Decision: I removed it. This sharpened the product's focus exclusively on the P2P social space, simplifying the UX and brand message.

Pivot 2: Evolving the "Home Screen"

Initial Design: Focused on total balance.
User Feedback: Users wanted more context which card was being used, recent activity.
Decision: The final design incorporated recent transactions and clear card information, transforming the home screen from a static number into a dynamic dashboard.

These weren't just design changes, they were product strategy decisions based on direct evidence.

The Solution: An Integrated Social Payment Experience

The final prototype presented a cohesive system where paying a friend felt like part of the conversation.

Onboarding Experience

Payment Experience

Additional Screens

Key Flows:

Onboarding: Streamlined sign-up focused on phone number verification and automatic contact syncing.
Payment: Tapping a contact opens a chat like interface where sending money is a primary action, not a separate menu function.
History: Transactions are displayed chronologically within the message thread with each contact, providing full context.

Impact and Conclusion: A Proof of Concept

While Zap remained a concept, its value was validated through user testing. Participants who had initially expressed frustration with existing apps responded positively to the integrated, communication centric model.

The key takeaway:

The largest opportunity in product design isn't always in creating new features, but in reassembling existing capabilities in a more intuitive, human-centered way.

By recognizing that P2P payments are a social behavior first and a financial transaction second, Zap demonstrated a viable path to a significantly improved user experience.

This project underscores my ability to identify unmet user needs, rapidly prototype a strategic solution, and make critical product decisions based on qualitative evidence a skillset directly applicable to solving complex problems at a senior level.