Jala Payments
Jala
Jala Payments
Jala is a translation marketplace that specialises in South East Asian languages. It makes translation in such areas more accessible with an in-built computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool.
Deliverables
Web App
Problem Statement
The Product
Jala is a translation marketplace. It connects translators and project owners by providing a job posting platform and a computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool for multiple users to work on.
Requirements
While it used to be only for pro-bono work, the company needed to move to the next phase – creating paid projects. I was tasked to design a user-friendly wallet and payment flow, as well as update the look and feel of the site. The payment aspect of the web app has 3 main capabilities:
Wallet
Displays summaries and detailed histories of all earnings and spending.
Payment Flow
Payment is executed securely with Stripe.
Selection
Project Owners can select from a list of translators' offers.
Exploring
Gathering Information
To understand the business requirements and user needs of the product, I carried out the following:
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18 in-depth interviews with Project Owners, Translators and Internal Stakeholders to discover user needs.
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Competitive analysis of 6 companies' UI, usability and payment features to understand the competitive landscape.
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From here, we discussed the requirements of the system with the founder and technology lead.
Creating Understanding
The results of all the research was organised into an affinity map with the Jala team. Feedback was colour-coded according to whether it was a positive or negative comment and if it required a minor or major change to the existing platform.
Research Outcomes
With the team, we prioritised the which features to implement using an impact-feasibility graph. All these were distilled into a user flow for both translators and project owners. With everyone aligned, it was time to create prototypes and test them out with users.
Creating Understanding Among Stakeholders
Customer Journey Map of Competitors, Empathy Mapping, Affinity Mapping
Research Outcomes
Persona, Empathy Mapping, User Flow (Partial)
Iterating
Prototyping
To visualise and test the usability of the web app, I created these prototypes:
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Sketches to show stakeholders and modify designs.
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High-fidelity prototypes for all usability tests. I used Figma.
Usability Testing and Research Outcomes
I conducted usability tests with 14 translators and project owners. These produced numerous design changes, both big and small. Below I detail 2 of the many changes that were done.
Low-Fidelity Prototypes
Sketches
Research Outcomes: Series of Changes to Designs
Final Design
Conclusion
Key Takeaways
Working as UI/UX Designer in a product company allows you to dive deep and understand user needs completely. This sharpened my interviewing, usability testing and problem-solving skills tremendously.
As much as user needs are crucial to success, business requirements must be taken into account constantly. Juggling these two aspects has given me a broader, more strategic view of Jala as a product and encouraged me to learn more about UX Strategy.
In Hindsight...
In hindsight, I would have referenced renowned design systems earlier to solve UI issues, specifically Google's Material Design. Truly, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel.
Future Plans
Jala Payments Beta has been launched in December 2020 and is looking towards a full launch in early 2021. You can keep updated on the live site here (you will need to create an account to access the web app). Do note that at the time of writing this, the live site has not been updated with my design changes.