The document outlines a project aimed at enhancing the Venmo brand by enabling users to easily connect with and donate to their preferred charities and causes. Through user research, various personas and user scenarios were developed to identify motivations and concerns regarding charitable donations, with insights leading to proposed features for a more engaged donation experience. Key takeaways emphasized the importance of trust, simplicity, and social validation in driving user participation in charitable giving.

1. Project #3
SeokHui Hong
Toby Marlow
Willa Wolfson

2. THE CHALLENGE
Strengthen the Venmo brand by offering ways
for users to easily connect with and contribute
to their favorite charities and causes.

3. Discover Define Design Deliver
User Test
Persona
User Research
Feature Map
Contextual
Inquiry Affinity
Mapping
Business
Analysis
Define User Type
IterationSketches
Competitive
Analysis
Wireframe
Prototype
Deliverable
PROCESS

4. RESEARCH
Business Analysis
Contextual Inquiry
Competitive Analysis
User Research

5. Drink for last night!
“Super useful app!”
“So, so convenient!”
Customer Reviews
“Most convenient way to split bills!”
Business Analysis

6. “It’s weird to see
other people’s financial stuff”
Make and
Share Payments.
Business Analysis

7. WHY?

8. Ice bucket - disconnect
RESEARCH

9. Disconnect between
Social media and Charities
RESEARCH

10. Social
Money
Donation
Make a difference!
RESEARCH

11. Complex Simple
Social
Snapcash
Squarecash
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Turn a weakness into a STRENGTH!

12. USER RESEARCH
! &

16. Screener
!

20. 10 User Interviews
!

24. 30 Surveys
!

28. Contextual Inquiry

29. Friend Feed
Click on
Payment
Tap
Open Venmo
Pay or
Request
End
Type
Name
Enter
Amount
Enter
Message
Pay or
Request
Tap to
Confirm
Donation
Existing user flow
RESEARCH
Contextual Inquiry

30. 85%
95%
“I don’t trust where my money goes!”
“I am more likely to donate
if my friends recommended me.”
40%
“I would love to have some
incentives or rewards.”
“I have donated out of guilt”
60%
RESEARCH
Survey findings

31. RESEARCH
Affinity Mapping

32. RESEARCH
Pain
Pleasure
Low effort High effort
Affinity Diagram*
*Size of circle indicates frequency of responses.
Donating to
favorite/personal
causes
Incentivized
Donations
Knowing where
money is going
Instagram
Venmo social feed
Social
media
observer
Paying friends
Payment
security
concerns
• User patterns
• Splitting bills
• Security is a concern for some users.
• Trusting charities - “not sure where
my money is going”
• Donating is very personal. Cause
should mean something to the user.

33. • Needs to trust organization
• Wants to receive incentive
• Relies on friends/family
Donate Money Transfer
• Venmo is very convenient
• Mainly used for splitting bills
• Social part is weird
Social
• Visual is important
• Staying in touch with friends
RESEARCH - FINDINGS

34. DATA MODELING
Personas
User scenarios
User Stories

35. Archetype
Objective
Opportunities
Jess: The Team Player
Donate to the causes and
charities her friends and
family are involved in.
Introduce new charities and
causes.
Fred: The Leader
Search charities that he trusts
or causes that he cares
strongly about.
Encourage discovery of other
causes by including multiple
search results throughout the
process.
Lucy: The Sympathizer
Quickly and easily donate to
charities using technology I
understand or learn quickly.
Make the donation process
simple and fast.
DATA MODELING
Personas

36. Age
Occupation
Status
Location
Archetype
24
Marketing Executive
Single
Manhattan
The team player
RESEARCH + DATA MODELING
Behaviors
• More likely to donate money to causes as part of a group.
• Attends charity events with friends.
• Uses Instagram to keep up to date with all her friends’
activities.
• Dines out with friends frequently and uses Venmo to split
bills.
Goals
• Not miss out on any social events or activities.
• Avoid awkwardness of asking friends for owed money.
• Keep up to date with all her friends’ interests.
Frustrations
• Overwhelmed by the number of charities and causes asking
her to donate.
• Being guilted into donating money to a cause.
• Limited disposable income
Bio
Jess is a recent college grad who is working at a
Manhattan marketing agency. She is a social
butterfly and likes to go out with friends at least 3
times a week. Jess considers herself socially
conscious but is not passionate about any one
cause but rather likes to support causes her
friends are already involved with.
Tech behavior
Incentivized Self-motivated
Trusting Cautious
Early adopter Laggard
Public Private
Jess
The Team Player
“Attending charity events is a great way to catch up with friends and
have a good time together”

37. Age
Occupation
Status
Location
Archetype
32
Architect
Married
Brooklyn
The leader
RESEARCH + DATA MODELING
Behaviors
• Selective about the charities he donates to and is more likely to
support causes that are relevant to his life.
• Proactive in the support of charities. Actively seeks out causes
and encourages others to do the same as well.
• Often offers to pay for bills and have his friends reimburse him at
a later time.
Goals
• Wants transactions to be instant and convenient.
• Have his friends join with him in the support of causes he cares
about.
Frustrations
• Needs to trust a charity before he is willing to donate money to it.
• Not knowing where donated money is going.
• Has concerns about safety and security of Venmo.
• Thinks auto pay (recurring) donations are impersonal.
Bio
As a partner at an architecture firm that
specializes in sustainable practices, Fred
considers himself very environmentally
aware and socially conscious. Fred is a fact-
based person and and insists on doing as
much research as possible before committing
any money to a charity or cause.
Tech behavior
Incentivized Self-motivated
Trusting Cautious
Early adopter Laggard
Public Private
Fred
The Leader
“I love being able to contribute to charities but it needs to be on my
terms. I need to feel secure that the charity is honest and my
contribution is benefiting those in need.”

38. Age
Occupation
Status
Location
Archetype
40
Accountant
Married
Chicago
The sympathizer
RESEARCH + DATA MODELING
Behaviors
• Donates to national disaster relief funds during times of
need.
• Observes more than participates with social media.
Goals
• Keep track of personal finances.
• Easily request and pay friends money.
Frustrations
• Hates public feed in Venmo. Feels personal financial
information should be kept private.
• Does not like when charities ask for more than a one time
payment.
• Can only concentrate on one social media platform at a
time.
Bio
As a mother of 2 young children, Lucy is
particularly sensitive to the needs of other
families around the country. If the family
budget allows for it, Lucy likes to donate to
natural disaster relief funds or other causes
that are mentioned heavily in the press or on
one of her favorite blogs.
Tech behavior
Incentivized Self-motivated
Trusting Cautious
Early adopter Laggard
Public Private
Lucy
The sympathizer
“I think it is our job as humans to give to those who need help at times
when things are most desperate”

39. Problem statement: While most users verbally
commit to donating to charities, many times they do not
follow through.

40. CONCEPTING
Feature development
Wireframing
User validation

41. FEATURE DEVELOPMENT
•Began with a brainstorm
•Ideas mapped on feature
prioritization chart.

42. FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
Feature map
Low engagement High engagement
Essential
Nice to have
Create a
campaign
Join a
cause group
Progress
bar
Search + browse
causes
Browse nearby
Campaigns
Social cause
feed
Frequent buyer
points
User levels
Hierarchy
Hashtag
donations
Messenger
“Meal share”
Donate tip to
pay for cause
Silent
auctions
User discounts
Food/drinks etc
Least votes Most votes
Low priority High priority
• Areas to explore:
• Cause search page
• Cause hashtag / name
• Create a campaign
• Personal progress bar.

43. FEATURE PRIORITIZATION ANALYSIS
Social
Peer validation is a strong
motivator for many users and will
encourage participation.
Donations
Must be secure and simple.
Discovery
Must be a way for users to locate a
cause or charity quickly and easily

44. Design proposal: Leverage an existing behavior to
create a simple way for users to donate to their favorite
causes and charities.

45. causes
The easy and trustworthy way for
users to donate and discover causes.

46. CONCEPTING
A profile page designed with the needs
of charity organizations and
users in mind.
A secure and simple way for users to
directly donate to causes they care about.
“Venmo donation @Charity_name”
causes page causes handle

47. SCENARIO
Venmo Cause handles are
designed to be easy to
remember and can be
applied to a range of media.

48. DISCOVERY FLOW
The Leader
Venmo
Search
causes
Causes
Thank
you
Select
cause
Choose
Donation
The Team Player
Thank
you
Choose
Donation
The Sympathizer
Venmo
Enter
Cause
tag
Payment
page
Choose
Donation
Thank
you

49. SKETCHING
Campaign/Charity Page Make a Donation Page
Explored:
• Progress bar
• Leaders contributors
• # of friends donated
• Invite a friend
• Description of campaign
Explored:
• 3 charity options
• % donation
• $ donation
• “Tipping” a cause
Personal Profile Page
Explored:
• Social feed
• Create a campaign
• Donate to friend’s campaign
• Follow campaign
Used in wireframes

50. WIREFRAMING AND ITERATING
End preventable child deaths
Unicef
@Unicef
Unicef United States Fund
Score: 9.5/10 (What’s this?)
90% of every dollar spent goes directly to
assist children
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10 of your friends have donated so far
3,103 total contributers
Donate Now
Invite a Friend Add to Favorites
Read More
#children #humanitarian
1st Iteration 2nd Iteration
Key Takeaways from
User Tests:
1. Where does the “score”
come from?
• Added “Charity
Navigator”
2. Where exactly is my
money going to prevent
child deaths?
• Added more context
(clean drinking water)
3. Too cluttered!
• Spaced out the
information and “hid”
some of it
Key Takeaways from
User Tests:
1. Where is the community
that needs water?
• Added more context
(Sudan’s drought)
2. It’s hard to tell that the “3
weeks is changing”
• Made it bigger and
bolder
3. What does “Invite a
Friend” and “Follow
Unicef” mean?
• Added a short
description for each
1
2
3
1
2
3

51. CURRENT ITERATION
View Current Prototype in
InVision:
• http://invis.io/PY2QRM334
Clickable prototype for:
Jess:
• Receives notification from friend
to donate to the cause
Fred
• Searches for Unicef because he
already is interested in it

52. CURRENT ITERATION
Donate to @Unicef:
Lucy:
• Sees a billboard asking her to
donate to Sudan and makes a
donation via Venmo