OVERVIEW.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
The core problem was the cultural and financial adaptation of Google Wallet (formerly Android Pay) for the Brazilian market. This involved addressing several challenges related to autofill functionality and user experience in the local context:
• Autofill did not fit Brazilian standards for filling out forms, leading to missing fields such as address number or complement, CPF (Brazil's individual taxpayer registry number), birthday date, and gender.
• There was a misunderstanding in the translation of texts when autofilling fields like login password or card password.
• Some fields, such as birthday date, gender (dropdown list and radio buttons), or card expiration date, were not meant to be filled or selected by autofill but presented issues.
• The project aimed to improve the overall autofill accuracy on logged platforms, which was found to be 42%.
PROBLEM
Guilherme Theodoro served as a key member of a cross-functional team at Thoughtworks, collaborating with researchers, product managers, and financial stakeholders for this project. The project work conducted by Guilherme and his team lasted from November 2022 to May 2023.
TEAM AND TIMELINE
Guilherme Theodoro, a Product Design Specialist Consultant for Thoughtworks, led the redesign of the app's information architecture and defined design processes. He worked with a cross-functional team. The project ran from April 2020 to October 2021.
SOLUTION
The solution involved a Cultural & Financial Audit and Heuristic Analysis. This process included:
• Developing a comprehensive research strategy, including designing and executing user interviews, surveys, and usability testing.
• An Analysis plan based on Nielsen's Heuristics to identify critical usability/execution errors. This involved comparing platforms and devices and making short-term suggestions for Google, focusing on recurrent errors, serious usability issues, and specific questions relevant to the Brazilian market.
• A 36-page analysis of user navigation across six strategically selected companies (Americanas, Casas Bahia, Amazon, Magalu, Mercado Livre, Carrefour) to identify and discover opportunities and competitive advantages. The analysis evaluated Forms & Data Entry, Trust & Credibility, Error Prevention, and Task Orientation.
• Studying top mobile and desktop browsers in Brazil (Google Chrome, Safari, Samsung Internet, Microsoft Edge, Firefox) and the most used payment methods (PIX at 67%, Credit Card at 35%, Debit Card at 42%, Money at 22%) to understand Brazilian user consumption patterns.
• Detailed analysis of registration and payment data input flows across the selected retailers to identify specific autofill issues related to Brazilian address formats and the CPF document.
• Conclusions about autofill mechanisms were reached, leading to suggested solutions to equalize filling, addressing issues in input fields and technical settings.
IMPACT
The project contributed to the successful launch of Google Wallet in Brazil in 2024. This expansion brought payment, transaction options, and digital pass management to 220 million users via web access. The service now facilitates transactions and financial data movement between the main banks in Brazil, supporting a localized and successful payment platform for Brazilian users.
