Venmo

Please note, this is a self-directed project created out of a passion for design, personal growth, and a bit of shameless self-promotion. Recently, I began reimagining popular apps to push my design boundaries and explore ways to modernize everyday experiences. This Venmo case study is one of those explorations, reflecting my commitment to intuitive, user-centered design even outside of my day-to-day work. While there are many aspects I might approach differently in hindsight, I welcome any feedback you might have. My hope is that sharing my process here provides value to others on a similar journey. See full disclaimer below.

Impact

• Mobile-first design: Improved usability for home and pay/request features by starting with a mobile-first interface (iOS), making the pay/request function easier to use and adding better transaction controls.
• Color contrast and readability: Improved visual accessibility through high-contrast color choices and legible typography, making core functions more accessible to all users, including those with low vision.
• Clear and Accessible design: Established a strong visual hierarchy, increased tap target sizes for key actions, and simplified the layout to reduce cognitive load, creating a more intuitive and accessible experience for all users.
• Simplified user Flow: Prioritized a more intuitive, step-by-step flow for core actions (send/request money), reducing cognitive load and making interactions feel more natural.
• Reduced tap complexity: Focused on minimizing unnecessary steps, ensuring that users can complete essential actions quickly and easily.
• Consistent Visual language: Established a cohesive visual style to clarify key actions and simplify navigation, creating a more intuitive experience across different screens.

Observations

• Missed opportunity for actionable insights: With only basic transaction listings, the home screen doesn’t provide prompts or shortcuts to common actions, which could streamline the user journey and improve engagement.
• Misaligned flow: Current pay/request design creates an inefficient and backward process, requiring too many steps and lacking intuitive guidance.
• Over-reliance on instructions: The need for detailed guidance and an empty state reveals a lack of intuitive design, adding visual clutter to the core experience.

I just want to see my cash balance and send money quickly, but this app makes it more complicated than it should be.

Guiding Principles & Framework

1. Clear & Simple: Organized core functions by user interactions––Obvious for essential actions, Easy for supportive tasks, and Possible for optional features––allowing for a clear and streamlined user journey.
2. Inclusive: Designed with accessibility in mind, making the app usable for everyone with intuitive content layout and easily adjustable text sizes, enhancing readability and improved visual clarity.
3. accessibility standards: Conducted a visual accessibility audit, aligning design elements with WCAG guidelines for color contrast, tap target sizes, and visual hierarchy to support a more inclusive experience.
4. Scalable & Adaptive: Refined and tested UI components across different areas of the app in Figma, using Atomic design principles for consistency and scalability.

Hypothesis & Goals

By restructuring core actions into a more intuitive sequence, users will complete transactions with less friction and in less steps. The goal is to build an experience where sending and receiving money feels straightforward and immediate, while selecting who the money is going to––or coming from––becomes a natural, effortless step in the process.

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By aligning core actions with supportive features, the flow feels easy and intuitive, gently guiding users through each stage of a transaction. Optional settings that don't play a direct role in sending or receiving money remain accessible without getting in the way or overwhelming the user.

Design Approach & Research

• competitive analysis: Studied other popular payment apps like Zelle and Cash App to identify patterns, pain points, and opportunities to streamline the send/request flow.
• accessibility standards: Conducted a visual accessibility audit, aligning design elements with WCAG guidelines for color contrast, tap target sizes, and visual hierarchy to support a more inclusive experience.
• User-centered design principles: Applied best practices and UX principles to anticipate common user needs, ensuring the app’s core functions were intuitive and accessible without the need for formal research.

Experiments & Rapid Prototyping

1. Clear & Simple: Organized core functions by user interactions––Obvious for essential actions, Easy for supportive tasks, and Possible for optional features––allowing for a clear and streamlined user journey.
2. Actionable Insights: Refined and tested UI components, enhancing the user experience by adding clearer, relevant information and actions––all designed to improve and support a more intuitive user flow.
3. Inclusive: Designed with accessibility in mind to make the app usable for everyone. This includes intuitive content layout, adjustable text sizes for readability, and improved visual clarity through color contrast, visual hierarchy, and optimized tap target sizes.

User Journey for Transactions

Venmo’s current design requires 9 steps to complete a pay transaction, including unnecessary blockers that slow down the process.

Outcome

The redesigned user flow reduces this transaction to just 3 (or up to 4) streamlined steps, removing friction points for a faster, more intuitive experience.

1. Removed unnecessary steps: Made optional actions like adding a note truly optional rather than required, reducing friction.
2. Improved alignment of primary actions: Restructured the flow to request the payment amount first, followed by the payment method and recipient. This logical sequence aligns with the core CTA, focusing on "Pay" or "Request" rather than specifying a recipient first.
3. Eliminated redundant confirmations: Treated accidental payments as an edge case, allowing a smoother flow. Solutions for error handling are placed elsewhere in the app as needed.

Conclusion

1. Gratitude: I’m so grateful for the chance to design everyday things. My love for design and my passion for making things simple and enjoyable for users drives me every day.
2. Reflections on Solo Exploration: Tackling this project on my own was a unique challenge that pushed me to rethink familiar apps in new ways. It was a fun opportunity to experiment and see what I could create, using designs from existing apps as inspiration to improve the experience for apps with similar functions.
3. personal growth & goals: This work reminded me why I care so much about removing obstacles and focusing on what users need. It’s fueled my drive to keep designing experiences that feel effortless and accessible for everyone. And it also reminded me of how valuable it is to work with a team to solve problems together.