Link

2013 • group project

A mobile payment solution for the German market that
evenly serves needs of merchants and consumers, and provides
a sense of security with a tactile user-experience.

Pssst..the password is
telekom

The Challenge

Create a product that will help Deutsche Telekom establish
itself as a provider of mobile payment in the German market.

Research

The main finding of our research was that Germans prefer the material quality of payment, and feel insecure about the invisibility of digital payment.

However we found that there is much potential for merchants and businesses to profit from a digitial
payment system.

Telekom being our client, we were compelled to serve
the strategic needs of the company to establish itself as a mediator of digital payment.

So we investigated the needs of the relevant target groups.

Deutsche Telekom

• Provide infrastructure

• Establish a brand for mobile payment

• Have a presence in the digital payment market

German Users

• Love the material expierence of cash

• Are concerned about the security of their data

• Must have a clear incentive to change to mobile payment

Merchants

• Have a lot of financial organization that could be made simpler with a digital payment system

• Want an overview over their sales figures

• Organization of employee payment

The System

The system serves the needs of all interest groups. It consists of
a digital and a tactile solution for the costumer, a digital solution for
the merchent, and establishes Telekom as a mediator.

Ideation

Concepts

We generated an array of concepts for each part of the system and then narrowed them down to the most efficient working parts.

Scenarios

We worked with multiple scenarios to evaluate the effective concepts. By going through the story we could better communicate our ideas and then decide upon the direction we wanted to pursue.

Final Outcome

Relationship between
the components

The final system consists of a merchant app, a customer app, an extra device that works as verification, or as a prepaid device, and the Link which plays the role of mediator in
the payment process.

Both the customer and the
merchant app add value by providing a clear overview of their finances
and spendings.

Payment Interaction

The Links position between the customer and the merchant establishes an tangible visual experience
of the payment process.

The two parties are represented by rings that rotate until locking in to a secure connection. The visual action alludes to the workings of a lock to signal the security of the transaction to the customer.

 

The Link

T LINK is the device that serves as a mediator between
customer and merchant. It displays every step of
the money transfer. T LINK helps to establish a paying
ritual that is typically lost in mobile payment transactions.

Extra Devices

These extra devices are used for user verification by using unique movement data to provide a safe transfer while paying with the mobile payment app. 

While the devices all share the same technology they can look very different as they are produced by different lifestyle and fashion brands that cooperate with Deutsche Telekom. 

The extra devices provide a material component for the customer and make sure that only they are able to make a payment.

These devices can also be charged and can function as prepaid devices.

My responsibilities

In this project my teammates and I worked very closely throughout the
research and developement process of the concept. In the ideation phase we
separated our responsibilities, my main job was the planning and the production
of the final video. I also made the design of the necklace device.