Mobile Money Ecosystem Uganda
Demonstrating the value of mobile money through an ecosystem
CLIENT THE GATES FOUNDATION
Project Background
Mobile money technology has the potential to improve lives and increase financial inclusion for the two billion unbanked people in the world, but adoption remains slow for vulnerable populations. The Gates Foundation partnered with IDEO.org to explore solutions to improve mobile money for low-income people in East Africa.
My Role
As Communication Designer, I was responsible for designing interactive prototypes, conducting user interviews, documenting field research, creating branding for a pop-up market, designing executive communications, designing worksheets for a financial workshop, graphics, and illustrations.
Core Team: Phase 11
Tej Dhillon, Sheena Benavente, Angie Fu, Jon Won
Services
Service design • EXPERience Design • UI/UX • Branding • Visual DesignThe Ask
Using the coffee value chain and human-centered design, explore design solutions for a farmer-centered, scalable, digital bulk-payments experience.
“How might we increase the uptake and use of mobile money of rural Ugandan coffee farmers?”
The Outcome
A scalable mobile money ecosystem concept for coffee farmers, buyers, and merchants that builds trust and demonstrates the value of mobile money by helping people see how integrating it into their daily lives offers greater long-term benefits than cash.
Learn more about IDEO.org and The Gates Foundation partnership to improve mobile money for low-income people in East Africa at the Heart of Mobile Money
Discovery
Understanding the landscape, identifying stakeholders, and hearing from the users
User Interviews
We heard from 8 Kyagalanyi Coffee (KCL) staff members, 3 mobile money agents, 4 merchants, and dozens of coffee farmers. Interviews with stakeholders gave us an opportunity to empathize with users and gain insights.
01
Low Trust
In interviews, farmers expressed anxiety and a lack of understanding about mobile money. Their only experience with it was for remittances, which involved cash-out fees and created an association with an expense. Farmers, anxious for payment, were experiencing waits as long as 1-6 hours to receive harvest payments, which provided little incentive to accept mobile money.
Key Pain Points
02
Low Staff Participation
KCL staff interviews revealed that their existing web-based payment platform was not being used. The laptop took minutes to start up, required a USB WIFI adapter for connectivity, and often needed a generator for power. Logging in required a long password, and the UX was poor.
03
No Perceivable Value
As mobile money services have not been established in rural communities, farmers are often unaware of their existence and don't understand the value of keeping money in the system.
Synthesis
Framing the process, to create the right solution
Key Findings
01
Lack of Guidance
Farmers lack understanding and guidance about how mobile money and financial services can help them, their farms, and their families.
How might we surface the inherent value of mobile money beyond basic transactions?
02
Inefficient Delivery
It takes anywhere from one to five hours for mobile money payments to farmers to be processed. A complicated process and UX system significantly slows down workflows for the coffee-buying staff.
How might we make the payment experience improved by leveraging technology?
03
Little Value Derived
Currently, there are few outlets where farmers can actually spend mobile money within the ecosystem to derive value. Farmers incur high fees when cashing-out mobile money.
How close gaps between stakeholders and encourage use of mobile money?
Current State
At the present, there is a push for farmers to receive bulk payments, but farmers aren’t seeing any value in keeping their money in the system
Opportunity
We believe Traders will propel the push to use mobile money and that Merchants will create the pull.
Recommendation and opportunity
We needed to show farmers the value of using mobile money in order for it to be adopted.
〰️
Simply making mobile money more efficient for farmers wasn't enough to address their concerns. At present, there is only a small push for farmers to receive bulk payments, but they do not see the value in keeping their money in the system. We hypothesized that traders could drive the push for mobile money use, merchants could create a pull, and farmers could be educated about the benefits.
Design
What this could look like
Mobile Money Ecosystem
Mobile Money Hierarchy of Needs
Defining and Ideation
Drawing on the data gathered during the initial research phase, as well as input from user feedback and our own frameworks, the team synthesized the findings to identify new opportunity areas and develop potential solutions. We narrowed our focus to key stakeholders and converged on 3 primary concepts. To test these concepts, we built 5 prototypes and conducted user testing in Uganda.
Prototype Concepts
Financial Planning
Phone Payments
Split Payment Receipt
Tablet User Experience
Input Store
Low-fi rapid prototypes for field testing in Uganda
Financial Planning
Hypothesis
The value of mobile money is best communicated through a financial planning session where farmers can make a direct connection to how it can improve their farms and families.
Prototype
We designed and tested a scrappy financial planning activity with coffee farmers and KCL staff, iterating on the script, approach, and class size. The financial coach used tools to guide the session and help farmers make tradeoffs to achieve their goals.
Farmers Voice
“It helped me because I rarely have a monthly budget. Normally when I get money, I pay school fees for my kids, and the rest I just use until it gets done. Then I stay without money.”
—Fhina, Coffee Farmer
Learnings
The session prompted farmers to start thinking about saving— discussing digital financial services in this context created both realness
Farmers were enthusiastic about receiving tangible and visual take home of their action plan.
Many expressed interest in signing up for mobile money and one farmer
Sessions took closer to 1.5 hours rather than 30 minutes.
Farmers were open to sharing their contact information and taking follow-up calls.
Phone Payments
Hypothesis
The approach of dispersing mobile money payments through a phone simplifies and streamlines the payment experience for both staff and farmers. Instant receipt of mobile money payments also helps to build trust in the system among farmers.
Prototype
This prototype streamlines the payment process for farmers by allowing KCL staff to make mobile money payments directly after the weigh-in, eliminating the previous wait time of 1-5 hours.
User Voice
“The system you brought, it’s very short, the customer gets the money immediately. It saves time. It simplifies everything.”
—Geoffrey, Station Manager
Learnings
Staff members were able to start using the new phone payments system with minimal training. Within 10 minutes, they were able to successfully disperse their first test payment.
The portability of the phone reduced back and forth between the manager’s office. Payments were made directly at the weighing station.
With the new system, farmers received their mobile payments almost immediately after the weigh-in, drastically reducing the time they had to wait to receive their payment.
Farmers are much more comfortable being paid through a mobile phone as opposed to a laptop computer.
Split Payments
Hypothesis
Revised paper receipts for KCL staff to make split payments for cash and digital will simplify the payment process, reducing paperwork and increasing the likelihood of encouraging farmers to accept a portion of their harvest as mobile money.
Prototype
The new paper receipt for KCL staff includes a specific section for mobile money payments, alongside cash payments, to streamline the payment process and reduce the paperwork required. This updated design allows for split payments, encouraging KCL staff to offer mobile money payment options to farmers, which can ultimately increase farmers' access to and use of digital financial services.
Learnings
KCL staff commented on how the redesigned receipt would reduce their current need to create two receipts—one for cash and one for mobile money.
This would reduce the reliance on a printer to print mobile money receipts, which requires electricity and potentially a generator
Tablet User Experience
Hypothesis
Developing a new payment system in collaboration with KCL staff that aligns with their existing processes and addresses their pain points can result in greater adoption and promotion of mobile money. This approach can enhance the usability and convenience of the system, ultimately leading to increased trust and confidence in the technology.
Prototype
We held two focus groups with KCL washing station management to learn more about their current experience paying with mobile money and tested different functions of an improved payment system.
Learnings
Staff members wanted alternative methods when uploading info to the system during poor network connection.
With a redesigned experience, there are opportunities to notify staff at the right moments if there are deceptive practices.
Staff were excited about features beyond payments, such as a pricing history, farmer bonus projections, and washing station reports and analytics.
Input Store
Hypothesis
To create value and to encourage the acceptance of mobile money payments, we proposed creating an input and supplies shop at the washing stations where farmers can make purchases using mobile money. By offering basic necessities and agricultural items, farmers can benefit from the convenience of mobile money while simultaneously having access to essential goods.
Prototype
We set up a temporary retail shop, Mo'Agro, at two washing stations (Gibuzale and Kapchorwa) to test the concept of a shop that accepts mobile money payments for basic necessities and agro items. These shops were placed in visible and easily accessible locations for farmers, and were branded separately with the cooperation of KCL and local DST agents. During the three days of testing, we experimented with the product mix and ran price sensitivity tests
Farmer’s Voice
“The transaction was so simple. I added the money, it went into my account, I paid for my purchase and I received my product. Being here (the Mo’Agro Store) made it easy, quick, and saved me time.”
—Modudu, Farmer
Learnings
Over three days, we made 27 transactions, selling 58 products, with ~4 repeat customers.
One farmer signed up for Mobile Money as a result of the shop.
75% of ~11 farmers added mobile money balance to purchase items at the Mo’Agro store.
Farmers explained that to buy these items they would need to travel into town which would cost them ~14,000 UGX.
In a fully integrated program, pricing will need adjustment to accommodate the pull fee.
The shop could possibly sell at market prices. On Day 1 we priced at a 20% discount, and at 10% on Day 2. We sold a similar amount of products on both days.
Key insight from user testing
〰️
Mobile money operates in a symbiotic ecosystem, where guidance, efficient delivery, and the ability to derive value are crucial elements for its success. It was insufficient to propose individual solutions; to effectively utilize mobile money, it was imperative to involve everyone in generating widespread demand.
Design principles
Understanding our insights allowed us to establish key design principles that guided the design of our entire experience.
Build Trust
Establishing trust is crucial when working with low-income farmers. Build on existing trust or create it by maintaining clear, accessible, and consistent communication and offerings that align with farmers' needs and desires
Be Accessible
Given coffee farmers' remote locations and limited formal education, our concepts must be accessible and intuitive to use. Our objective is to align new services with the existing behaviors and mental models of this underserved community.
Offer Quick Wins
Farmers may not be familiar with setting financial goals and saving to achieve them. Include "quick wins" in concepts to motivate and encourage farmers while they learn new systems, enabling them to see immediate value while supporting long-term behavioral changes.
Design iterations
Financial planning lessons
✧
How might we contextualize the personal benefits of mobile money?
〰️
Contextualizing personal benefits with financial planning lessons
Lessons and tools
We created an interactive financial planning service to help farmers understand how mobile money can help their family and farms. The lessons teach farmers to set goals, budget, and save. Our service emphasizes the use of mobile money as a tool to achieve these objectives.
The service
The lessons begin with a visioning/collage exercise where farmers visually represent their goals. The budgeting activities are simple and interactive, allowing farmers to physically move post-its to symbolize trade-offs. The worksheet concludes with an accountability contract to summarize the plan and reinforce commitment. Worksheets are provided for farmers to take home and use as reference and inspiration.
The Mo’Agro Shop
✧
How might we bridge the gaps between stakeholders and encourage everyone to use mobile money?
〰️
Aligning stakeholder motivations with Mo’Agro pop-up shop
Considering all stakeholders
Some stakeholders, like the coffee buyers, understood and experienced mobile money’s benefits. Others, like farmers and merchants, didn’t.
We established Mo’Agro, a cashless shop near or on KCL property to save farmers transportation time and costs. It is co-branded with KCL and run by a professional merchant for added trust. To build trust, we prioritize communication and transparency by providing mobile money fee lists, product price tags, and receipts for each transaction.
Mo’Agro carries items farmers need
The shop will stock basic necessities and agricultural items, with rotating seasonal and novelty products. Cabinets, carts, hooks, baskets, and peg boards will organize and display products. Barrels and buckets will serve as storage and seating, creating a warm atmosphere.
Improved Payments
✧
How might we make the payment experience improved by leveraging technology?
〰️
Reduce friction in the system with an improved payments experience.
Efficiency and speed
The improved tablet experience simplifies login for staff with a quick 4-digit PIN and made making payment processing faster and more efficient. It automatically requests additional float and cash when balances get low, and it leverages cellular data networks instead of unreliable Wi-Fi. This means farmers can be paid quickly and avoid the anxiety of a long wait for payment.
Considering accessibility
The experience is designed for staff with different levels of tech literacy, featuring high-contrast elements and clear, easy-to-read metrics displayed on the screen.
Where it Stands
To test the iterated concepts, IDEO.org and partners conducted a promising next phase of research in Uganda during the following coffee harvest season, implementing the Improved Payment Tablet App in 5 of 6 KCL washing stations and testing Mo'Agro Shop and Financial Education program in 2 of those stations. Several thousand farmers and rural low-income people were reached, resulting in measurable uptake of mobile money acceptance from farmers where all three prototypes were run. The collaboration continues to develop between partners as they focus on connecting underserved communities to the digital economy.