Case Study: Credit Bridge App
The Challenge
In the heart of India's bustling informal sector, small business owners and labourers faced persistent challenges. Gupta-ji, a kiln owner in Rajasthan, struggled with unreliable labour. His workforce, essential for the operation of his brick kilns, frequently left without notice, causing significant disruptions and financial losses. These issues prevented his business from growing and formalizing.
At the same time, Parvati Devi, a diligent labourer, and her husband travelled to various kilns, working tirelessly to make ends meet. Despite their hard work, they remained trapped in debt, unable to access financial resources due to their lack of credit history.
The Vision
To address these pervasive issues, we envisioned Credit Bridge—a revolutionary app designed to offer peer-to-peer loans, flexible payback cycles, and credit score building. Our goal was to empower users like Gupta-ji and Parvati Devi to establish creditworthiness without needing employer guarantees. We aimed to automate loan tracking, ensuring financial stability and inclusion for business owners and labourers alike.
Key Goals:
Traceability: Seamlessly track loan paybacks to prevent conflicts and foster trust.
Transparency: Access a complete history of loan transactions, reducing disputes from contradictory claims.
Trust: Enable lenders and receivers to manage paybacks efficiently, even in the absence of formal notice.
The Research
We embarked on our journey by immersing ourselves in the lives of our target users through interviews and observations.
Unreliable Labor: Business owners like Gupta-ji highlighted the irregular attendance of labourers, who often left work abruptly.
Business Loss: These disruptions led to significant financial losses, hindering the growth and formalising of informal industries.
Economic Trap: This cycle of unreliability and loss kept the small-scale economy trapped in poverty and low capital.
Based on these insights, we developed detailed personas to guide our design:
Gupta-ji (Malik): The kiln owner employs numerous laborers.
Munim (Manager): The kiln manager manages workforce and production
Tilak-ji (Jamadar): The labour manager recruits and manages workers each season.
Parvati Devi (Majdoor): The labourer striving to escape debt despite hard work.
The Solution
Credit Bridge began to take shape as an intuitive app designed to redefine financial interactions in informal business settings. We designed user flows and user journeys tailored to each persona's unique needs and challenges.
User Flows
Overview: The app, Credit Bridge, is designed to redefine financial interactions in workplaces and informal business settings. It provides a user-friendly interface to track loans, insights on outstanding amounts, and contract performance analysis, aiding informed decision-making. The app's flow includes a systematic start from registration to daily usage, ensuring ease of use for all user types.
Gupta-ji would register on the app, input his business details, and start tracking the loans he provided to his labourers. The app offered a clear, visual interface that simplified this process, providing insights into outstanding amounts and aiding informed decision-making. Parvati Devi, on the other hand, Could register, Apply for a peer-to-peer loan, And start building her credit history directly from her smartphone.
User Journeys
Overview: Different user journeys are designed for each user persona to highlight their unique interactions with the app.
Each persona had a unique journey with the app:
Gupta-ji: Saw the traceability and transparency of the loans he managed, reducing conflicts and fostering trust.
Munim-ji: Found managing the workforce easier, ensuring proper production and labourers accounting.
Tilak-ji: Found it easier to manage advances and payments, ensuring labourers received their dues.
Parvati Devi: Watched her credit score improve gradually, offering her a path out of debt.
Wireframes
We crafted wireframes that focused on the app's core values: Traceability, transparency, and trust. The design utilises the Poppins font to ensure high legibility across different languages, catering to our diverse user base.
Overview: The wireframes outline the key features and functionalities of the app, emphasising its unique aspects such as traceability, transparency, trust, and adaptability.
Key Features:
Traceability: Detailed tracking of loan paybacks.
Transparency: Comprehensive loan transaction history.
Trust: Efficient payback management without formal notices.
Adaptability: Suitable for various employment structures, including seasonal work contracts.
Design Rationale
Font Choice: We used Poppins font to ensure readability across different languages. Poppins is designed to maintain character geometry for high legibility, making it suitable for our diverse user base.
Competitive Analysis (SWOT):
In a market with competitors like OK Credit and Karma Life, Credit Bridge stood out. While OK Credit targeted small retail businesses and Karma Life focused on gig workers, Credit Bridge offered an inclusive approach for individuals without a credit history. It provided transparent payback histories to improve credit scores and automated loan payment tracking, making it versatile for business owners, labour contractors, and labourers alike.
Competitors:
OK Credit: Targets small retail shop-based businesses, providing a loan ledger system.
Karma Life: Aimed at gig workers, offering loans backed by employer guarantees.
Strengths of Credit Bridge:
Inclusive approach for individuals without a credit history.
Transparent payback histories to improve credit scores.
Versatile for business owners, labour contractors, and labourers.
Automated loan payment tracking and E-Contract service.
Feedback and Iterations
Regular user interviews played a crucial role in refining our design. We gathered feedback at each stage and iterated on our wireframes to ensure the app was accessible and user-friendly for our diverse target audience.
The Impact
The launch of Credit Bridge would bring a wave of positive change. Gupta-ji could manage his workforce more efficiently, reducing financial losses. Tilak-ji would streamline his labour management process, ensuring timely payments and fostering better relationships with both business owners and labourers. Most importantly, Parvati Devi and her husband would begin to see a light at the end of their financial tunnel, slowly building their creditworthiness and stepping out of debt.
Lessons Learned
This journey taught us the power of user-centered design. By deeply understanding the needs and challenges of our users, we created a solution that not only addressed their problems but also empowered them to achieve financial stability and growth. The regular feedback and iterative design process ensured that our app was not just a tool but a trusted companion in their journey towards economic independence.