SmartSpending App - Designing the SmartSpending Mobile App

Introduction

This article explains some background on what was considered when designing the SmartSpending Mobile App. 

The SmartSpending App can be downloaded by any employee, whose organization is on a Discounts programme with Reward Gateway | Edenred. It allows members to take advantage of the range of Discount offers available, from their mobile device, at any time.

Background for App Design

Four out of five UK adults, and 77% of US adults, have a smartphone, and an increasing number use their mobile devices for shopping - whether that's on the sofa at home, on the train on the way to work or while waiting for a bus.

After a huge increase in usage of the SmartSpending website on mobile devices, it was clear that we needed to provide a better mobile experience for our users, over and above our mobile-responsive website. 

A dedicated mobile app means employees can access their discounts and purchased vouchers quicker and easier than they could through the mobile-responsive website .

We designed and built the SmartSpending App from the ground up, with an obsessive focus on creating a great experience for its users. We want employees to get loads of use from it, thereby getting even more value from their engagement platform and more return for our customers. 

Client and Employee Needs Come First!

During the design phase, we talked to our customers in depth about what they wanted from a SmartSpending mobile app and identified 4 key priorities:

1. Login has to be really secure, but easy. 
   We've built in a one-time passcode that we text the user if they've forgotten their password or have trouble logging in.
2. It needs to maintain brand consistency with the customer's employee engagement hub. 
   As soon as the employee logs in, they see the program logo they're familiar with. We even bring in the primary program color, so the experience feels like home.
3. Checkout should be seamless.
   The fewer the barriers to purchase, the better the user experience. We've designed the app so that if a user has saved payment information through their program on the desktop app, the mobile app can pull this information in, so they don't have to re-enter their payment details if they don't wish to.
4. Navigation needs to be easy and deals easy to find.
   We've designed the app through the eyes of the shopper, and we've even built in push notifications to let them know about the week's hottest deals. 

Built by Mobile Experts

Our team of mobile experts have built a high-performing app for employees, using the latest industry best practice. For example:

• Unified basket and digital wallet across mobile app and desktop browser.
  We know that people use both their desktop browser and smartphone apps interchangeably, so we've built a fully unified experience. Add something to the basket when using the site on a laptop, and it'll show in the basket in the smartphone app, too (and vice versa). If an Instant Voucher is purchased on the mobile app, it'll be saved in the digital wallet, which can also be accessed on the desktop browser. This makes for a great cross-platform experience and simple shopping journey for employee users.
• Fast and responsive.
  We've optimized download speeds and minimized data traffic so that the app feels fast and responsive, even when the internet connection isn't great.
• Works offline when the internet connection has gone.
  For times when an Instant Voucher needs to be shown in-store and there's no data signal on the user's smartphone, we've enabled the app to work offline so they can still access them. We store key things like that on the phone itself so they work perfectly even if the signal drops.
• We respect phones with precious little memory.
  Memory and storage are precious on a mobile device, and it can be very frustrating when one app uses lots of space. We made sure the SmartSpending app is super efficient in terms of file size. This means it downloads fast, even on a slow internet connection and it takes up approximately 60MB of space on a user's phone.
• Beautiful, mobile-first experience.
  We redesigned the SmartSpending experience from the ground up for mobile. So we're using touch, swipe gestures, intuitive animations and push notifications for a great experience.

Access

The SmartSpending App can be downloaded from the Apple AppStore or from Google Play Store. Simply search for SmartSpending.

Availability and Cost

The SmartSpending App is available - at no extra charge - for clients on a Discounts programme.