matt johnson
japan wallet construct
Google Wallet
scroll to see more
Opportunity
Google Wallet's landing experience is a sleek card carousel that affords simple, artwork-forward navigation of a user's digital wallet. It's an elegant solution for the world's NFC-A/B based contactless payment system but, Japan's own standard, NFC-F introduces technical and usage behaviors that make this a poor-fitting interaction model for a majority of users.
DELIVERABLE
Proposal for a new interaction model that is (a) easy to maintain as a market-specific front-end fork, (b) still supports NFC-A/B elegantly, while (c) preserving the simplicity and artwork-forward feel of the existing experience.
CONTRIBUTION
• Owned design solution and early implementation of Google Wallet's variant in Japan
• Proposed design improvements to core 'hero' functionality
• Led technical, product, and usability audit of Google Wallet's architecture (embedded in Android OS)
DetAils
Company
:
Product
:
Google Wallet
Role
:
Market UX Lead
Timeframe
:
2021 Q4
Wallet vs. Pay
Google Wallet is Android's built-in platform for contactless payments and stored credentials (rewards cards, IDs, tickets, and more) available in 30+ countries and optimized for quick, at-the-ready in-store use. Not to be confused with the standalone Google Pay app, which is Google's separate iOS/Android offering for peer-to-peer and retail payments in specific markets.
Japan vs. The World
While the world standardized on NFC-A/B for contactless payments, Japan developed its own NFC-F standard (invented in 1988) prized for its speed and reliability and still dominant in the market today. NFC-F differs in two major ways:
A Slim Window for Success
In H2 2021, the Google Wallet team was preparing a product refresh updating core functionality and visual language to the latest Material Design standard. While my primary responsibility was the Google Pay app, as an experienced designer working in Japan I couldn't ignore the opportunity to ensure this release wasn't a step backward for the existing in-market experience.
I pitched the team on solving the problem and, with approval, was allotted just enough time to audit, iterate, and deliver a Japan-specific variant of the Wallet experience without slipping their roadmap.
01 • Identifying Weak Points
The first natural step was aligning on the parts of the refreshed global experience that don't translate well to NFC-F mechanics and users' contactless payment behaviors in Japan.
02 • Understanding the Imapct
With a shared critique of the status quo, I worked with the local cross-functional team to audit where market constraints would affect user journeys and product functionality. This helped both local and global engineering teams scope the effort, prepare for variation, and share the load effectively.
03 • Polarizing User Personae
To build confidence in a solution worth fighting for, I developed 3 distinct personas with local Business Operations experts – polarized enough to cover our most critical user cohorts and grounded in real usage data. This made sure that when it came time to negotiate ideal solution vs. viable timeline, we had something to go to bat with and that stakeholders who didn't fully grasp the technical deltas had something to anchor on.
04 • Establishing Success Criteria
Eliminate "Default" Ambiguity
Propose a clearer framing than the global product's implied 'default / non-default but usable' model. In the NFC-F world, multiple defaults exist simultaneously (one per network) and switching requires an explicit change, not just a carousel swipe.
Afford Glanceable Access to Balances
Users juggle multiple cards across different networks for different use-cases. The best solution makes it fast and easy to assess cash and reward balances across all FOPs at a glance.
Prominently Feature NFC-F Networks
Surface network context clearly to make defaults and active cards more intuitive to manage. This reduces friction in the speed-critical moments of in-store and transit payments.
Minimal Delta from Global UX
Keep the ongoing effort for the global team to maintain this market-specific variant as low as possible as the product continues to evolve.
Low Market 'Maintenance'
Ensure local PM and Business Operations buy-in to avoid creating additional churn across partnerships, integrations, and contracts.
Candidate A
Stacked Carousel
One model that preserves the carousel elevates horizontal navigation from individual cards to NFC networks, using the z-axis to stack multiple FOPs within each. Users swipe left/right to move between networks with the default always surfaced on top.
Strengths:
+ Carousel remains primary navigation model
+ Preserves separation between FOPs and Valuables
+ Clarifies network defaults intuitively
Weaknesses:
– Stacked behavior poses a non-trivial change in engineering effort and maintenance
– Scales poorly for 3+ FOPs within the same network
– Balances are less accessible (particularly for non-defaults)
Candidate B
Lean Carousel
Another approach restricts the carousel to only network default FOPs making a clean, technically grounded distinction between cards active on the NFC chip (horizontal) and all others (vertical), ordered by Payment FOPs first, then Valuables.
Strengths:
+ Intuitive map between interaction model and NFC behavior
+ Lowest engineering debt to maintain for Japan
+ Clarifies network defaults effectively
Weaknesses:
– Layout instability when switching defaults creates high cognitive load for frequent switchers
– Balances are less accessible (particularly for non-defaults)
– Overriding NFC-A/B FOPs is cumbersome and confusing
Candidate C
Segmented List
The last approach simplifies the interaction model to a single vertical axis abandoning the carousel in favor of a more traditional, mobile-native layout. Cards are segmented by network, ranked predictably, with the default surfaced at the top of each segment.
Strengths:
+ Balances are more accessible without interaction
+ Low engineering debt to maintain
+ Swapping network defaults is made convenient
+ Opens the door to user-personalized network ordering
Weaknesses:
– Sacrifices glanceability of card artwork
– Less rewarding spatial model for primary experience
Stakeholder Vetting
Android & Product Engineering
To support evaluation of effort across both Payments and Android Platform teams, I delivered a PRD per candidate detailing how each would maintain parity with the global product even detailing how edge cases and error states would appear and behave.
Japan Market PM & Business Operations
Each candidate was presented to local teams for their assessment on market impact (contracts, partnerships, positioning, etc.). Candidate A, for example, was flagged as a partnership risk as stacked card artwork would frequently overlap competitor brands.
Informal 'Cafeteria' User Testing
Quick on-device prototypes let me run informal sessions gathering input from 'biased but uninvested' Google employees who regularly used Google Pay in Japan. This illuminated Candidate C as the clearest and most intuitive solution.
Proposal: Segmented List
Candidate C was the overwhelming preference from cross-functional stakeholders and the product team responsible for building and maintaining the Japan Wallet experience.
Grouping FOPs by network in a single vertical list gives FOPs clear visual priority over Valuables, makes balances and account details more accessible, and the interaction model reduces front-end overhead in the market.
01
Navigation Menu provides access to important but less often used features and spaces in the product
02
Google's 'Identity Particle' directs the user to Google Account management and settings
03
Brand & State Indicator presents the Google Pay acceptance mark initially and resolves to the NFC-F mark when ready to pay
04
A Prepaid FOP presents card artwork, balance, service network, and top-up CTA
05
A Postpaid FOP presents card artwork, service network, issuer, and number
06
Default Control indicates the current default and provides a quick swapping mechanism
07
Valuables are arranged in a grid presenting partner avatar, name, and metadata (balance, account number, etc.)
08
Floating Action Button affords adding additional FOPs or Valuables
Validating Across Personae
While our user personas were instrumental in stress-testing all three candidates conceptually, I then moved into detailed specification using profiles alongside real FOP usage data to validate how Candidate C would perform across the full spectrum of our prototypical user cohorts.
Validating for Maturity
Once confident in the model's adaptability across mature user states, I designed to specification how each user would reach that state from first onboarding validating that the model:
Scaled intuitively from one to many FOPs & Valuables
Afforded the appropriate education as users diversified contactless capabilities of their wallet
Respected the same patterns and journey as the global solution to avoid additional debt
A Far Better Default
After detailed specification and a thorough handoff to the Google Wallet product and Android teams, I moved on to other priorities in the Payments organization as implementation began.
In the end, I was instrumental in shaping Google Wallet Japan's most recent UX instantiation – a market-specific variant that met the technical realities of NFC-F, satisfied local stakeholder requirements, and preserved the global team's ability to build and maintain without meaningful overhead.
More than just a regional fix, it was a case study in how deep market fluency, cross-functional advocacy, and a tight design constraint can produce a far better product than the default.
REFLECTIONS
Influencing roadmap to fix a real oversight in an important market takes leadership, but executing the end-to-end work to actually solve it is a privilege of experience. Highly constrained in time and engineering scope, this was a genuine win for Japanese payment users and I still see people using it in the wild.
WINS
＋ Leadership initiative unlocked product cycles for a better Japan solution
＋ Design navigated market, technical, and scale constraints without compromise
＋ Core UX lives in production today, even as the visual layer has evolved with Material / product standards
FAILS
– No formal UX research validation as a casualty of the timeline
– E-money and spending design stalled despite sponsorship and seems to still be shelved internally
DIFFICULTY
Three-stakeholder project (Wallet, Android, Country Ops) with competing priorities
Carried full PM and Eng lead burden without typical PgM support
Four-week timeline meant more time evangelizing than designing