SpicePay UPI: Reimagining Digital Payments for Everyday Financial Needs

This SpicePay UX case study explores a digital payments experience designed for everyday users who want to manage their money, make payments, and track their financial activities with ease. The experience brings assisted onboarding, personal savings goals, wallet funding, payments, bills, and financial activities into a more connected journey. Feelpixel focused on reducing friction across key user journeys while creating a clearer and more approachable financial experience.

Spice Pay digital payment platform logo
SpicePay mobile payment app interface showing a UPI payment onboarding screen with a QR code, payment features, and a “Create An Account” CTA, presented within a scenic visual.

Client

SpicePay, India

Project Type

Client Project 

Industry

Fintech / Digital Payments

Scope

UX Strategy, UI Design, Mobile Experience, Product Design

Platform

Mobile Application

Journeys Covered

Onboarding, Savings, Wallet Funding, Payments & Bills

What Challenges Did SpicePay App Faced?

01

Shifting from assisted to 
self-serve onboarding

SpicePay users often depended on Adhikaris to create and activate their accounts. This was mainly because the onboarding and KYC process had multiple steps and could be difficult to complete on their own. The challenge was to make the journey simple and clear enough for users to sign up independently, even with limited digital experience.

02

Making saving more purposeful for users

Saving can feel difficult when users have to choose a financial product or decide how much to put aside. SpicePay offered options like RDs, FDs, and Digital Gold, but users needed a simpler way to start saving. The challenge was to help users save small amounts regularly for things that matter to them.

03

Building regular engagement 
with the wallet

Users needed money in their SpicePay wallet for everyday payments, bills, and savings. But adding money manually each time was repetitive and easy to forget. The challenge was to make it easier for users to keep their wallet funded without having to add money every time.

Spice Pay mobile banking app displayed on a smartphone, showing digital payments, money transfers, savings, and financial services.
SpicePay digital payments app feature showcasing wallet balance and money withdrawal functionality within the redesigned payment experience
SpicePay digital payments experience highlighting secure transactions and financial protection with a shield and lock illustration

Our Design Process

Discover

Studied user needs, merchant challenges, and everyday payment habits through field research.

Define

Identified onboarding friction, wallet usability issues, and opportunities to simplify savings and payments.

 

Design

Designed self-serve onboarding, goal-based savings, wallet funding, and unified payment journeys.

 

Deliver

Refined the mobile interfaces and connected key financial tasks into a cohesive app experience.

 

What Was the Goal of the SpicePay Redesign?

The goal was to transform SpicePay into a more self-serve, engaging and connected financial experience. The redesign focused on simplifying onboarding, encouraging purposeful saving, automating wallet funding and bringing payments, bills and savings into a unified experience.

Key Goals
  • Reduce friction during onboarding
  • Encourage purposeful saving through personal goals
  • Simplify and automate everyday wallet and payment activities
SpicePay festive payment interface featuring Festival and Navratri categories with themed illustrations
SpicePay UPI AutoPay feature enabling users to automate bill payments and avoid missed due dates

Who Is the SpicePay Experience Designed For?

The SpicePay experience is designed for users who rely on digital financial services for everyday transactions, payments, wallet management and saving. The experience addresses users who need a simpler onboarding process as well as users looking for more control over their financial goals and recurring activities.

 

SpicePay field research highlighting the need for guided assistance, featuring a local shopkeeper at his retail counter
SpicePay user research at local retail shops, observing merchants and customers to understand financial habits and savings needs
SpicePay field research with local shopkeepers and the design team to understand wallet usage and everyday payment needs

Users & Customer Needs

01

New Users

Needs: Simple onboarding
Pain point: Dependence on assisted processes

02

Everyday Payment Users

Needs: Quick access to payments and bills
Pain point: Multiple financial activities can feel disconnected

03

Goal-Oriented Savers

Needs: Clear personal saving goals
Pain point: Difficulty connecting everyday financial activity with long-term goals

What the SpicePay Design Is Built to Improve

Metric Before After
Onboarding Assisted journey Self-serve journey
Savings Generic saving activity Goal-based saving
Wallet Funding Manual actions Automated funding
Financial Services Fragmented journeys Unified experience

What Design Language Did the SpicePay Project Use?

We used a clean, modern and approachable visual language to make SpicePay feel trustworthy, simple and easy to use. The design combines a bold, vibrant colour palette with clear typography, rounded elements and intuitive iconography to create a consistent and user-friendly experience across all key journeys.

SpicePay design system showcasing Inter typography in five font weights and a set of financial iconography for payments, savings, growth, scheduling, security, and wallet management.

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What result did the spicepay redesign deliver

Transforming Assisted Onboarding into an 
Engaging Self-Serve Experience

We learned that the challenge wasn’t just the number of onboarding steps. For users with limited digital familiarity, not knowing what comes next, what information is needed, or whether something was entered correctly could make the process feel even harder.
We designed the journey to remove uncertainty at every step by the following- 


  • Clear guidance, auto-filled information, real-time validations, simple language, and a visible progress flow helped users understand what to do and what to expect.
  • We also broke the longer KYC journey into smaller, easy-to-follow steps instead of making it feel like one long process.
  • This made the account creation and KYC process easier to follow, helping users complete it with confidence.

The concept extends into personalised recommendations, where information provided by users can be used to suggest products aligned with their needs.

Creating a Unified Destination for Payments, Bills & Savings

Our research revealed that users needed one place to manage their everyday money, while SpicePay’s goal was to bring these needs together on one platform. We combined both to create a banking like experience where users could receive money, make payments, pay bills, and save without a branch, a queue, or extra charges.

We focused on:
• Bringing key money actions upfront with payments, bill reminders, and saving goals on the homepage
• Connecting saving and spending through the Save & Grow section and visible goal progress
• Keeping users informed with upcoming bill reminders and Auto Top Up status

SpicePay app features for adding money, sending money, withdrawing funds, and managing recharges and bill payments

Encouraging Purposeful Saving with Personal Goals

Research indicated that users often saved for things they looked forward to, such as Diwali, Eid, family occasions, or personal needs. This showed us that saving felt easier when it had a clear purpose.

We focused on below points:
• Made starting easier with predefined amounts and the option to start with little amount


• Made goals more relatable and trackable with personalised visuals and clear progress tracking

• Supported ongoing saving with timely nudges for missed contributions or AutoPay failures, plus easy goal management

SpicePay savings feature redesign showcasing goal-based savings, automated deposits, goal completion tracking, and personalized goals for festivals, weddings, and farming expenses

Automating the Way Users Fund Their Wallet

We discovered through research that manually adding money for payments, bills, or saving goals could be easy to delay or forget. We designed the wallet to make funding more automatic and timely, helping users keep money ready when they need it.

We focused on:
• Automating wallet funding with Auto Top Up and SpiceAdd, while keeping the wallet as the default funding source
• Setting up recurring payments with AutoPay for regular bills and saving goals
• Using timely nudges for low balances and relevant funding or AutoPay setup moments

SpicePay mobile payment confirmation screen displaying a successful ₹2,000 transaction completed in 1.7 seconds, with the transaction date and time.

Insights

Simplifying Financial Decisions Builds User Confidence

Financial products often involve complex information that can overwhelm users. Presenting balances, transactions, and financial options in a clear hierarchy helps users understand their money and make informed decisions with greater confidence.

Guided Experiences Make Digital Payments More Accessible

Users have different levels of digital and financial literacy. Breaking payment and money-management journeys into clear steps, supported by contextual guidance and helpful prompts, can make financial features easier to understand and use.

Bringing Financial Tools Together Reduces Friction

When payments, expense tracking, and money management are scattered across different journeys, users must work harder to manage their finances. Bringing these capabilities into a connected experience can simplify everyday tasks and help users maintain a clearer view of their financial activity.

 

The Stats That Matter To Us

1M+

Downloads on the Google Play Store

38 Million+

Customer Transactions

2.56Lakh+

Towns Covered

4.3

Ratings on the Google Play Store

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How did Feelpixel approach the SpicePay redesign?

 

Feelpixel began with a UX audit and field research to understand user challenges, financial habits, and areas of friction. These insights guided the redesign, focusing on simpler onboarding, goal based savings, easier wallet funding, and a more connected banking like experience for Tier 3 and 4 users.

 

Feelpixel made financial journeys easier to follow through guided steps, familiar language, clear progress indicators, and timely help. This helped users with varying levels of digital familiarity complete key tasks more independently and confidently.

 

Feelpixel designed savings around familiar needs like festivals, weddings, education, and farming. With predefined goals, suggested amounts, a low starting amount, and clear progress tracking, users could start small and save towards what mattered to them.

Feelpixel introduced Auto Top Up, SpiceAdd, and AutoPay to simplify wallet funding and recurring payments. These features reduced manual effort and helped users keep their wallets funded and manage regular bills and savings more conveniently.

Feelpixel designed SpicePay around the complete money journey, connecting payments, bills, wallet usage, and savings instead of treating them as separate services. This created a unified experience where users could move between spending and saving without switching between different apps or journeys.

Feelpixel improved the homepage with clearer service sections, visible saving goals, upcoming bill reminders, and wallet status. We also introduced familiar language, contextual prompts, and clear progress indicators to help users understand their finances and find relevant actions more easily.

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