During a 24-hour hackathon hosted by Mastercard, I collaborated with designers, developers, data scientists and a digital marketer. To increase the security of online digital transactions, we created a mobile app feature called Mastercard Choice, which utilizes biometric authentication.
The global digital payments industry is expected to hit $6.6 trillion in 2021. However, data breach reports were also on pace to surpass the record set in 2017. Credit card fraud is the most rampant theft, meaning security becomes a priority for companies as online transactions increase.
With this data at our disposal, we now had a solid foundation to validate the direction our solution was heading in. We wondered:
Instead of a new app, we explored existing Mastercard digital services. We found Click-to-Pay, a payment system to access a user's credit card with a single button. Could this be made more secure? Research showed that consumers preferred biometrics due to its increased security, but they weren't familiar with it, or their banks/device weren't using it. We aimed to address this.
Let's define biometrics: body measurements and calculations related to human attributes. Authentication involves fingerprints, retina scans, voice & facial recognition, and seen as the most effective method available, since it is difficult to replicate these features. Research shows that 93% of consumers prefer biometrics over passwords, and 92% of banks would like to adopt this.
assumption of our target user. As an avid online shopper, they have experienced credit card fraud & breaches to their data, but would still like to shop without worry. This was important for us to consider while coming up with solutions involving biometrics.
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We didn't plan to reinvent the wheel. By combining features of digital payment services like Apple Pay & Google Pay, and a facial recognition payment service, Saffe, we created Mastercard Choice. It's an enhanced security feature combining Mastercard's Click-to-Pay service with biometrics. For the widest range of users, facial, touch and/or voice recognition can be selected.
Users would need to be set up to use this security feature. Therefore, we designed extra screens that adds onto Mastercard's existing consumer-facing web application. In order to enable biometric authentication, users would need to be onboarded. Below are these screens.
Now when the user shops online and proceeds to pay for their purchase, the Mastercard Choice button appears (if set up properly). Payment will be authenticated based on the selected biometric. Below we designed screens to show this on an e-commerce site.
And with that, we were done. Although 24-hours went by quickly, we met the requirements and delivered our solution to Mastercard; good enough for 1st place. Working in a cross-discipline team allowed me to effectively collaborate with other designers, developers, and marketers.
