Tyde (2026)
An everyday-payments app for Australia that makes sending money, paying bills and tapping to pay feel like one habit instead of three banking apps.
Client
Australian fintech startup (under NDA, Tyde is a placeholder name)
Role
Product designer, solo: desk research, UX, UI and handoff
Timeline
3 weeks
Platform
Mobile App · iOS & Android
The Challenge
What needed solving.
Australia's payment rails, PayID, Osko and BPay, are fast and well built, but the apps on top weren't keeping up. Paying a friend back meant hunting for a BSB and account number, paying a biller meant copying a code into a separate screen, and a balance check sat three menus deep. The plumbing was modern; the everyday experience still felt like homework.
The Approach
How I solved it.
I built Tyde around one idea: payments should fade into someone's day, not interrupt it. PayID and Osko transfers need nothing memorised, BPay billers sit in the same flow as everything else, and one QR screen covers paying and being paid. Every screen was held to three words: minimal, fast, functional.
Process
How I worked through it.
01
Mapping the local payment stack
Desk research into Australia's payment rails and the apps built on them, alongside the super apps the founder admired, like Paytm. PayID and Osko were trusted and fast; the apps around them were the slow part. That gap became the brief.
02
Onboarding that gets out of the way
Sign-up became two steps, linking a PayID and verifying identity, with no jargon and no twelve-screen tour. The goal: a first transfer in under two minutes.
03
A home screen built around the next action
The dashboard leads with the balance and the four things people actually do: Send, Receive, QR Pay, and biller categories like Bill Pay, Airtime and Cable TV. The most common task is always one tap away.
04
Payments at the speed of life
Send and Scan-to-Pay are one continuous flow: amount, confirm, done. The history reads like a clean statement, not a spreadsheet, and receipts are ready to share the moment a payment lands.
Selected Screens
A closer look.
Outcomes
Where it stands.
Tyde hasn't launched yet. I handed off an annotated Figma file to the founder, so there are no usage numbers to show. The founder wanted a super app in the spirit of Paytm, which is why the home screen carries airtime, cable TV and other services alongside PayID transfers and BPay.
Reflection
What I'd do differently.
I'd push back more on scope, while still respecting the founder's ambition. A super app with airtime, fuel prices and betting next to PayID transfers is a lot to launch in one go. I'd have argued for starting with the core payment flows, transfers, BPay and QR, and adding the rest once those worked.
Now you know.
A queue nobody trusts? A status that sends people to support?
That's the work I do, and I'm open to new projects. Tell me what you're building, and I'll tell you honestly if I'm right for it.
Next Project
Payment Resolution (2026)
Designed one resolution case for stuck payments in Nigeria and India. In testing, 8 of 10 customers knew to wait instead of paying twice.