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Apple Pay: lessons for Cupertino

1 17 July 2015 4 comments

Retired member

One could be more forgiving and attribute bad UX to "teething problems", but not when it comes to the world's largest company and expansion launch (rather than greenfield ops).

Apple should have sorted all the issues I am raising here before launching in the US, let alone Europe - they have adequate resources and skills. Them not doing it is a continuing of their typical laissez-faire bravado.

Think about it: it's a no-brainer to introduce proper "Parental Control" on iPad, allowing to set time limits in general or even per app. Apple has been continuously ignoring hundreds of thousands of such requests (and not letting third parties to implement that feature).

Card selection
When you have multiple cards registered with Apple Pay, selecting - on the fly - the one you want to use at the point of interaction is not intuitive and fast at all. When you are at a Tube gate at 8am with half a dozen of frustrated Oyster users breathing down your neck (and another half a dozen passing through the gates left and right), card select sucks. I am not sure there is currently a way to make one of the cards a default one (it seems to me that Apple Pay defaults to the first card I added in) - if there is, it's not obvious at all.

TouchID
I wrote before that the current process sucks: holding your thumb on TouchID at the Tube gate (or even by the in-store terminal) is geeky and dorky. Apple should have allowed for card selection AND TouchID authentication to be performed BEFORE you present the phone to the terminal, giving you 10-15 seconds to complete the transaction. That would cure the "sweaty fingers" problem too.

Come on, Cupertino - you can do (much) better than that. Has the last UX expert left the room and switched off the light?..

Dead battery
Apple makes incredible products when it comes to hardware. They also make beautiful software, but in many cases with the focus on visual elegance rather than practicality. With Apple Pay, you are stuck (and stung, in case of TfL use in London) when your battery dies (and you followed Apple's advice to "leave your wallet at home"). Unlike some other smartphones, iPhone's NFC does not work without juice. What could be done? "Simples!" Leave some small battery reserve for NFC (internal logic), even when the battery "dies", i.e. when the screen goes black, linking Apple Pay is such case to a default card.

Let's see if Apple Watch addresses at least the first two problems - back soon.

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Comments: (13)

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

17 July 2015

TfL is perhaps the most complex use case for Apple Pay and I doubt if Apple even had it on its radar while designing Apple Pay. IMO, setting one card as default without having to fire up the app and select one card from many cards is a major differentiator of Apple Pay. That said, I can imagine situations where one wouldn't want to pay with the default card. Selection of a non-default card on those occasions seems to be possible going by the section titled "Pay with a different card on your iPhone" on

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201239

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A Finextra member

17 July 2015

Thank you for the link, Ketharaman. I empirically discovered the way to change card priority (tap-hold-drag), as well as the (documented) option of pre-authorising a card for payment *before* tapping the phone on the reader. The later makes TfL experience more pleasant. Apologies, Cupertino!

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A Finextra member

20 July 2015

Hi Alexander, you wanted the first two 'problems' solved quicly? Here you go:

Settings > Passbook & Apple Pay > Default Card (under the "Transaction Defaults" header)

If you don't like Touch ID, use your passcode instead. It's optional.

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A Finextra member

20 July 2015

Hi Martin, thank you for the tip. You can also set a default card via "tap-hold-drag" in Passbook. PIN for Apple Pay authorisation - what makes you think that's possible?..

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A Finextra member

21 July 2015

Hi Alexander,

Touch ID was described as optional in the original launch although misreported in many places as though it was the only option.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203027

"To send your payment information, you must authenticate using Touch ID or your passcode."

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A Finextra member

21 July 2015

Hm, interesting... On the one hand, that's in line with HCE implementation which is using similar EMV tokenisation approach. On the other hand, Apple has been always pushing TouchID as a major (obligatory) part of Apple Pay...

I wonder how passcode option works - when you present iPhone to the reader (or use TouchID within Passbook), there seems to be no option for entering the passcode.

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A Finextra member

21 July 2015

Apple has promoted Touch ID as a convenience and security feature but passcode has always been an option.

I don't have an iPhone 6 so can't help you with the details but my understanding is that if you switch off touch ID as your lock screen mechanism, then Apple Pay requires a passcode.

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A Finextra member

21 July 2015

Will try it today and let you know.

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Andrew Rothwell Co-Creator at House of Mozz

24 July 2015

Why not set the default card based upon the current location? For example, if you're at Hammersmith tube station, set default card to Oyster card. If you're at Harrod's, set default card to black Amex.

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Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

24 July 2015

@AndrewRothwell: Good question even if I say so myself - because I'd exactly this question when Apple Pay was launched in the US, particularly since the underlying wallet, Passbook, does have LBS functionality. At the time, I was told that payment cards can't be set by location since the 1-to-1 relationship that applies between loyalty card and location doesn't apply for payment cards. Even if this feature has somehow been implemented by now, it'd require the GPS to be on - which is otherwise not the case for Apple Pay to work - which poses two challenges, namely, faster battery drain and GPS tends not to work too well indoors. But iPhone6 is more powerful, these problems might be resolved, and I'm very eager to know the answer to your question.

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A Finextra member

24 July 2015

EMVB needs to update its specs so that each terminal can identify itself to the payment device. That would allow for some interesting use cases...

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Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

24 July 2015

@AlexanderP: Until that happens - ETA 2020? - one iBeacon per tube station should suffice, provided the next update of Apple Pay - ETA Oct. 2015? - is enhanced accordingly.

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A Finextra member

24 July 2015

We are doing that already with MultiPass (including automated card selection based on location) :)

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