Author: Mi Zhou

 
Deconstructing Digital Payment is an interactive educational website, with an optional physical installation, that demystifies the technology behind digital payment methods and provides a basic overview of each one of them. The project sheds light on three popular payment methods, namely, point-of-sales (POS), near-field communication (NFC), and quick response (QR) code. The physical installation includes an NFC-tag-swiping box, a start button, and an NFC wallet with “cards”.

We are moving towards the digital world. If we thought backward at this point, it seems impossible to imagine that we can make payments without the physical presence of cash. Visibly but unconsciously, digital payments have become an indispensable part for many people in their daily lives.

Technology, as the infrastructure of digital payment, plays a vital role in the establishment of new payment methods and people’s adoption of them. However, the phenomenon that technology is not the only decisive factor for the proliferation of digital payments in one country has become more and more obvious these days. Behavioral beliefs, social influences, and personal traits all play an essential role in the adoption and continuous use of digital payment systems.

But, do people really know how the technology works before they develop their biased presumption and refuse to use digital payments? Do people just simply follow the trend (like the case in China) without considering its potential side effects?

There is a lack of basic education on how these digital payment methods work, and people somehow have already “leapfrogged” to the next stage to debate their pros and cons, or whether digital payments are the future of transactions. Currently, it’s still relatively difficult to get a one-minute quick answer to how these digital payment technologies work when people search online. Therefore, Deconstructing Digital Payment, using simple icons and warm colors, serves as a straightforward while also interestingly interactive website so that people who are interested in the topic can quickly understand the technology behind it and make better decisions on whether they want to adopt digital payments.