AXS M-Station
Founded in 2000, AXS is Singapore’s leading payment solutions provider, offering convenient digital services for everyday transactions. To stay ahead of evolving user expectations, AXS engaged my team to redesign its app with a more seamless, user-friendly, and engaging experience.
DURATION
3 Weeks
ROLE
Research
User Interviews
Problem Statements
Persona Creation
User Journey Map
User Flows
TOOLS
Figma
The Challenge
AXS had not conducted usability testing for more than a decade, during which user expectations and mobile standards had evolved significantly. As a result, both apps encountered usability challenges and growing competition from digital banks and fintech platforms.
The Objective
Our objective was to uncover key pain points from users and non-users, translate these findings into user-centered improvements that aligned with business goals, and create a clear redesign roadmap with a primary focus on M-Station.
Our
Process
01
Discover
Combined secondary research, user interviews, and usability testing to uncover key usability issues in navigation, setup, and feature awareness.
02
Storytelling
Conducted a Design Studio
& Feature Prioritization workshop with 20+ stakeholders with my team members.
03
Define
Turned complex research findings into actionable personas, journey maps, and How Might We statements to guide design strategy.
04
Deliver
Facilitating in the design of a high-fidelity prototypes to showcase improved flows and usability testing planned as the next step.
Research
I conducted a competitive market analysis of other leading payment and billing apps such as DBS PayLah! and GrabPay. The analysis focused on evaluating their strengths and weaknesses to identify key opportunities for enhancing the AXS m-Station app experience and modernizing its user interface.
AXS M-Station App
✅ STRENGTHS
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Extensive coverage with 800+ government and utility billers.
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Trusted, established platform with nationwide presence.
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Offers recurring payments, e-receipts, and detailed bill history.
💎 KEY FEATURES
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One-stop bill payment hub across multiple categories.
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Supports eNETS, card, and PayNow QR transactions.
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Multi-bill payment and receipt tracking in one interface.
⚠️ WEAKNESSES
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Outdated interface and limited modern UX.
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Low engagement outside of bill-due periods.
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Minimal lifestyle or reward integrations.
DBS PayLah! App
✅ STRENGTHS
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High trust and reliability backed by DBS Bank.
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Smooth PayNow and SGQR integration with fast checkout.
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Strong ecosystem with banking, rewards, and offers.
💎 KEY FEATURES
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Pay bills, transfer funds, and manage accounts seamlessly.
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Biometric login and push notifications for reminders.
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In-app promotions and rewards tied to DBS cards.
⚠️ WEAKNESSES
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Limited biller variety compared to AXS.
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Cluttered experience due to multi-service functions.
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Not tailored for niche or complex bill payments.
GrabPay App
✅ STRENGTHS
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Large active user base with high engagement.
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Integrated GrabRewards loyalty ecosystem.
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Simple, fast, and user-friendly interface.
💎 KEY FEATURES
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Pay bills, shop, and book rides in one superapp.
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Wallet top-ups via card or PayNow with auto top-up.
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QR and in-store payments fully integrated.
⚠️ WEAKNESSES
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Limited bill coverage compared to AXS.
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Payments are secondary to lifestyle services.
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Lacks depth in transaction detail and official billers.
User Interviews and Usability Tests
We carried out interviews and usability tests with 15 participants, a mix of existing and new users aged 25–45. The insights below
highlight the our key findings.
🔍 Low Awareness
73% of users unclear about what the app offers beyond payment of bills and fines.
🧩 Confusing interface
82% used it for recurring payments, but most found it only by accident and adapted through it for existing users.
⚠️ Unclear about Passcode
Many did not know the passcode is device-specific.
3 existing users lost data when switching phones without warning.
🔔 No reminders
33% wanted reminders for bill payments and they were unaware the feature already exists in the current app.
To better understand our target audience, I developed a persona that captures key insights gathered from user interviews.
Persona
Behaviours
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Uses mobile apps daily
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Relies on notifications and reminders to stay on track and plan for upcoming bills
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Prefers personalisation and quick access to all expected bills
Goals
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Easily categorise and locate specific billers or organisations
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Avoid late payments with timely reminders
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Retain account details and payment history,
even after switching devices -
Manage favourites based on preference
Pain Points
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Difficulty finding certain billers or organisations
-
Concern about missing payment deadlines because of insufficient reminders and unsure how to pickup
from where he left from -
Unclear about the purpose of the passcode feature
-
Uncertainty around how to manage or update favourites
Bryan, 39
Office Executive
Moderate to high digital literacy
“I want an all-in-one app where I can save my bills and set reminders whenever I need to.”
Workshop
Facilitated a co-creation workshop with 15 - 20 cross-functional participants, including UX designers, product managers, and engineers, to uncover key user challenges and opportunities for improving the AXS M-Station billing experience.
The session resulted in 2 strategic design directions, which shaped the
product’s next iteration. The synthesised insights and proposed concepts were later presented to the CEO, helping secure alignment and approval for
further development.
Winning Design Workshop
Facilitated AXS team ideation in a Design Studio, leading to the best proposal out of three teams.
Impact–Effort Mapping
Directed stakeholder discussions to debate feasibility and align priorities effectively.
Pitching to Stakeholders
Presented ideas and user journeys to help clients understand the design rationale.
Our
Problem
Satements
Features Are
Hard to Find
The app is easy to use, but many useful features are hidden, so users don’t know they exist.
Users Learn
by Accident
Most of the features are clear only for current users. There is a lot of guess and check and lack of transparency.
Passcode Is
Confusing
Users don’t know why they need a passcode. They think it’s just for login, not to save their info.
No Personal
Touch
Users want reminders and favourites to be managed based on their preferences and not an automatic function.
Key Solutions
For our solutions, we aim to emphasize the key MVP aspects of the user experience by making the purpose of the passcode more understandable during the sign-up process, allowing users to customize their tabs according to their needs, and improving reminders so that users can easily track their payments.
Our goal is for users to be fully aware of these features, not just to come across them by chance, but to truly understand and use them effectively to get the most out of the app.
After
Users are given an overview of how to set up their account. More transparency and purposeful.
Sign Up
Before
AXS login did not clearly explain the purpose of the passcode for security.
Homepage
Before
Based on our user interview insights, many users missed the search button and preferred tapping on the categories instead. They also wondered why Favourites appeared larger and often ignored the other tabs.
After
Users can now customise the tabs based on their preferences and view an overview of their spending or recent transactions directly on the home screen, making it more useful and easier to navigate.
Overall Solutions
& Next Steps
Due to time constraints, the final round of usability testing was handed over to the AXS team for further evaluation. Therefore, our next step is to conduct a usability test or even an A/B test to determine which user interface works better for both existing and new users. This will help us understand whether existing users are more comfortable sticking to their usual routines or if they are open to change, since sometimes users prefer the harder, familiar way, and learning new steps can create additional obstacles.
Overall, I have learned many things during this project, but one key takeaway is the importance of teamwork and communication. Many times, I stepped outside of my role to assist others, for example by helping design the layout for the user interface and suggesting which designs might work better based on my background in graphic design.
