The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing. As interaction designers we of course argue that the success hinges on good design of this experience and recent news suggests that there is little to recommend mobile payments unless they offer some useful new features (see Place and product based collaborative filtering).

So it’s good to see work that explores the details of the transaction interface (see our design brief). This video shows “A mobile payment demo using Welcome’s NFC applet integrated with a payment application in a mobile phone.”:

More detail at Aneace Haddad’s weblog.

It’s great to see that the transaction is very fast and there is at least basic audible feedback at the point of touching. It’s also interesting to note the integration of a paper receipt into the process. While a mobile wallet can provide payment history and receipts, the paper receipt builds trust in the transaction and its value should not be overlooked.

Compare and contrast to other NFC demo videos, what kinds of interactions are working here? Does anyone else notice that NFC interactions that rely heavily on the screen seem awkward?

25 July 2007 by Timo