10 posts
airbnb Pay As a Local -- 1 Listen Share How Airbnb rolled out 20+ locally relevant payment methods worldwide in just 14 months By: Gerum Haile, Bo Shi, Yujia Liu, Yanwei Bai, Bo Yuan, Rory MacQueen, Yixia Mao Across the more than 220 global markets that Airbnb operates in, cards are th…
stripe 2025 was a breakout year for early-stage startups: founders launched more companies and generated revenue faster than ever. Delaware C corporations grew an average of 41% year over year for the past 6 months, according to the Delaware Division of Corporations. US investors deplo…
stripe We hear consistently from our SMB customers that access to financing is a primary obstacle to growth, and that they’re not getting what they need from traditional lenders. We launched Stripe Capital to help fill this gap. Now, to quantify the impact, we completed a two-year rand…
stripe Last year, we introduced Stripe Connect embedded components: prebuilt, production-ready UI modules that platforms can drop in with minimal code. The interfaces provide platforms with plug-and-play payments and finance workflows, from onboarding customers and supporting localized…
stripe Platforms tell us that managing risk and compliance often feels like choosing between speed and safety. You need to onboard businesses quickly so they can start using your product, but you also need to screen thoroughly for fraud. You want to expand globally, but each new market…
toss Toss, a leading Korean fintech platform, embarked on a UX research journey to define its visual identity as it expanded from digital services into offline environments like Toss Pay payment stations. The study revealed that while users strongly associate the brand with seamless "usability," they lacked a single, clear mental image of a visual symbol. By analyzing user perceptions of fonts, colors, and shapes, Toss identified a specific visual formula—combining the app icon shape with a white, blue, and black palette—to ensure the brand remains instantly recognizable in the physical world. ## The Challenge of Offline Brand Recognition * The project began with the need to design "danglers" (small signage at payment counters) to signal that Toss Pay is accepted at offline merchants. * While Toss had successfully used various logo iterations online, the team realized that "Toss-ness" learned within the app might not automatically translate to unfamiliar offline environments. * Initial internal debates focused on superficial visual tweaks, such as background colors or language choices, rather than understanding the core assets that trigger brand recognition. ## Identifying Usability as the Core Brand Image * In-depth interviews were conducted with participants selected for their ability to articulate abstract brand impressions. * Research showed that users primarily associate Toss with keywords like "clean," "practical," and "convenient," rather than specific aesthetic elements. * One participant described Toss as a "program made by a genius engineer in Excel," highlighting that the brand’s value was rooted in its utility rather than a distinct visual symbol. * This presented a challenge: since the "app experience" cannot be felt through a static offline sign, the team had to find a visual surrogate for that functional reliability. ## Deconstructing the Toss Symbol: Font, Color, and Shape * **Font:** Testing revealed that the most recognizable font was the black English "toss" wordmark, primarily because users see it most often in external media and news rather than inside the app. * **Color:** Surprisingly, users did not associate Toss with a single shade of blue. Instead, they recognized the specific combination of a "blue logo on a white background." * **Logo:** When asked to draw the logo from memory, users consistently included a square border. This indicated that users perceive the brand’s "face" specifically as the smartphone app icon (the blue logo inside a rounded square) rather than the standalone logo mark. ## Implementing the "Toss Formula" in Design * The research led to a refined brand identity formula: **White background + Black bold English font + Blue app-icon-shaped logo.** * In the "10 to 100" 10th-anniversary campaign, the company shifted away from all-blue backgrounds in favor of this white-based combination to maximize recognition. * Toss Pay payment screens were updated to remove blue backgrounds, adopting the white-and-black layout to align with how users intuitively identify the service. For UX researchers and designers, this case demonstrates that brand identity is often a composite of environmental cues rather than a single graphic. When moving a digital-first brand into the physical world, it is essential to look beyond the logo and identify the specific "visual formula" that triggers the user's memory of the product experience.
stripe Atlassian, Figma, Instacart, and fast-growing AI companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and NVIDIA use Stripe Billing to power diverse and complex revenue models. We’ve worked closely with these users to make Billing a complete, configurable platform for all business types—ensurin…
figma Designers use Figma to bring Uber to the unbanked “Figma is like a tidy bookshelf, where you can find exactly what you need, whenever you need it.” Maker Stories Prototyping Research Case study Collaboration
figma Designers use Figma to bring Uber to the unbanked “Figma is like a tidy bookshelf, where you can find exactly what you need, whenever you need it.” Maker Stories Prototyping Research Case study Collaboration
figma Designers use Figma to bring Uber to the unbanked “Figma is like a tidy bookshelf, where you can find exactly what you need, whenever you need it.” Maker Stories Prototyping Research Case study Collaboration