13 posts
toss 혹시 외국인이 보는 한국의 금융 시스템이 어떤지 아시나요? 미국의 유명 커뮤니티 Reddit에서 “Korean Banking”을 검색해 보면, 외국인들이 느끼는 한국 금융 시스템의 인상을 그대로 볼 수 있어요. 누군가의 도움 없이는 이해하기 어렵고, 전반적인 경험도 복잡하게 느껴진다고 해요. 그래서일까요? 토스에 가입했더라도 제대로 사용하지 못하는 외국인 사용자들이 많았어요. “모두를 위한 금융”이 토스의 비전이라면, 외국인이라고 해서 그 대상에서 제외되어서는 안된다고 생각했어요. 외국인도 편하…
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.
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figma Inside Figma: How our product management team uses FigJam At Config 2021, Figma’s virtual design conference, we announced FigJam, our new whiteboarding space. Long before we launched FigJam in beta, teams across Figma had been using it for everything from user research to Maker…
figma Inside Figma: How our product management team uses FigJam At Config 2021, Figma’s virtual design conference, we announced FigJam, our new whiteboarding space. Long before we launched FigJam in beta, teams across Figma had been using it for everything from user research to Maker…
figma Inside Figma: How our product management team uses FigJam At Config 2021, Figma’s virtual design conference, we announced FigJam, our new whiteboarding space. Long before we launched FigJam in beta, teams across Figma had been using it for everything from user research to Maker…
figma Inside Figma: How our product management team uses FigJam At Config 2021, Figma’s virtual design conference, we announced FigJam, our new whiteboarding space. Long before we launched FigJam in beta, teams across Figma had been using it for everything from user research to Maker…
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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