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Service Design (MA)

Aishwarya Narvekar

Young adult lost in thought with money all around

Aishwarya is a Service Designer with expertise in Design Research and a background in Product Design. A key focus of her practice is making the research and design process participatory and tangible.

Previously, she has worked on diverse projects in education, healthcare, and emerging technologies, specializing in research, experience design, and game design. As a Product Design Graduate from the National Institute of Design (NID), India she has worked on design-led problem-solving for local communities across topics like education, special needs, juvenile reforms and social innovation as a designer, researcher and facilitator.

Through her practice, she is interested in exploring the strategic role of design in driving transformational change within systems to create products and services better aligned with all people. She is especially interested in the application of service design in governance, mobility and financial services.

Degree Details

School of DesignService Design (MA)RCA2023 at Battersea and Kensington

RCA Kensington, Stevens Building, Second and third floors

Aishwarya Narvekar

This project for me has been interesting deep dive into the world of financial services. As a designer, I’m always excited to explore what can I give as well as learn from other disciplines. Focusing on the exploration of GenZ’s relationship with BNPL, we have tried to investigate this complex problem through an emotional and behavioural lens. Approaching the problem with a service design lens has given me the tools to not only empathize with the users today but also think about the sustainability of the solution over time and the ecosystem it needs to thrive in.

Market size of identified problems
compilation of GenZ's perceptions of BNPL
The problem statement
project workspace
Research activities with GenZ to understand their spending behaviour and perception of bnpl 1
Research activities with GenZ to understand their spending behaviour and perception of bnpl 2

PROJECT CONTEXT

‘Buy Now Pay Later’ is an innovative financial product that has disrupted the traditional credit and lending industry by allowing consumers to spread the cost of their purchases into multiple instalments with no interest.

The pandemic saw a huge uptake in use of BNPL. Today the use is much more complicated and people are using it for more frequent purchases reflecting an increasing reliance on credit to extend their spending power. It currently is a one size fits all solution - from affording luxury to managing expenses with the cost of living crisis

On one hand, BNPL is becoming an essential choice that consumers are preferring because it gives them a lot of flexibility whether they’re funding takeaways, essentials or experiences.

On the other hand, BNPL gives everyone easy access to credit without any prior checks and takes away the emphasis from the actual cost and terms of use, fuelling impulsive purchases. GenZ happens to be the group most reliant on BNPL services and this may quickly turn into a debt trap for most vulnerable users.

Through this project, we focused on GenZ’s relationship with spending money through an emotional lens to understand how strategies like BNPL or virtual credit can better support them in meeting their present and future needs.

With a focus on the next 10 years, how might we use BNPL and credit as a positive enabling force that supports the long term financial well-being of GenZ and advocate for its more ethical and responsible use?

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Royal College of Art

Registered Office: Royal College of Art,
Kensington Gore, South Kensington,
London SW7 2EU