NFC Mobile Payment System Design - Some Tips

Designing a perfect NFC mobile payment system is extremely difficult and complex. The failures that litter the road to success are many. So far I have not seen a successful mobile payment system implemented yet. Even those with mega-buck backing are failing as I write this.

Why is this? Let me list two reasons:

Greed; When the players want the whole basket for themselves then they will fail. Everyone in the value chain must see a real benefit from a mobile payment system or they will not play. One missing link will cause the system to struggle and eventually fail. Attempting to make a payment system exclusive to a particular bank, processor, device, chip, manufacturer or other player will bring on failure as well. It is also important to consider the greed of others and deal with that.

Not understanding human beings: All the payment systems I see in the market place are designed by engineers or payment system experts without taking enough consideration of real, live, normal, human beings and what they really want and need and will use. A payment system must be designed from the human experience, the technology must be adapted to that.

Are you building a NFC mobile transaction system? Do you have a mobile transaction system in the market that is not doing as well as you would like? Contact me. I have been designing mobile payment, ticketing and loyalty systems since 1999. Maybe I can help.