Design Chit-Chat vol.5 – Kyoko Fukuda

What is Design Chit-Chat?

PayPay has become a national service with 42 million users, and one thing that is indispensable in its development is the presence of product members with rich personalities from more than 35 countries around the world. The process of understanding the “differences” and “commonalities” in each other’s thinking one by one has transformed us into a team capable of creating ideas, approaches, and outputs that have never existed before.

In this Design Chit-Chat, we would like to present a series of member’s voices to give you as direct a picture as possible of the PayPay Design Team and its atmosphere of craftsmanship. This time, we would like to introduce Kyoko Fukuda from the design team.

What made you decide to become a designer?

I am currently in charge of the PayPay for Business application used by stores.
One designer handles each project, so I work extensively from interviewing the stores to designing the application together with the developers.

What made you become a designer?

When I was in college, I majored in the field of Digital Fabrication and developed products using CAD and 3D printers.
When I thought about what I wanted to do after graduation, I decided that I wanted to be able to design the contents of digital devices, so I joined Yahoo to study UIUX.
I am still in the process of learning, but I would like to become a designer who can pioneer the field of product hardware and software without dividing the two.

What projects have you recently worked on?

We are conducting an overall design renovation of the application. We are in the process of examining the optimal design from the individual parts to the overall structure. It is a job that requires a great sense of balance to adjust the overall design while developing new features, but we are working hard together with many other members involved in the project.

How do you come up with ideas?

I have always liked to think, so I have been asking myself “Why? and “What is this? I am happy when I encounter new clues to recall.

Human activities are always interesting, aren’t they? What are the top priorities and what kind of bindings do we have? What was the action started to do a few steps ahead? Seeing and experiencing it in person often helps me later as an idea.

If it were directly related to PayPay for Business, it would be to go to many stores. When I go to a store, I watch the staff closely to see what they are doing. They are scary customers. Lately I’ve been having a hard time walking out, but I think it’s a good opportunity to do the opposite, and I make a conscious effort to read books and interviews about the inner workings of retail and restaurant businesses and observations that I can’t see.

This book came out in 2021, but I still read and refer back to it.
Chefs’ Corona Disaster: A Record of Thirty-Four People on the Road Less Traveled” by Naoko Igawa

What do you prioritize when creating a product at PayPay?

I am conscious of looking one step further than the streak that is considered a requirement in the project, saying, “What if… we could do this?” Now that I think about it, lol.
I feel that I enjoy achieving more than what is required of me, so I start the design process by thinking about this and that, without being bound by the requirements document.

What sort of challenges do you want to take on in PayPay?

I would like to plant an easter egg. The subject of an interesting trick that doesn’t undermine trust in the app as a payment app, but still sounds interesting, doesn’t it?
Message to prospective PayPay applicants
When I joined PayPay, there were only 3 designers in charge of products, but now there are 15. Now that we have a larger team, we are able to devote more time to more detailed design.
If you like to nurture products, please come join us.

A message for people considering to apply to PayPay

When I joined PayPay, there were only 3 designers in charge of products, but now there are 15. Now that we have a larger team, we are able to devote more time to detailed design.
If you like to nurture products, please come join us.

Author: Kyoko Fukuda / Supervisor: YAGI / Editor: Hinako
*Employees’ affiliations are as of the time of the interview.