Rajesh Balan, Narayan Ramasubbu, Komsit Prakobphol, Nicolas Christin, and Jason Hong

Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (Mobisys)

January 2009

In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a near-field communication-based mobile p2p payment application, called mFerio, that is designed to replace cash-based transactions. We first identify design criteria that payment systems should satisfy and then explain how mFerio, relative to those criteria, improves on the limitations of cash-based systems. We next describe mFerio's implementation and user interface design, focusing on the balance between usability and security. Finally, we present the results of a two-phase user study, involving a total of 104 people, that shows that mFerio has low cognitive load and is also fast, accurate, and easy to use - even outperforming cash in terms of speed and cognitive load in common payment situations.