A Journey In Creating Our New Payment Portal
Our Merchant Area is a vital part of being able to process payments with us successfully. It is where you go for configuration, payment processing, creating a report, and where to reach out for help.
We are striving to make our Merchant Area easier to navigate and more user-friendly than ever before. Through customer interviews, data, and analytics we have been able to gain a better understanding of who our users are, and what they want. However, updating the authentication, UX, and adding new features isn’t always as simple as it sounds.
We wanted to give you a peak of where we are going, and our journey to get there.
Rebuilding the Foundation
Our biggest goal with this phase is to improve the user authentication; revamping the foundation of the Payment Portal (our new Merchant Area). It may sound simple, but this is no easy task. The development work that goes into a project like this takes months.
Moving From Session-based Authentication
Currently, the Portal operates on what is known as session-based authentication. For each tab you are in, you need to log in with your company, username, and password. Each Merchant ID must be logged into individually.
When you use session ID, it creates a random new access token every time you log in. This token can identify the user, and the scope of the resources they can access. A new token will be generated each time a person logs into an account.
While session-based authentication works, it can be a bit time consuming as the user needs to log in to every account in a separate tab (imagine if you had 100’s of different Merchant IDs, that’s a lot of information to remember!).
Onto JWT Authentication
Moving away from the legacy of one tab, one login, Bambora’s development team is working on switching from session ID to the JSON Web Token (JWT) Authentication. Developer jargon aside, JWT authentication allows for the user to log in to all tabs at once. It also offers new security features and functionality that fit better with our modern internet experience.
With JWT authentication also comes an upgrading of the user interface for the login and password reset, making it easier to navigate.
What does the future hold?
Although our current projects will keep us busy for the foreseeable future, we are always looking ahead to see what is possible.
We have ambitious goals to implement 2 Factor Authentication to the Payment Portal. 2 Factor Authentication provides users with increased security with access to credit card data.
Think about when you log into Google from an unrecognized device; you are usually prompted to enter a code that is sent via text message or email to a device Google trusts.
In addition to making data more accessible, we are also working towards updating the user-experience. You will start to see changes early 2019.
We’re giving it a makeover, changing the navigation, icons, and overall feel of the Payment Portal (it’s really going to “pop”). The goal here is for a simple, clean, and beautiful UX that perfectly compliments the easy authentication process.
For our customers, security and privacy of their information is the number one concern, and we develop everything with that in mind.
We are currently looking for beta testers. Curious to learn more? Click here.
