SumUp Solo
SumUp’s first fully proprietary device: a compact, full-touchscreen card reader designed to deliver a faster, more intuitive payment experience. It has since become a core product in the SumUp ecosystem. Scroll down to explore how the device works and what makes it an innovative step forward in card-reader design.
Business needs
To gain full control over quality, speed, and production costs, SumUp set out to build its own family of card readers. Solo was the first step in this strategy: a device designed not only to meet immediate market needs but also to scale. By standardising hardware components that could be reused across future products, Solo created a foundation for faster iteration, better customer responsiveness, and long-term product flexibility.
Product goals
Start building a proprietary card reader portfolio.
1.
Have an innovative, sleek and full touch screen card reader.
2.
Compete with our SumUp App, Dashboard products and offer more features on the card reader.
3.
Have more control over quality and end-to-end chain of production.
4.
Ensure ease of use and simplicity.
5.
Approach
My first approach was to utilise the Company’s component library and make the visual language of Solo on-brand. It was after couple of trials that we understood that the intention of our stakeholders was very different. We had to make sure to align on stakeholders expectations and synch frequently in order to avoid losing very valuable time.
The idea was to have a Black&White device, very minimal and easy to use, almost inspired by the simplicity of the Ikea’s Manual and a pretty old Italian cartoon called “La Linea”.
Solution
Main menu
We designed Solo’s navigation around familiar gestures, like swiping down from the home screen to open the main menu. Every UI element was crafted from scratch, establishing a new visual language and the foundation of a scalable design system for future SumUp devices.
Solution
Payment flow
The payment flow was designed to be quick and intuitive: merchants enter an amount from the home screen, guide customers through optional tipping, and finish on a clear payment screen displaying the total and NFC prompt to tap or insert their card.
