Top Regional Bank (Hawaii)
UX Research | Brand Strategy | Prototyping | Testing
A major regional bank in Hawaii was looking to update their mobile experience to attract a younger demographic with new look and feel, modern convenience, and competitive product offerings. Our team was brought in to establish the needs & wants of the target demographic and to begin building a testable prototype of the new app on which to base future development.
Our first step was researching the competitive landscape in comparison to the bank’s current-state to create an overview of the kind of business environment that we would be working within. In addition to our competitive analyses, we also conducted over 40 hours of focus groups and individual interviews to develop in-depth personas for our key users.
Research
Establishing a set of comprehensive personas are integral to maintaining direction and empathy throughout a design process. Having demographic information, behavioral trends, and data-driven analytics are important, but it’s much easier to design a successful and useful product when stakeholders and designers can imagine a real person behind the data.
Our extensive interview and research process resulted in two highly detailed personas and journey maps within the target demographic. These two personas were split into Aspiring and Actioning. Aspiring users were the youngest, least established users. They were likely still in school, had no or low credit histories, and were just getting used to thinking about or maintaining their financial health. The Actioning users were early in their career track, establishing their independence, and looking for ways to improve their financial health and establish security and growth. Catering to these two personas, we moved into prioritizing the experiences and products that were the most needed or sought out by this cohort.
For the client, potential features were gathered from requests gathered during the workshops as well as features present in competitor’s products. They were bucketed into Experience and Product features, and prioritized based on user demand, technical complexity, and financial feasibility.
After the experience and product features were prioritized and selected by the client, we moved forward with the design phases, beginning with a high-level map of key features and processes. This framework allowed us to get a sense for how users would begin to navigate between tasks and how far down into the app certain features would need to be.
With this map in mind, we began detailing key screens and building out our target processes to test against. The primary user flows included Account Onboarding, Direct Deposit Setup, Savings Account Creation, Zelle Integration, and Goal Setting features.
Wireframing & Prototyping
Once we had established the primary user flows and key screens, we iterated and fleshed out our flows with input from stakeholders and leadership to create a cohesive and testable prototype. Each distinct flow incorporated comments and needs from our users and interviewees.
User Onboarding
The User Onboarding flow gathers information required by FDIC regulations and the needs of the bank. Users are given digestible microtasks and a progress bar to encourage completion. Limiting the tasks-per-screen and the number of screens reduces user churn and increases the likelihood that they will have a positive perception of the app.
Direct Deposit Setup
Research has shone that 33% of users are loyal to banks where they direct deposit. By making this process simple or automatic, the bank could drastically increase its dedicated userbase as well as their average deposit volume. As a result, the user is provided multiple entry points into the direct deposit flow depending on their approach or navigation.
*Pattern structure and research information based on Pinwheel API.
Savings Account Creation
All users that were questioned mentioned that they are interested in using different types of financial products depending on their needs and as they mature. The younger cohort also noted that they wanted to be able to easily compare different products from their phone, and sign up without having to go to speak to anyone. Our New Account flow allows users to independently research product features and fees without having to navigate away from the app, or visit their local branch.
Goal Setting
Many of our participants for the younger persona admitted that they were just starting out with budgeting their income, and didn’t have concrete plans for managing their finances. Every user mentioned having financial goals ranging from a new pair of sneakers to buying a home. Having the feature to set goals that they could contribute to was received positively during testing.
Testing & Reception
Once we completed the iterations of the individual flows and connected them into a cohesive prototype, we began our testing phase. We developed a set of tasks that the participants would complete on behalf of an imaginary persona, during each task we encouraged the testers think and feel aloud, sharing any points where they were lost or confused or highlighting any features or experiences that felt intuitive or positive. Between tasks, there were sections where we allowed the testers to freely explore the app, while asking what they expected to happen or where buttons could take them. At the end of each task we asked a series of questions about how they felt about the difficulty of the task and their perception of the design and experience. The reception was overwhelmingly positive, and aside from a few minor changes in hierarchy and navigation, no major changes were needed. Overall, the client was very satisfied and have begun working with their dev team and vendors to build the new app.