Challenge:
In acknowledgment of the difficulties faced by many customers in the digital banking landscape, my client, a Switzerland-based asset manager, was motivated to improve his digital banking offerings for his corporate clients by addressing the visual and user experience challenges faced by customers.
Collaboratively leveraging my digital product design expertise and their industry knowledge, we conceived a customer-centric, visually appealing, and personalized digital banking solution that delivered a seamless and enjoyable user experience. This innovation equipped our asset manager’s corporate customers with a competitive edge, fostering trust with their clients.
MY ROLE
Digital Product Designer
TARGET PLATFORMS
SaaS for Online products, Mobile
TOOLS
Adobe XD, and Google Suite (Docs and Sheets) for collaboration
METHODS
Information Architecture, Use Cases, Personas, User Flow, customer Surveys and Interview documentation from the client, Design Thinking, UI design, Identity/Branding, and Market exploration. Usability Testing.
DURATION
Five Months
The Journey
Step 1: Customer research
SORTING THE DATA
By analyzing the vast array of customer data accumulated by my client over the past decade, we arrived at a comprehensive and informative “Swiss customer” empathy map by utilizing cutting-edge machine learning and AI technologies.
Data takeaways:
Think & feel
- Customers expect affordable, secure, and easy-to-use digital banking platforms with rewards for loyalty and online activities.
- They seek trusted investment advice and the ability to track their finances.
- Competitive lending products with transparent fees, access to customer support, and a comfortable and secure experience.
Doing
- Swiss banking customers frequently use online and mobile banking to manage their finances, access accounts, check balances, and track transactions. They also commonly use credit cards and digital payment apps like Twint.
- They often automate recurring payments like monthly bills to manage finances more efficiently and have a reputation for prudent financial behavior.
- Swiss customers tend to invest in traditional and alternative products, track their assets, and make informed decisions to grow and preserve their wealth.
Seeing & hearing
- Swiss banking customers see and hear about financial issues that impact their lives, such as retirement savings and the competitive housing market.
- They are concerned about the high down payment required for mortgages and potential job layoffs.
- There is a desire to dispel the stereotype that millennials are irresponsible with money, and younger customers actively seek ways to save and invest for the future.
The Full Data
Empathy map of collective “Swiss Based” banking customers
View the full map
How do customers think & feel about an online banking solution?
Customers view online banking as convenient, efficient, and flexible. They want an affordable, secure, and easy-to-use platform. They want rewards for loyalty and online activities, such as bill payments. Customers feel empowered by tracking their finances and seek trusted authoritative investment advice. Customers expect a competitive, comfortable, and secure lending product with transparent fees and access to customer support. They embrace digital banking as a cost-effective way to manage finances and expect banks to meet their needs and expectations.
What are they often doing online?
Customers do many activities online, such as managing finances, making transactions, researching financial products, and seeking expert advice. They may check balances and transactions, pay bills, transfer funds, open accounts, monitor credit scores, and use budgeting tools.
Swiss banking customers are known for being digitally savvy and forward-thinking, particularly when managing their finances. They frequently use online and mobile banking to access their accounts, check balances, and track transactions. Credit card usage is common, and many customers choose to pay digitally using popular Swiss payment apps such as Twint, which is widely accepted in the country.
In addition to tracking their credit card balances, Swiss customers will likely automate recurring payments, including their monthly bills and other regular expenses. This enables them to manage their finances more efficiently, freeing time to focus on other priorities. Swiss customers are known for their prudent financial behavior and often invest their earnings to grow their wealth. This can include investing in traditional products such as stocks, bonds, and funds and alternative investments like real estate or commodities. With their focus on building and preserving wealth, Swiss customers will likely track their assets and make informed decisions about where to allocate their resources.
What they are seeing & hearing?
Swiss banking customers increasingly see and hear about various financial issues impacting their lives. For example, many are becoming increasingly concerned about how much money they need to comfortably retire. They also see that the housing market is becoming more competitive, with rising prices making it more difficult for many to afford a home. There is a growing concern that the down payment required to secure a mortgage is often higher than 20%, making it even more challenging for some people to buy a home. In addition to these concerns, many Swiss banking customers also hear about potential layoffs at work. This can be particularly stressful, as losing a job can have significant financial implications. There is also a common stereotype that millennials are irresponsible with money, which many younger banking customers are keen to dispel. They are actively seeking ways to save money and invest for the future, despite their challenges in an increasingly complex and competitive financial landscape.
Personas:
Step 2: Defining the customer
To create a successful product, it is essential to understand and identify key customers and design an experience that meets their basic needs and goes beyond their expectations by engaging their emotions and driving their satisfaction.
This requires considering both ends of the customer spectrum, including younger generations with their first account and comfort with digital technology. Older generations may have significant wealth but may be hesitant or skeptical of the digital environment.
To meet the needs of these diverse groups, the product must be able to adapt and adjust to each user. This can be achieved through the use of application defaults based on factors such as age, wealth assets, and digital affinity and by presenting data, services, and assistance in a customized way that is tailored to each individual’s needs and preferences.
Motivators
Step 3: Understanding customer concerns
Through customer interviews and journey mapping of existing banking systems, it is clear customers have several critical issues with online banking portals.
Of utmost importance for customers is that their login and financial information are secure. Protection from identity theft and loss of their assets through a scam or data theft are top concerns.
Missing important information that results in fines or legal action, automatic or accidental approval of a suspicious payment, is also a top concern for customers. Customers expect their banking systems to actively bring their attention to any potential situations so that they can be avoided. As well as guide the customer into actions that increase wealth and security.
Customer constraints
These factors constrain customers with online banking.
Customer motivators
These factors motivate customers with online banking.
CUSTOMERS PAIN POINTS
Security is one of the biggest worries, as customers fear their sensitive data could be hacked. The complexity of online banking, with confusing onboarding processes, waste time and effort. Too many services available can also be overwhelming. Customers can feel disconnected from their banks with online services, missing the face-to-face interactions that can only be built with in-person banking.
CUSTOMERS HAVE TO GAIN
Online banking allows customers to manage their finances from anywhere, at any time. With real-time access to their financial situation, customers can receive personalized recommendations for saving and investing, empowering them to make informed decisions. Quick and easy access to their accounts means customers can perform transactions such as transfers and view credit card expenses on the go.
Engagement:
Part4: Adapting product for different customers.
Effective product design is essential for creating a truly exceptional customer experience from start to finish. Using an imaginative and engaging approach to the experience and presentation of information and features that adapt to the customer’s individual interaction and banking style and approach to interaction makes creating a meaningful and rich customer journey possible.
By making it easy, highlighting, and suggesting approaches to building and managing wealth, and by providing an intuitive experience with easily accessible assistance, Our design significantly increases the customer’s trust and comfort in engaging with new services and solutions. This ultimately leads to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
MVP:
Step 5: Align business goals and customer features for a successful MVP.
In product design, it is crucial to prioritize the needs and goals of the customer while also considering the needs and targets of the business. When creating an MVP (minimal viable product), balancing the features necessary for the customer and those viable for the business is essential.
One way to achieve this balance is to create a mutual goals diagram, demonstrating the alignment of the institution’s goals with the customer’s. The area of overlap in this diagram defines the target features of the application.
Once the target features have been identified, it is possible to define, roadmap, and prioritize the product requirements and features. This process outlines the high-level targets and helps to identify the features necessary for achieving success for each goal.
Mutual Goals Diagram for Banking Institutions and Customers
Institution goals
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Create a comprehensive, one-stop banking portal that meets all of the customer’s financial needs
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Establish trust and loyalty with solid security measures
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Enhance customer loyalty, which can lead to more recommendations and a growing customer base
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Boost brand recognition and promote the institution’s services
Mutual
- Develop a trusting, secure relationship between the customer and the institution.
- Create an intuitive, engaging, and comprehensive platform that allows customers to manage their day-to-day and long-term finances easily.
Customer goals
- With solid security measures in place, they feel confident that their money is being handled correctly and in their best interest.
- Find it easy to manage their day-to-day finances and work towards their short and long-term financial goals.
- Feel empowered and supported in making sound financial decisions, with a sense of control over their finances.
Conclusions:
Research steps completed
The product must be adaptable and personalized to meet the needs of each customer type, with an intuitive and engaging interface and easily accessible rapid assistance. By designing a product that meets these criteria, it is possible to build trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among customers, ultimately driving success for the institution.
To achieve this, the final product should also be designed and engineered with a focus on security, ease of use, and accessibility, as well as a range of tools and features that encourage and assist the customer in building and managing their wealth.
Design journey steps checklist completed:
- Conducted research and analysis to understand the needs and goals of the institution and the customers and the challenges and preferences of different customer personas.
- Created and verified a mutual goals diagram aligning the institution’s goals with the customer’s.
- Defined, road mapped and prioritized the product requirements and features based on the target features identified in the mutual goals diagram.
UX / UI design Process
Product Sketches
Design Thinking to product testing
Following these steps outlined by the design thinking methodology with stakeholders and customers of online banking applications, we defined our minimal viable product and created first a low-fidelity wireframe visualization, followed by a high-fidelity prototype for customer testing.
Building the product Step-by-step
- Prototyping:
- I created a low-fidelity representation of the solution to test and validate the concepts developed in the previous steps.
- Testing:
- I tested the prototypes with my stakeholders to gather feedback and make any necessary improvements. This process was repeated until the solution met the needs of my stakeholders.
- Implementing:
- I implemented and integrated the solution into a high-fidelity Adobe XD prototype for sharing with my client’s corporate customers.
- Customer testing:
- We tested the prototype with a potential customer for valuable feedback to be carried into product design later.
What is Design Thinking?
Design Thinking process infographic
Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that puts the needs and experiences of users at the forefront. It involves understanding the problem, empathizing with the users, ideating potential solutions, prototyping and testing those solutions, and iterating based on user feedback. This approach encourages creativity, experimentation, and collaboration to create innovative solutions that meet users’ needs meaningfully. Design thinking can be applied to various fields and contexts, from product design to social impact projects, and is a powerful tool for creating solutions that truly make a difference.
Wireframes
Sample: Customer Dashboard
Complexity simplified
The goal of the layout is to simplify the complexity of financial data for the user. The layout design provides an intuitive interface, with easy-to-follow navigation that presents the most pressing and essential action items as quick action buttons.
By carefully weighing and organizing the information hierarchy from left to right, the user can stay informed of any pressing matters and quickly access any element of their assets. The end result is a simplified user experience that helps customers make informed decisions about their finances.
Action weighting
The layout is designed to guide users toward essential actions. With the action weighting technique, I focus the user’s attention on the page’s left side, where the most critical action items are located. These items are displayed below the left-side column menu and are consistently present on each page to remind the customer of what must be addressed before logging out. By emphasizing these crucial actions, the user is more likely to complete them and feel confident about their financial decisions.
Prototype
A testable hi-fi solution
Gaining customer metrics
At this point in the design process, I created a high-fidelity interactive prototype of our digital banking idea and solicited customer feedback. The results showed that customers found the experience intuitive and easy to use, with many commenting on how well the design simplified their common experiences with online banking portals.
VIDEO: Online interactive tour created with Adobe XD
Based on customer feedback, we made modifications to improve further the user experience, such as adjusting the layout of the quick action buttons and refining the information hierarchy. Overall, the feedback we received through the high-fidelity prototype was instrumental in creating a successful product design that met my client’s customer needs and preferences.