The Challenge: Rocket Bank has updated their marketing strategy, aiming it towards millennials. However, current mobile app receives a lot of complaints and negative reviews from the young users.
What Was Done: User interviews were conducted to point out the pain points of current design. Based on those results Rocket Bank's mobile application was redesigned to address the users' needs and update the look-and-feel. On this project, I worked as a solo UX Designer.
Impact: I created all required wireframes and facilitated a meeting with the development team in order to estimate the cost of redesign.
I love working on complex systems so I was very excited to start this project since banking was always a magic willy-wonka's-chocolate-factory to me, except instead of chocolate it's all about money.
When working with such complex systems it’s always a good idea to make sense of it for yourself. To do so I created a banking relationship concept map. No more magic! Core concepts, all on one screen.
Current Rocket Bank Mobile app allows users to complete most of the tasks modern users expect to be able to complete today. However, the app structure makes the experience less natural than it could have been or should be.
To make sure any decision is supported with qualitative understanding of users' needs and is well-informed in general, I asked some existing mobile banking users about their experiences with mobile banking. For the purpose of this project, the research was focused on a younger audience, the millennials, both individuals and families.
“I check my balance all the time. Maybe I am a little paranoid, but with all these fraud cases that were revealed recently – I need to be sure my money is still there.”
– Nick
“I hate calling. I think it’s a thing of the past. The only places I call these days is doctors and banks. And none of it I’m enjoying doing.”
– Steve
“I barely can make it to my next paycheck... Every month I'm trying to make it through, I don't have any certainty if I actually will. It is stressful, but it's my reality. I really need to know where every my naira goes... Otherwise I quickly will go in debt.”
– Sarah
In my conversations with people several common themes emerged:
I ideated through a number of possible application flows and experiences, making sure to integrate the functionality that might improve the user experience. The following navigation concept map was created as a combination of the most successful ideas prototyped and tested with users.
So, how does the app answer user needs? I created a storyboard to illustrate how the potential solution may ease a customer's life:
Even if it's not exactly pretty, storyboards like this helped me in conversations with the potential users; the users were prompted to fill in the gaps and provide their feedback, which helped tremendously throughout the project.
After research and ideation, I came up with a list of Design Principles.
In order to be successful, our solution must:
After several iterations, minor and major changes, I came up with the first draft of prototype that was ready for user testing:
The prototypes have gotten something that the previous version of the application never had: an easy and straightforward way for users to accomplish their main goals in just a couple of taps. Additionally, the old version only allowed users to read incoming messages from the bank and didn't allow users to send new messages; while the prototype has the ability to communicate with a bank representative directly through a chat feature that resonates with millennials.
To test my ideas and to see how real users would think and interact with the interface as they moved through each flow, I conducted 6 rounds of usability testing in a form of Think Aloud Protocol: I offered them to complete a standard task you can use mobile banking for and asked to speak about what they are doing. I used an InVison prototype tool to provide an experience that is as close to a real product as possible.
Some of my ideas were received very well, while some received a fair amount of critique.
“I like seeing transactions from all my accounts in one place together.”
– Steve
“I didn’t expect Deposit Check to be a transfer option.”
– Scott
User feedback helped me rethink and redesign a number of scenarios and flows in the application.
The first version of the app had Accounts and Activities on different screens, with the idea of Activities being the screen where you can see all of your transactions over all accounts; and the Accounts screen devoted to account-specific balances and actions. The concept was unusual to many users due to their previous experiences. While many found it useful to have all activity on one place on the Activities page, many still didn't feel that having those two sections separate made sense. Later on, these sections were combined in a way that still allows seeing activities across multiple accounts in one feed and on one screen.
Features such as Deposit a Check, Pay Bills, Transfer Money Between Account, Send/Request Money, Make a Wire Transfer were all difficult to place somewhere that wouldn't look out of place, and would be easy to find. I started with a view where you see only the most popular ones, and have to tap through to get to the full list of items; with multiple iterations, I arrived on an interface where you see all possible options at a glance.
