During 2022, I led a cross-functional team to conceptualize a new account details experience end-to-end, resulting in better discoverability of fraud-related and record-related services. I also introduced process changes within our team to foster more collaboration between designers and other stakeholders.
Cross-functional Collaboration
And as the pandemic raged on, we were losing our foothold on customer trust.
From 2020 to 2021, fraud steadily rose by a dramatic 35% – significantly affecting Bank of the West's customer service wait time online
Customers can be less than a mile, or a 180 miles from any given branch–– the variance sucks and it makes it hard to troubleshoot problems.
The design team and I wanted to work more effectively and be truly user-centric, but because of existing processes with product, and lack of integration with other teams, we were pushing pixels. Research. Customer Service, and Tellers were far removed from product.
Pursuing better discovery and validation work so we can truly be more user-centric
Back then, our organization did not document user needs well and focused more on technical aspects of our engineering stack. I was tasked with piloting a better discovery process amidst all the current structure we had around development.
To ensure a successful, I picked out a cross-functional team that I had good relationships with (product, design, content, and research)
While coordinating with our head of design, I planned out a month's work between my team
Negotiated expectations, aligned on use cases, and advocated for 2 research sessions.
Baseline Expectations first, common services second, and then comes delight!
Our original checking account summary –– archaic! It fulfills the main need of showing the main transaction, but the settings icon does not imply account information, and even worse –– card settings. We also know what user needs and issues we need to fulfill
Expanded Navigation
User Needs Found from Previous Research
How might we support our customer’s day-to-day needs (viewing their balance and recent transactions)
How might we improve the discoverability of account services like disputing transactions (20% of DAU have opened it) and viewing statements (44% of DAU)
- How might we reduce fraud and reduce the number of calls in our support funnel?
Iterating across different stages of feedback
We did two stages of design and research – one during discovery to understand the problem better, and one during development to validate our work. With my. team, I performed a variety of activities – card sorts, analyzed competing experiences, performed user interviews, ensured consistency across surfaces, worked on copy, and connected with engineering and compliance stakeholders.
Matching user expectations and jobs-to-be-done
I wanted to match the hierarchy of needs and expectations that our users have when entering this page when I was making this page. One technical limitation we faced – "Account Services" was placed on top of Recent Transactions, despite transactions being the more important priority.
Due to database limitations, we had to output the whole transaction list instead of shortening it to three lines (see ideal transaction list) with a further expandable view.
To determine if we're meeting our customer's day-to-day needs, we had our customers create their version of Account Details using broken-down components of my design. They created a similar hierarchy to what we designed, apart from transactions being below fraud-related and record-related services.
- View balances
- View transactions
- Money movement services (eg., transfers, deposits)
- Fraud-related (eg., card lock) and record-related services (eg., statements)
Addressing discoverability and promoting common and useful actions
Using analytics and insights from moderated interviews, we landed on several logical groupings. for our services Transfers and deposits at the top card and important fraud-related services in another component. Clicking into the '...' opens up an activity sheet with tabs. The items in this menu were grouped according to content type and how often they were used by our customers.
To evaluate if we're effectively solving for discoverability, we ran another tree test using the same methodology our November tree test used.
Bureaucratic process and legacy systems in the financial world posed challenges to being truly user-centric as a design team. However, building trust, truly was, the game-changer. Fostering relationships across departments enable teams to create change in living ecosystems.
Other key learnings during this time period
Financial UX is emotional UX. Behind every screen is someone nervous about trying to make rent, or saving money for their kid.
Clarity is care. Every time we made something easier to do internally or for our customers, people follow through.
Constraints sharpen creativity. Working within our bank's bureacratic limits pushed me to design more intentionally.
