Digital Usage Component

A Desirability & Discovery Research Opportunity

What research challenge were we asked to solve?

The Digital Usage Component is meant to give bankers a view of a customer’s online banking eligibility, enrollment status, and login recency.

The component is intended to help bankers quickly understand how recently and through what channels customers are using online banking. It’s meant to provide opportunity for the banker to engage a customer in conversation about ways in which access to the technology might benefit them.

The business and design teams were uncertain how much information bankers would need in order to engage customers. Nor did they know exactly how bankers would want the information presented. The team had created two concepts and asked research to test them with bankers.

To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obscured confidential information in this case study.

Actions

What was our plan to address this?

After gathering information from stakeholders, the research plan was used to summarize the reasons and background information for the project. We covered the goals, scope, user types, and defined the research deliverables, as well as, time-line.

business goal

At a glance, give bankers just enough information about the customer’s current status and usage to engage in conversation about enrollment in online and mobile banking.

research objectives

Part 1: Understand what enrollment information bankers need

To understand the current process bankers use to enroll customers in online banking.
To discover most common pain-points bankers have during this process and why?
To determine what the most critical information that bankers need in order to engage customers in an online banking conversation, and understand what other information is helpful but not necessary.

Part 2: Understand how to present the eligibility, enrollment and usage information most effectively

Evaluate the design concepts for preference of design and location in the flow.
Provide insights as to how the enrollment component will be used by bankers and how they will talk about it with customers.
To determine how best to label the enrollment component, so it resonates with bankers.

Research Methods

We conducted remote 60-minute interview sessions with 11 Branch Bankers and 2 Phone Bankers. User types included Retail Banker (RB) II, RB III, RB IV, Branch Manager, Customer Service Representative and Sales Banker.

Activity 1: Question and Answer

Ask bankers about current enrollment conversations with customers.
Determine the most critical information bankers need and reasons this information is valuable.

*Note: Data was collected regarding most critical information needed for digital enrollment conversations prior to presentation of prototypes so as to avoid biasing participants based on information already contained within the design concepts.

Activity 2: Evaluate and Revise Component Concepts

Present two concepts, give bankers time to assess them.
Ask bankers about what they see and how they interpret the concepts.
Inquire about preferences and probe on why they prefer one over the other, or a combination of concepts.
Probe on hierarchy of information (need to have or nice to have).
During discussions with bankers, sketch, mark up and label concepts.

Participants

A mix of thirteen (13) bankers were recruited for this study. All bankers that participated currently enroll customers into online and mobile banking.

“You look at the left and you got this gas gauge and there’s just a lot going on - looks pretty. But it’s not as snippet or at-a-glance. When I’m having a conversation with a customer, I don’t want to read three sentences or look in a paragraph to pull out numbers. I just want to see it so I can have a direct conversation about it.”

— PID 6 (BM)

Findings & Recommendations

In order to synthesize the research sessions, I sorted the Excel notes by sub-section in order to form groupings to better organize what we had learned. I then proceeded to organize under each research objective, the synthesized findings from the sub-sections.

I have included a sampling of how the objectives, findings, and corresponding recommendations were reported. The grouped data points from the banker sessions are labeled as reasons supporting the findings, these are included in the samples shown below.

Highlights from Activity 1: Current Enrollment Findings

Objective 1:
To discover most common pain-points bankers have during this process and why?

Finding:
Time is a huge factor that affects whether or not Online Enrollment enters the conversation.

Recommendation:
Because CSC bankers handle Digital banking overflow calls on a consistent basis, amending expectations for AHT on Digital banking calls could encourage thorough guidance for customers enrolling in online banking.

Sample of a research finding with supporting reasons, from the current enrollment section of the detailed report.

Highlights from Activity 2: Component Concepts Findings

Objective 1:
Evaluate the design concepts for preference of design and location in the flow.

Finding:
Bankers want all the data of the circle design presented in simple snippets as in the square design.

Recommendations:

Providing at-a-glance access to all information contained within the circle design in the simplified format that is consistent with the square design will account for both desirable characteristics of the component.
Incorporate the dial gauge visual, making an effort to reduce the similarity to credit score indicators. Utilize color-blind filters to establish adequate contrast. Consider adding patterns to color areas for clear adherence to usability standards.

Sample of a research finding and supporting reasons from the component concepts section of the detailed report.

Objective 2:
Provide insights as to how the enrollment component will be used by bankers and how they will talk about it with customers.

Finding:
Bankers find the number of days since last logged in very helpful for a number of use cases.

Recommendation:
Retain enrolled date and last logged in days ensuring both are presented concisely to create time efficiencies for bankers viewing this information.

Sample of a research finding, supporting reasons, and a recommendation from the component concepts section of the detailed report.

“Customers think they are already enrolled because they have downloaded the app. They have experienced this from other banks and companies they expect it to be the same experience. Customers expect that the desktop version is the same as what they get through the app.”

— PID 12

Results

What were the results of our work?

The banker sessions uncovered the information bankers find helpful in order to engage customers in conversation about their mobile and online usage. They also conveyed their preference on the most effective way to display the content in order to allow for comprehension at-a-glance. Lastly, by describing in detail current enrollment processes and pain points the team came away with additional insights that will help determine direction for subsequent development iterations.

Lessons Learned

What did this project teach me about research, design, or myself?

Because the research timeline was condensed, our Research Lead asked two of us to work together in hopes we could divide and conquer the workload. We were new colleagues to one another and needed to quickly figure out how we were going to divide the workload, consider dependencies, avoid duplicating efforts, and still keep one another informed. My prior management experience kicked-in and step-by-step we completed the work in a most collaborative fashion - even delivering the final report readout together.