Non-Banking Financial Institution
Designing a financial mobile application for all payment and credit needs
User Research | Indian Financial Services Company
(Note: I have omitted all the confidential information, in order to adhere to my Non-Disclosure Agreement)
About the project
The Non-Banking Financial Institution wanted launch a Mobile application that would allow the customers to buy a whole host of financial services and products within a single app ecosystem.
For Example - customers can pay their bills, pay a friend and also take loans from the company, all from this one platform.
My Role & Team
Role: Senior UX Designer at Fractal Ink Design
Team: 4 (Including me, lead UX Designer, junior UX Designer and a Research Lead)
Location: Pune, India
My Contribution: Comprehensive competitive analysis, User Research ( Conducting User interviews, Insight Analysis, Empathy Mapping, Personas & providing recommendations), UX Design (Information Architecture, Concept sketches, wireframes)
Business Goal
1. Leverage on data analytics and provide a highly personalized experience
2. Bridge the gap between Digital Wallets and Online Banking
3. Increase in customer engagement & stickiness through exciting offers and rewards
4. Increase on-ground customers in stores
Problem Statement
Decrease in customer engagement
The digital payments space evolved quickly, allowing one to pay money with just one click. Consumers were now looking for a seamless and integrated financial service applications.
The existing mobile application of the company allowed customers to just take different kind of loans, make monthly payment towards the loan which decreased the customer engagement.
Diving In
Adapting a user research-oriented process
We started with conducting primary & secondary research, gathered insights and presented our recommendations to the client.
Kick-off workshop with Stakeholders
The aim of the workshop was to get a clear understanding of the product vision, the desired outcome and get insights on the needs of the different
stakeholders in the company.
The agenda of the workshop was
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Understand the Business Objectives
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What is the current scenario & the future vision of the app
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Who are we targeting!! (User Segmentation)
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Conducting a SWOT Analysis
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Writing the Value Proposition Statement
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Key Differentiators of the app
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Initial Product Ideas
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Discussing Our Approach to the project
Primary User Research
The NBFI wanted to get an in-depth understanding of its target demographic’s financial and digital behavior.
We conducted an in-depth, qualitative research to understand user behavior across a range of topics such as payments, loans, saving & investment, etc.
We looked at Tier 1, Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities because the
the new mobile application had to be mass-friendly.
1 week, 3 cities, 15 customers to interview
Emerging customer profiles
Basis our research ,we observed some emerging patterns in the customers and developed several user archetypes
Insights from the research
We discovered interesting insights about the customer's Digital & Financial behaviour. This helped us put together our initial design concepts. Few of the insights are listed below.
Secondary Research
Benchmarking payment apps
Since customer engagement & stickiness along with a personalized experience were the primary business objectives. We conducted competitive analysis to study journeys like Onboarding & features like offers & rewards, sales promotions & personalization strategies
Recommendations
Defining the basic guidelines
Me and my team suggested a few high-level recommendations for the mobile app based on the findings & insights of the research
App features & Information Architecture
Where should we begin?
Basis the primary business needs and technical feasibility,
we prioritized features & journeys to start with
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Onboarding
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Initiating person-to-person & Utility payments
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Linking payment instruments like Debit/Credit card, Bank account etc
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Pay Loan/Insurance/Investment Installments
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Cross-selling strategy of other financial products
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Provide Help & Assistance
Organizing & Structuring the content
Sketches & Wireframes
The app starts taking shape
I worked on concept sketches for the primary functionalities of the application along with another UX designer. We later shared the sketches as a logic document with the client
Conclusion
Next Steps
The organization’s vision for the mobile application pivoted, and the work I did was absorbed as a part of the new vision.
Key-Takeaways
What I learnt...
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Participating in multiple stakeholder discussions gave me insights into different perceptions of the product, understand the need and mutually agree on the priorities.
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Synthesizing large amount information collected during user research
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Researching numerous mobile applications and observing current trends, helped to