Project Overview
My Role: UX designer leading the KI’s bank website design.
Duration: November 2022
The Product: KI Bank wanted to focus on deposits strategy for implementing payments and cash management services.
Responsibilities: Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs and responsive design.
Understanding
the user
- User research
- Personas
- Problem statements
- User journey maps
User research: summary
I conducted user interviews, which I then turned into empathy maps to better understand the target user and their needs. I discovered that many target users find using the online website of their bank as a stressful activity. Because many banking websites are overwhelming and confusing to navigate, which frustrated many target users. This caused the experience to become challenging for them, defeating the purpose of great service from their bank.
Persona: Rose
Problem statement
Rose is a busy business owner who needs a simple way to transfer funds online within her bank web app, because she gets confused and wants to avoid spending time getting help.
User journey map
I created a user journey map of Rose’s experience using the site to help identify possible pain points and improvement opportunities.
Starting
the design
- Sitemap
- Paper wireframes
- Digital wireframes
- Low-fidelity prototype
- Usability studies
Sitemap
Difficulty with the transfer workflow was a primary pain point for users, so I used that knowledge to create a sitemap.
My goal here was to make strategic information architecture decisions that would improve overall user flow. The structure I chose was designed to make things simple and easy.
Paper wireframes
Next, I sketched out paper wireframes for each screen in my app, keeping the user pain points about navigation, flow, and data input in mind.
The home screen paper wireframe variations to the right focus on optimizing the browsing experience for users.
Digital wireframes
Moving from paper to digital wireframes made it easy to understand how the redesign could help address user pain points and improve the user experience.
Prioritizing useful button locations and visual element placement on the home page was a key part of my strategy.
Because bank customers access the site on a variety of different devices, I started to work on designs for additional screen sizes to make sure the site would be fully responsive.
Low fidelity prototype
To create a low-fidelity prototype, I connected all of the screens involved in the primary user flow of adding an item to the cart and checking out.
At this point, I had received feedback on my designs from members of my team about things like placement of buttons and page organization. I made sure to listen to their feedback, and I implemented several suggestions in places that addressed user pain points.
Refining
the design
- Mockups
- High-fidelity prototype
- Accessibility
Mockups
Based on the insights from the usability study, I made changes to improve the site’s transfer flow. One of the changes I made was adding the option to share the receipt at the last stage of the transfer flow. This allowed users more freedom to share without worrying about this in the previous steps of the transfer.
Mockups: Original screen size
Mockups: Screen size variations
I included considerations for additional screen sizes in my mockups based on my earlier wireframes. Because bank users login from a variety of devices, I felt it was important to optimize the browsing experience for a range of device sizes, such as mobile and tablet so users have the smoothest experience possible.
High-fidelity prototype
My hi-fi prototype followed the same user flow as the lo-fi prototype, and included the design changes made after the usability study, as well as several changes suggested by members of my team.
Going Forward
the design
- Takeaways
- Next steps
Impact
Our target users shared that the design was intuitive to navigate through, more engaging with the images, and demonstrated a clear visual hierarchy.
What I learned:
I learned that even a small design change can have a huge impact on the user experience. The most important takeaway for me is to always focus on the real needs of the user when coming up with design ideas and solutions.