Future of Banking?

The Ask:
What will be the banking experience of Canadians be within 5 years with the current technology? Provide recommendations for improving banking and ATM. Consider self-service banking.

Research:
Current behaviour hypothesis: Customers would rather Google Map.
It can be hard competing with Google!
Competitive Research: TD, BMO, CIBC. Google
Inspiration Locator Tools: Urban Outfitters, Ritual, Tab, AirBnB, Breather

User Needs:
Understanding customer’s interaction is key.
How and when and what and why.
What happens when banks become self service (e.g. Tangerine)?
Ways customers withdraw and deposit cash.

A Few Competitors
1/ Chase Bank
-can access ATM with their mobile phone without having to use any ATM card
– connect ATM to digital wallets
2/ Foreign Currency Exchange Order Online
– Travelex
– Interchange Currency Exchange

Design Solution:
Simplify, refine, effortless and quick.
Seamless integration with Google
Maps provides an efficient, standardized way to gather data, and minimizes user effort

Future Considerations:
1/ Connect ATM to digital wallets (mobile)
2/ Visual appeal of the physical machine
3/ Touch-less ATM. Instant cash – by ordering on your phone, tapping to confirm identity, and getting money instantly. (no cards, no wait)
4/ A clean experience that allows me to use m phone to interact with that brand and service effortless
5/ Giving another convenient option
6/ Privacy – pre-package large amounts
7/ Security – a quick pick up
8/ Change the perception of ATMs as  “cash handling machines” or “cash dispensers”, to something ELSE that is reflective of Tangerine’s voice and brand. These ABM’s could be your “personal assistant”, “your wingman”, “your friend with money”, “your shopping assistant”.
9/Personalize it? Be able to recognize you…Robots?Initially to capture attention.
10/ Travel – If Canadian banks was to expand, wherever you are, it should give you the option of exchange rate and correct currency.

Pin-less. Card-less. Touch-less. Highly secure. Effortless. 

HIDING OR DISABLING FORM OPTIONS

IN FAVOUR OF HIDING FORM OPTIONS
When it affects many fields.
Steve Krug –  Remove the elements that make user think and which they don’t need anyways.
Avoids clutter.
Removes excessive and unavailable controls.
Will they spend a lot of time hunting for it? Probably, if they’re expecting it.

IN FAVOUR OF DISABLING FORM OPTIONS
When there are only a few fields that are affected.
When user wants to explore and discover when the certain fields become available (I.e. Games!)
Disable forms communicate to users that the input is possible but just not now…
Disable forms help users anticipate what is necessary for certain options (in this case, they must be outside of North Carolina).
This may frustrate users when they are unable to perform an action they expect to be able to do.

QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF
What best serves the users’ needs? 

For my project right now…Users are best served by a disabled options (or enable options that brings up an error message) and explaining WHY they option is not currently available.
🙂

IMPROVING ECOMMERCE USER EXPERIENCE

I’ve been trying to reflect what I’ve learned so far these days. Working at an agency with a telecom client has been a fun learning curve! For the next few blog posts, I will be posting about my opinions and thoughts about UX. I’m hoping this will help me keep track of everything I’ve learned so far!

What I Understand So Far:
Ecommerce and any sort of transaction buy flow is an extremely important part of a business. The self-serving customer experience from discovery of a product to completing a transaction must be quick, safe, pleasant, simple, and straightforward.

Space is valuable, especially on mobile, and business and legal rules have a lot of requirements and copy. Remove excess information and promotions, especially content that does not fit within the context or scenario.

For better usability and experience, declutter the interface and allow the users to focus on the actual shopping experience. Enhance that shopping experience with high quality, large product images. Users will benefit from the site experience, continue to browse easily, and see the product in all of its glorious detail! An image is worth a thousand words, and so will a great image of a product will sell.

I don’t know about you, but I buy a lot of things based on packaging and reputation. I fall in love with items the more I do research about it, and I slowly convince myself how much I need it! How can we convince users to fall in love with our product and service? What I learned from being of a user of Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr is that people will scroll and browse for hours. I believe there’s a great opportunity to bring in new customers and retain new and existing customers with the power of browsing and value persuasion. By structuring the content and reasons, repetition and giving people many reasons to believe why your product/service is the best and have great value…then can we tell them a story about why they need this product and hammer home a message.

The Apple website is a great example of images, content organization and story telling. Apple takes advantage of the space with high quality images, simple and clear CTA, clear dividers and groupings of information, and tells a story about why you should purchase an Apple product as you scroll down a page. Apple’s Shop experience doesn’t overwhelm the user with a lot of unnecessary information upfront at first, but it will provide the option to get more information if the user decides he wants to learn more. Users shouldn’t be overwhelmed with information, and they shouldn’t have to hunt to find product information either. If users can’t find something they’re looking for, they can’t buy it. Similarly, if there is too much information and noise, they can’t find scan through it and find what they’re looking for easily either.

🙂

USABILITY NOTE NO.8: Beauty and Fun

Make things pretty, neat and fun! Clever.
Pleasant things work better.
Beautiful and fun designs can make people happy.

If you’re happy, things work better because you’re creative.
Visceral level in design (e.g. A waterbottle we buy and keep instead of throwing it away. It’s not about the water, it’s about the bottle)

The Visceral Experience + Behaviours + Reflective =
Emotion is about acting and interpreting if the world is good, safe, dangerous.

Reflective = looks over what’s going on. (e.g. owners of car. a car that attract attention and their image).

Usability Note No.7: Just Tell The Truth and Accept the Moment of Truths

Honesty: Don’t try and hide anything. Customer: “Be honest with me when you get it wrong, and address the issue.”
Reliability: Your business should be one that is reliable (things work here).
Consistency: deliver a consistent experience for both mobile and desktop = satisfied and loyal customers

Evidence suggests:
1. Identify the moment of truth in the overall customer journey
2. Track and monitor the performance of these interactions
3. Dedicate efforts and resources to improve the failed moments of truth
4. Reduce customers’ pain points, uncertainty and minimize risks
5. Gain valuable and long-term relationships with customers, and create a personalize customer experience

Usability Note No.6: Personalize the Customer Experience to be a Friendly One

• Understand the customer’s own context, in terms of resources, process and desired outcomes. (e.g. nature, frequency, time, location, detail)
• Adapt your website experience to match more closely to the customers’ behaviours and preferences.
• Use tactile, visual and auditory cues
• Match the organization’s brand and reputations (e.g. colours, graphic, layout, language, paper type, tone of voice), and to inform customers about the organization’s brand and values.
• Friendly message  (e.g. soft colours, illustration)

Usability Note No.5: Minimize Risk and Uncertainty

“Serve rather than sell.” 

Focus on educating and guiding the customer to minimize the risk of confusion and of negative responses.

Solution:

• Convey essential information effectively by using the right tone of voice and language.
• Avoid legal terms, jargon, etc.
• Replace heavy text documentation with images
• Clear and easy to understand
• Make it easy for customers

USABILITY NOTE NO.5: Moments of Truths

Identify and monitor “moments of truths”.

These critical interactions have a major effect on the customer-provider relationship.
To improve them is to improve the customer experience and reduce customer pains in an ongoing and reactive manner.

Usability Note No.4: Personalization of Website

“Digital patina” is a way that the design of the homepage expresses the fact that it is adapting itself to you (Moggridge, 2006, p. 499). BBCi uses the technique of the gradual fading in colour
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Usability Note No.3: Juniper Online Banking Case Study

We need to clarity and a point of view about what we could offer as a service provider.
Try to understand the physicality of the behaviours associated with finances and banking.
Question to ask: What web experience would be most appropriate for “onlookers”?
Look for user insights,

Juniper Online Banking created a  framework about the attitudes of banking:

Horizontal: How engaged users are likely to be with managing their money (low, high)
Vertical: How users view their finances (short-term view, long-term view)
Attitudes: Dreamer, Pathfinder, Organizer, Onlooker

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