199● – 2024
Work
Case Study
About

Fortuna Bank: Exploring mobile banking user behaviours for elevating digital experiences

Mobile banking services have become our daily essentials. Is there a pathway to elevate this experience, offering users a more satisfying and personalised encounter? This study delves into the intricacies of individuals' mobile banking interactions, with the goal of understanding their needs and unveiling opportunities to craft a banking experience that is not only inclusive but also deeply satisfying for users.
Project description
Type of work
Academic research (Individual)
Timeline
September – December 2022
Project scale
Individual project
Key aspiration
Improve digital banking experience for user from diverse background
Identify new opportunities for UX improvement
Showcase
Fortuna Bank ↗
Background
In the ever-evolving realm of financial technology, the impact of mobile banking services has proven revolutionary. A notable paradigm shift is underway in the global retail banking industry's business model, fuelled by a remarkable surge in active online banking users – from 1.9 billion in 2020 to a projected 2.5 billion by the end of 2024. As we navigate through the common design landscape adopted by various service providers, a primary question emerges in our design exploration: How can banks not only meet but surpass the dynamic needs of their mobile banking users, and deliver a more satisfying mobile banking experience? This project has initiated three core questions to establish the foundation.
How does mobile bank user perceive and adopt mobile banking service in their daily lives?
Understanding user attitudes, preferences, and potential hurdles in adopting mobile banking services is essential. By identifying the key factors that encourage adoption, we aim to ensure a more engaging settings for users as we work towards our goal of creating a personalised and enjoyable digital banking interaction.
How can mobile banking user manage their personal finance more effectively and efficiently?
Introducing user-friendly features and personalised financial guidance empowers mobile banking users to navigate their financial journey with greater control. This enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of managing both day-to-day financial activities and long-term financial goals.
How can mobile banking app be optimised to provide a more comprehensive functionalities and tailored digital experience?
Prioritising user needs, simplifying processes, and ensuring user-friendly interfaces can reshape the banking environment, aligning it with the evolving expectations of customers in today's dynamic financial landscape.
Research overview
In the research stage, survey questionnaires and online interviews were employed to delve into both mobile banking usage patterns and the drivers of user satisfaction. The survey questionnaire, a key component of our primary research, gathered statistical data to bridge gaps in understanding the user behaviour of mobile banking users. Additionally, online interviews were conducted to not only validate our primary assumptions derived from the data but also to gain a deeper insight into their needs and challenges within the mobile banking landscape. Here are some key findings and assumptions that drive our ideation stage:
Mobile banking service is popular yet still demand-based
We observed a higher than expected demand for mobile banking services in our primary research, with a total of 66.7% of users using the mobile banking app at least a few times per week. Most users highlighted that they no longer visit the physical branch for their day-to-day banking tasks.
Users mainly use the most basic features in the app
While conducting market research, we observed banks introducing a variety of new financial products and features to enhance their services. However, our research revealed that nearly all users expressed a preference for utilising basic features, with 86.1% focusing on sending money and significant percentages, such as 77.8% for credit/debit card payments and 63.9% for other bill payments.
Speed is highly valued in a satisfying experience
63.9% users expressed moderate satisfaction with their current mobile banking experience. Among all the factors contributing to satisfaction, nearly all users (94.4%) agreed that fast processing time in the app is crucial for a highly satisfying experience.
Users mainly faced personal finance issues in the app
Half of the users (52.8%) mentioned recent experiences with their mobile banking applications, and the majority of these issues centred around transactions, budgeting, and unclear information in the app.
Help and personal support are on demand
70% of users emphasised the need for more instant support in utilising their mobile banking services. This includes the desire for additional guidance on app usage and increased flexibility in configuring the app and workflow according to their preferences, aiming to enhance efficiency.
Ideation overview
Based on the insights and learnings derived from the research data, we have defined our scope to focus on enhancing the user experience through experiments and providing personalised support, particularly in the context of improving financial literacy. The ideation process began with the formulation of targeted 'How Might We' (HMW) questions, aimed at identifying solutions for addressing user pain points. Each pain point discussed below corresponds to a specific HMW question, which also establishes a framework for ideation, design iteration, and feature prioritisation in the process.
The lack of guidance in mobile banking apps complicates users' ability to proceed with their tasks or inquiries.
How might we enhance our ability to identify and comprehend user problems and inquiries, ensuring they receive a precise and personalised initial follow-up within the app?
Mobile banking user needs more efficiency and productivity in managing their personal finance. However, complicated user flows and steps usually require more time and effort.
How might we streamline the process of managing personal finances, making it intuitive and straightforward, to enable our banking users to accomplish tasks with minimal time and effort?
Many banking app designs lack flexibility, necessitating users to adapt their approach to successfully complete financial tasks.
How can we analyse user behaviours and preferences to create a simpler, more efficient, and personalised banking experience?
Custom support is not always accessible and is provided based on the severity and urgency of the inquiry.
How can we offer immediate support to our banking users, guiding them on necessary actions during technical and financial issues?
Opportunity discussion
We engaged in a series of ideation activities, including Crazy-8 Sketching and Rapid Idea Generation, to brainstorm opportunities and solutions that could address pain points on both service and experience levels. This iterative process not only resonates with our users' needs but also aligns with our primary goals. The list below outlines key areas of works that have been prioritised in developing the Fortuna Bank concept design.
Onboarding and Homepage
As probably one of the most seen and interacted sections in a banking app, the home screen is our first focus area to offer an intuitive and personalised setup for banking users. For example, utilising a dynamic layout with interactive widgets aiming at providing key information, reminders, and accomplishing basic tasks on a few taps. With this, we hope to empower users to effectively manage their personal finances.
Transfer module (Transaction and payment)
We focused on making it easier for our users to access various payment methods and links to their payees using a more compact yet intuitive setup. This not only alleviates cognitive load but also improves the overall user experience by simplifying the steps needed to execute financial transactions within the app.
Tasks automation
We identified the potential to offer a set of task automation shortcuts to help users accomplish different simple yet highly requested tasks automatically. Similar to the concept of widgets discussed in 'Onboarding and Homepage', these task automation shortcuts could also be seamlessly integrated into the home screen, providing quick access and adding an additional layer of efficiency to the overall user experience.
Conversional-AI assistant
A few banks have recently started implementing AI chatbots in their banking apps to support users with simple inquiries. We see great potential in integrating conversational AI assistants at different stages of the user journey to help users accomplish tasks and improve their financial literacy.
Design and execution plan
The design process was executed within a 4-week timeframe. This encompassed establishing brand identity, defining user flows, experimenting with styles, and constructing screens, components, and prototypes to address various use-case scenarios within our predefined user journeys. Simultaneously, regular user testing sessions were conducted across different stages of the design to identify and rectify issues.
Week 1: Identity design and wireframing
Competitors research
Visual identity
Communication (Tone of voice)
Style guide
User testing session
Week 2–3: Experience and interface design
Components
Design tokens
Visual assets creation
User testing session
Week 4. Final design optimisation
UI tweaks and bug fixes
Design audit
User testing session
List of features and enhancements included in the design:
Home screen Customisation
Widgets, customisable
Data visualisation graphs and bespoke summary
Budget planner
Revamped transfer page
P2P QR code payment
Fortuna Conversational Assistant (FCA)
Personal reminder
Shortcuts
Onboarding tools
Helper mini-widgets
Easy-banking mode
Hand holding iPhone with Fortuna Bank mobile app, featuring account summary page with graphs.
Summary
The final design cultivates an engaging mobile banking app environment, showcasing our vision to enhance the overall experience and empower users to accomplish their personal finance management tasks with ease. On service leave, our design represents a holistic solution to various challenges faced by nowadays mobile banking users. On the design level, we adopted a minimal design language with vibrant colours and clear communication, aiming to encourage users to utilise the app with confidence and trust to address their needs. Below is our summary of what we achieved in our design.
Empowering financial understanding and building trust
The use of graphs, charts, bold digits, and the 'colour-icon' code system helps our users break down numerical information into digestible insights, facilitating a better understanding of spending behaviours and personal finance. Emotionally, gaining a better understanding allows our users to gain more control over their finances, building peace of mind in their use of the services.
Enhancing Guidance and Streamlining Workflows
We simplified the user journey while ensuring users receive all the guidance and support they need to complete their tasks. To achieve this, we utilised UI patterns such as introductory screens, action sheets, dynamic cards, and widgets in our design to streamline the overall workflow without causing too much distraction.
Fostering personalised mobile banking through conversational AI
Our conversational AI assistant provides instant and tailored assistance based on our users' needs and is designed to address their inquiries promptly. Users can consistently access the help and support they need, solidifying their trust in our commitment to delivering seamless and trustworthy customer support. This, in turn, may elevate overall brand awareness. The integration of an AI assistant further amplifies efficiency, enabling users to complete simple banking tasks with ease.
Conclusion
Our study and design exploration offer valuable insights and recommendations for banks seeking to enhance their mobile banking service designs, aiming to elevate the customer experience and potentially improve user retention and brand awareness. While feedback was predominantly positive, it's important to acknowledge that our design decisions were based on certain assumptions and tested with a relatively small sample size compared to industry standards in the finance sector. Nonetheless, our findings initiate a open discussion for further refinement and optimisation in the pursuit of exceptional user experiences in mobile banking.
Home
Work
Case Study
About
LinkedIn
Instagram
Unsplash
An arrow icon which scrolls back to the top of the page on click.
© 2023 – 2024 Keith Chan