The project objectives
I interviewed stakeholders from business (viability), technical (feasibility) and customer (desirability) areas to align on the following goals and MVP scope.
01
To create one single desktop tool for six different internal user groups, each with different roles.
02
Address pain points such as a high number or errors, unintuitive navigation and long training times.
03
Reduce the cognitive load on users to remember key pieces of data and navigation routes.
04
Handover a value driven UX delivery strategy to meet tight build timelines
Discover
Working with a Researcher, I used ethnography as the primary research method to become fully immersed in the user context quickly.
Understanding user needs
Card and Pin Issuing
A desktop platform for ordering and managing debit cards.
Define
Making sense of the data
During discovery we visited 4 different locations and observed 6 different user groups. I worked collaboratively with the Researcher and Junior Designer to distill the data.
We discovered the following pain points with the legacy system
Users deal with high volumes, limited time and switching between multiple unintegrated tools .
High pressure environment
So what...
Simplification would be a key design principle
Current tools are not ergonomic or logical. Agents must memorise navigation routes and click through multiple screens.
Tools aren't intuitive
So what...
New architecture should match existing data and user mental models
There's limited system feedback or guard rails preventing agents from carrying out critical actions in error.
High number of errors
So what...
Building in friction and feedback is essential
Training can take up to six weeks, causing pain for new employees and high training cost to business.
Long training times
So what...
The new tool should be self explanatory and easy to use
Develop
Shaping the product
With a solid understanding of user needs and MVP scope, I progressed to design. To maximise the teams efficiency, I delegated less complex tasks the Junior UX Designer.
I started with ideation and concept sketching
I find this is an effective way of making high-level concept decisions early in the process. When mentoring junior designers I encourage them to experiment with sketching rather than jumping to digital first.
Deliver
Iterative user testing and optimisation
The deliver phase started with moderated testing of the mid-fidelity wireframes. All activity was prioritised around the MVP delivery strategy to begin development as soon as possible.
Building in positive friction to reduce errors
Research highlighted a number of errors due to insufficient guardrails. To address this is built in confirmation screens and warning patterns.
Combining the characteristics of consumer products with specialist tools
When designing the experience, I aimed to blend the best characteristics of consumer products (affordance, intuitive and minimal design) with the efficiency of expert digital tools.
Enhanced visibility at every level
The legacy systems gave a very narrow view of data at each level.
To address this I explored giving an optimal balance of breadth (showing all accounts) and depth (showing all cards for each account) in one view.
Flexible entry points into the journeys
Users will often have different levels of information about the customer to enter into the system. So I created a UI with flexible search options.
To help navigation at speed, I made core screens visually distinctive
Users navigated the current tools at speed through memory and visual cues rather than by reading. I wanted to keep this ease of orientation by giving each core page a distinct visual shape.
Usability testing highlighted ways to improve the experience
Working closely with the UX Researcher we delivered two rounds of moderated scenario based user testing with users. Round one focused on journey logic with round two validating usability.
The UI needed to align to internal brand visual identity
Once the wireframes were refined, I worked with Visual Design to ensure the product is aligned to internal brand standards. We collaborated on some more complex interaction design challenges.
Keeping stakeholders updated through regular comms
Through out the project I held regular demos to keep stakeholder updated on progress and demonstrate my team's value. I often use video demos as a key part of my project comms approach as it makes progress tangible and obvious.
I started by defining the product architecture and user flows
The architecture needed to align to existing data structures and user's mental models to allow for easy navigation, discoverability and task completion.
Focussed
Only show users what is necessary to focus attention, reduce distraction and support task completion.
Intuitive
Flows naturally with customer conversations and aligns to user’s established mental models
Efficient
Reduces any avoidable errors and user effort. Where possible, create shortcuts to speed up task completion.
Creating usable, human centred design principles
I defined a set of 6 (3 shown below) design principles to frame ideation, support communication and ensure the UX was consistent.
Online training has already gone live with 16,000 users
The intuitive design and simplified processes mean training time has been drastically reduced from weeks to a single 15 minute online module.
Impact
The impact on colleagues and customers is huge
The new and improved tool will be launched with 16,000 NatWest customer support colleagues in October 2024. Bringing huge cost savings by improving the experience for both colleagues and customers.
Fin.
If you've come this far, hopefully you want to see more of my work
Designing a high volume consumer experience for web and mobile platforms
Evolving the way children learn about money and build independence
Pre launch testing has collected the following success metrics and user feedback
50%
Reduction in average call handling time taken to order a new debit card. Meaning more calls processed and customers helped.
83%
Reduction in training time required to learn, from 3hrs + down to 15 minutes. Bringing huge cost savings for training teams.
“We have a large amount of agent errors just because they are rushing through, this is nice because there is no room for error. The system does it for you.”
"I love it, its a lot quicker and simpler than today... when i first started (at NatWest) it took a long time to learn but I think anyone could use this right away"
Ethnographic research uncovered user needs quickly
We visited call centres and bank branches to observe live card orders.
Ethnographic research
We visited the locations of each user group. We spent time observing them handling live customer card orders in their genuine working environments.
Deep dive interviews
We explored more complex areas and scenarios using interviews. These played a key role in establishing user mental models and pain points.
Customer service platform
Transforming the way call centre staff order debit cards for customers. The tool reduced call handling times by 50% and training time by 83%.
"I love it, it's a lot quicker and simpler than today... when I first started it took a long time to learn but I think anyone could use this right away"
Case study summary
Challenge
The legacy system was outdated, unintuitive and created high number of errors and long waiting times for customers.
Approach
I chose ethnographic research to achieve deep understanding of user context. This was followed by fast paced iterative design and testing.
As Lead UX Designer, I was responsible for defining the product design approach, establishing priorities, ensuring business goals are met.
My role
-
Lead UX Designer (Me)
-
UX researcher
-
Junior UX Designer
-
Visual Designer
Core Design team
-
Product Owner
-
Business Analysts
-
Solution Architect
-
Development team
Wider team
I needed to understand global and unique user needs
I like to use the 'Jobs To Be Done' method to identify shared and unique needs of different user groups. It also helps focus ideation, concept development and feature prioritisation.
Creating a strategic road map to support product launch
I create a 4 phased UX road map to align the team and prioritise value for the business and customer. To achieve this I collaborated with Product, Engineering and other functions such as Legal.
01: Core screens for API dev
Some data heavy screens (customer profile and accounts pages) required the development of new APIs. I prioritised these to begin technical discovery and development.
02: E2E for 'lost card' journey
65% of all card orders are to replace lost cards. So launching the 'lost card' journey first would deliver most business value and impact the majority of customers.
03: Additional card journeys
Lower volume journeys followed (Eg cancel card with no replacement). These used the same templates and components as ‘lost card’ journey with minor copy changes.
04: Secondary features
The secondary features which were not directly related to card ordering would be the last. These covered Apple / Google pay, card freeze, international spending freeze etc.