Russell Webb Design

Category: Experience Design

Enhance user satisfaction, improve business outcomes, and contribute to positive social change. UXD is a powerful tool that can be used to create products and services that are user-friendly, culturally relevant and deliver real-world impact.

  • What is the role of open banking in the super app evolution?

    What is the role of open banking in the super app evolution?

    TL;DR Open Banking unlocks a future where financial apps become indispensable partners. A power-shift to more convenience, better financial education and meaningful relationships. Read on to see What’s next in this new ecosystem?

    Contents

    Time: 5 mins

    Hard Skills:

    Journey Mapping

    Research

    Visual Design

    Soft Skills:

    Empathy

    Collaboration

    Critical Thinking

    Full List →

    What is Open Banking

    The role of open banking in the super app evolution is enormous, it is essential for creating a smoother user experience. Open banking is the core technology that allows these apps to draw financial data from multiple sources (APIs) and design products and services that speak to the needs and wants of the end-user.

    Open Banking helps super-apps with:

    • Personalisation: Gathering data to enhance recommendations, habits and trends based on the user’s behaviour.
    • Centralisation: One app to rule-them-all, one roof and one umbrella. No need to switch apps to switch functionality (i.e.make payments, check portfolio performance, monitor transactions, etc).
    • Open finance: Super apps and open banking are foundational pieces in the financial ecosystem jigsaw – mortgages, savings, pensions, insurance and credit, can all talk to each other.
    One app, multiple functionality – Users can monitor their portfolio performance, check allocations and assets values and confirm transactions all within one super app.

    Super app benefits for wealth management

    The end-user now enjoys luxuries that a few decades ago would seem unimaginable. Wealth Management (WM) was dated and rigid, Financial Institute in pole position, controlling the action. The birth of the super app has tipped the balance of power to the investor, putting them in charge of their finances.

    Investment performance is the return on an investment portfolio, with single or multiple assets, measured over a specific period of time and currency. This standard of UX did not exist previously.

    Convenience

    The super app has evolved to give the consumer (and investment professionals) a one-stop shop for all their finances. Investors used to jump from website to website and from platform to app to check transactions, transfer money, pay bills, etc. Now within is single-pane-of-glass, user control their financial world.

    Convenience – UX can elevate the transaction process to effectively display this ‘agreement’ between a buyer and seller to exchange goods, services, or assets for payment using Open Banking on any platform.

    Smarter decisions

    Phone a banker, broker or accountant to see how their money is affected by fragmented financial knowledge; Financial decisions needed the experts.

    • Did the expert always have your best interest at heart?
    • How close and personal was that relationship with these experts to trust their recommendations
    • How transparent were they?
    Make smarter decisions – Market volatility is the frequency and magnitude of price movements, up or down. The bigger and more frequent the price swings, the more volatile the market is said to be, benefiting you and your clients even more.

    The super app brought an dispassionate, clean, and precise approach to financial decision-making. It has trimmed-the-fat off the process, presenting users with the best viable option.

    Enter the financial super app

    A super app alleviates financial institutions from transaction processing, compiling data, building risk profiles and other traditional banking functions. It allows banking institutions to focus on building meaningful relationships with investors.

    It centralises their attention and indirectly allows Portfolio Managers to tailor their campaigns for new products and services. Relationship Managers now know where their audience is; all they have to do is put the right thing in front of them.

    From viewing fund performances to the allocation of assets, to understanding these assets positions, to what transactions have been actioned and reviewing portfolio valuation

    From viewing fund performances to the allocation of assets, to understanding these assets positions, to what transactions have been actioned and reviewing portfolio valuation.

    The future for financial super apps?

    Data management

    Third parties, organisations and fintech companies need to understand

    • Where the data is coming from
    • How they store it
    • How they use it

    This is the way to build bulletproof information flows.

    AI-driven Financial Coaching

    Artificial intelligence in money management apps process data quickly and efficiently. By monitoring financial behaviour, AI can assist users in maintaining smart savings, refinancing, achieving financial goals, and even more*.

    *With approval, of course

    Get in touch

    Want more?

    Discover how FI’s can can offer all clients personalised advice, how UX can help investment firms stay relevant in our neobank world and how to build a *Financial Super App – One click at a time.

    *NDA Case Study Walk-Thru

    RussellWebbDesign: Get your fill of UX trends, case studies and best practice

    info@russellwebbdesign.co.uk

    It truly is, a Brave New World!

    RussellWebbDesign: Get your fill of UX trends, case studies and best practice

    Pique’d your interest?

    This is but part of a selec­tion of design information rus­sell­webb­de­sign gen­er­ated for the creative community out there. Please con­tact me fur­ther to dis­cuss how your brand can ben­e­fit from the new channel: info@russellwebbdesign.co.uk

    If something has peaked your interest. Please leave a comment below.

  • Using Experience Maps to uncover user behaviour Pt II

    Using Experience Maps to uncover user behaviour Pt II

    TLDR: Reveal a tapestry of needs and motivations that shape financial decisions. Using Experience Mapping to uncover insights into the customer lifecycle and expose common threads.

    Contents

    Hard Skills:

    Journey Mapping

    Research

    Visual Design

    Soft Skills:

    Empathy

    Collaboration

    Critical Thinking

    Full List →

    Please note; for client confidentiality sensitive parts of all imagery has been pixelated. All work is copyright ©RussellWebbDesign 2023

    This article builds upon the previous post ‘Get to know your users better‘. For a more comprehensive understanding of the UX and Service Design process that led to this point, I encourage readers to refer back.

    Visualise the Journey

    From Common Themes to Experience Mapping

    You should now really begin to unravel the who, what and why that define your target audience. Now there is an opportunity to unearth the common themes that weave through their experiences, transforming them into actionable insights through experience mapping.

    Generic heat map, or Experience Maps showing user needs, problems and goals. Transform these themes into actionable insights that will guide the design process to resonate with the needs of your users.
    Generic heat map, or Experience Maps showing user needs, problems and goals. Transform these themes into actionable insights that will guide the design process to resonate with the needs of your users.

    Applying mapping techniques to personas types

    Shifting the traditional application of an experience map and focussing on the customer lifecycle particular to this financial services customer, more insight and understanding was surfaced by categorising the needs, problems, and goals distinct to an informed personas-type actioning a focussed single, representative task. These were segmented into emotions and motivations.

    In the details with Investor Type #1

    Plot what emotions a particular segmented persona was experiencing across a single representative task
    Plot what emotions a particular segmented persona was experiencing across a single representative task

    Investor type #1 persona – “I want to quickly get to the details of a fund” categorised how they were orientated through the digital experience and uncovered how to attract, engage, orient, and retain this specific persona. 

    The mindset of Investor Type #2

    By analysing how well the current design met these needs, we uncovered opportunities to attract, engage, and retain this valuable persona.
    Analysing the current design and uncover opportunities to attract, engage, and retain this valuable persona.

    Investor type #2 persona – Easily justify that a fund is performing also followed the control. Beginning with Orientation, linked to defined buckets and evaluating needs around investment philosophy, financial storytelling and model portfolios, for example. Identify what Attract mechanism drew them in and if ease-of-access to data influenced their decision-making process.

    Empowering Investor Type #3 with Confidence

    The 'Retain' narrative: Develop a more comprehensive understanding of investor needs and motivations, paving the way for a more tailored and effective digital experience.
    The ‘Retain’ narrative: Develop a more comprehensive understanding of investor needs and motivations, paving the way for a more tailored and effective digital experience.

    Investor type #3 persona – Guide me and make me feel in control when investing builds on the Retain narrative, examining how the digital experience addresses their need for support and guidance. From an Invest and Help perspective, how Risk is demonstrated and how to cultivate Trust empowering them to navigate the investment landscape with confidence.

    Type #4; The insider scoop

    Identifying opportunities to enhance the "Help" and "Invest" narratives, providing clear guidance, personalised recommendations, and transparent risk information.
    Identifying opportunities to enhance the “Help” and “Invest” narratives, providing clear guidance, personalised recommendations, and transparent risk information.

    Investor type #4 persona had the need to “Provide easily accessible information to reassure my position” as a corporate user. Touch points pushed to ’encouraged a long term time investment,’ and ‘establishing the real truth was behind the marketing efforts’. The needs and wants of this user all stemmed from cutting through the noise and showing insider industry knowledge for trends and success.

    The combined heat map

    Combined heat map: Highlighting the priority needs and common themes included storytelling, transparency and easy-to-understand content
    Combined heat map: Highlighting the priority needs and common themes included storytelling, transparency and easy-to-understand content

    Unifying insights to prioritise needs

    The combined heat map elevated the investor experience and fostered stronger relationships with clients and customers, empowering them to achieve their financial goals.

    Priority touch points

    This highlighted insight from the proto-persona grouped to Thinking and Doing actions during the activity; How our audience behaved within each section of the customer lifecycle.

    User needs by lifecycle

    By further analysing the results reveal traffic light priorities. Here I have only shown one persona group.

    By aligning content with user needs and ensuring stakeholder buy-in, this organisation can create a more impactful content strategy that drives business growth and enhances user experience.

    Next steps

    Dynamic Mapping

    Map identified priority touch-points

    Partner the priority touch-points identified in this article (and the previous ‘Get to know your users better‘) to the actual site content.

    30K Pages

    Resource & Allocation.

    With over 30K site pages, HR Resource and Budgeting need to use the above data in their Business Case to justify allocation.

    Alignment

    Stakeholder management

    Harnessing the collective energy of stakeholders to transform content into a powerful tool that drives results.

    By aligning content with user needs and ensuring stakeholder buy-in, this organisation can create a more impactful content strategy that drives business growth and enhances user experience.

    Please note; for client confidentiality sensitive parts of all imagery has been pixelated. All work is copyright © RussellWebbDesign 2023

  • Part II; How being more consultative can sooth the UX process – COVID Special

    Part II; How being more consultative can sooth the UX process – COVID Special

    TLDR; Boost your workflow without breaking a Zoom sweat in this COVID-friendly remote special. Simplify KO’s, pinpoint problems, and find your perfect toolset. Unleash the life-saving power of Dual Track UX Delivery. ‍ 

    Contents

    This is Part II of a two-part article looking at improved Ways of Working from a consultative UX perspective. Please visit Part I: How being more consultative can sooth the UX process – COVID Special to where I focused on;

    • Simplifying the KO process
    • Defining problems to solve
    • Tools and their limits

    Real world examples

    Product inconsistencies

    Moving on from the KO process and tool limits (see Part I). Part II drills down on real world ‘quick wins’, tracking tasks and signposting. Conclusions will sum up.

    Labelling and Buttons

    Focus on your speciality, and reach out when you need help
    Focus on your speciality, and reach out when you need help.

    ‘Quick wins’, including consistency like tracking labelling decisions (with accountability) and pressing the right primary (or secondary) buttons should be your focus as a consultative UX designer.

    This visual how confusion over two descriptions. Custom mapping within DBS is a complicated animal so learn on your front-end developer who has the skills to explain payment endpoints much better than any creative.

    When mental models don’t align

    Identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens; and consistent colour, layout, capitalisation, fonts, and so on, should be employed throughout.
    Use the Gestalt ‘Law of Similarity’ principle and keep parallel screens similar.

    The “Law of Similarity” states that elements tend to be perceived into groups, if they are similar to each other. Meaning if you have elements with the same functionality, meanings and hierarchy, they should be visually similar. 

    (more…)
  • Part 1; How being more consultative can sooth the UX process – COVID Special

    Part 1; How being more consultative can sooth the UX process – COVID Special

    TL;DR; Boost your workflow without breaking a Zoom sweat in this COVID-friendly remote special.
    —
    Simplify KO’s, pinpoint problems, and find your perfect toolset—faster than a remote ping. Discover the limits of your daily grind. Then, unleash the life-saving power of Dual Track UX Delivery as a consultative designer. ‍ 

    Contents

    Hard Skills:

    Journey Mapping

    Research

    Visual Design

    Soft Skills:

    Empathy

    Collaboration

    Critical Thinking

    Full List →

    This is Part 1 of a two-part article looking at improved Ways of Working from a consultative UX perspective. I will be concentrating on;

    Jump forward to Part II, I will be deep-diving into;

    • Real world examples
    • Ways of Working
    • Dual track UX
    • Signposting
    • Conclusion
    • My Top 9 Take-aways
    (more…)
  • What I learned from facilitating a UX remote workshop – COVID-19 SPECIAL

    What I learned from facilitating a UX remote workshop – COVID-19 SPECIAL

    TLDR; Modern ux-ers need to skill-up, keep pushing best practice and do their homework when preparing for remote workshops. Adapt with more structured activities, beef-up the tech and deliver digitally with feedback and collaborative tools.

    From the T-shaped designer to a online creative technologist

    business

    Technoligy

    MArketing

    Developemnt

    As worldwide events are changing everyday life, so are the expectations of today’s experience designer. This designer is becoming more of a conduit between business and tech, between marketing and development. Linking these disciplines together is the UX expert, whether that be instituting Design Thinking or facilitating workshops, the bar is getting set higher and higher and today modern UX’er needs to be ready, and needs to be T-shaped.

    For the past few years User-Centered Design (UCD) and Lean UX has been top of my agenda and prioritising the very best elements of those ideologies is a skill I’m fine-tuning everyday. UX Workshops, in their many different guises are designed to empathise, to understand and then lead on towards a POC or some flavour of a prototype. This has many benefits from collaborative thinking through to group alignment and collective contribution. Like ideation and journey mapping all in a face-to-face collaborative style.

    Empathise to get a better understanding of the problem to be conquered. Use activities like ‘Ask the experts’ to gain insight into user needs – set aside personal assumptions and focus on defined problems. Ideate and generate logical ideas that lead to creating an inexpensive test product (prototyping). Fail early, iterate and make your product inherently better.

    In these more challenging times, how do we design professionals help to facilitate that collaborative nature from behind a computer screen and without having that face-to-face connection? Build relationships with teams distributed across the country or globe and communicate the value of journey mapping while engaging people in the process is even more challenging, especially when those people can’t witness the actual activity. Ideation and mapping exercises over-the-wire is a challenge so here is my perspective following a recent remote workshop I chaired with a real estate client.

    Pre workshop – Be like a boy scout

    PREPARE

    Agenda

    Links

    I’ve said in previous articles, you roughly need twice the presentation time for preparation and this is equally true when you’re delivering the remote flavour of a UX workshop. Leading from the front as a facilitator and as a creative technologist ultimately the success of a remote workshop does revolve around the technology you have to hand. Make no assumptions, if your connection is not strong enough or your cameras are not clear enough the success of your remote workshop is that risk. 

    Ensure you have a quiet, comfortable and illuminated room

    Think about a headset with the microphone and also about the best video conferencing solution.

    Ensure your default check boxes are all ticked here.

    Setting the Stage

    Include an agenda to manage expectations

    Following intros, the ‘Product / Feature Vision’ is first up. ‘The Challenge’ preceeds a best practice master-class on the product or feature area. Another short intro into my UCD process I then asked ‘My five big questions’ followed by a personas session. Features leading to a genuine ‘Nice to have’ discussion also helps manage expectations. This leads perfectly into a Mapping and Ideation. Keep to your agenda, its important.

    Unfortunately, you won’t have those two minutes pre-KO to ask about the weather and to build bridges, so make sure introductions are timetabled.

    Keep the conversations flowing by including the Product Vision and The Challenge Definition as early pieces on your agenda. The remote nature of these first interactions are crucial, it’s important to allow all to contribute and keep the conversation flowing by re-iterating;

    • What has been done
    • What we are doing
    • What we will do.

    Elevate the Baseline

    Asking the right questions early helps set the stage. What problem are we trying to solve and can I have the big picture? Who are the User types and the Persona and what are their pains and gains. What are the project aims and how do we measure success? A good question to ask is why use this feature and not an alternative? 

    It’s important to gauge the creative intelligence on the people in the virtual room. This should come both from your research of the attendees pre workshop, and by calling out by name to promote engagement, asking people for their introduction at the top of the hour. My experience says go with the lowest denominator and bring everyone up to speed on process, on base level concepts behind Design Thinking and on how collaborative session usually work and ask the big questions.

    • What problem are we trying to solve and can I have the big picture?
    • Who are the User types and the Persona and what are their pains and gains.
    • What are the project aims and how do we measure success?
    • Why use this feature and not an alternative? 
    • What is you question to the group?

    Don’t forget to share pre-prepared documentation or links to aid further reading across your comms channel of preference.

    Keep your process, but adapt

    Personas

    Journey Mapping

    FEature list

    Charting the steps through this journey begins with search and select, then the user can choose the time, with options for the users showing available spots in the next week. Booking information should all the information that the contractor needs and finally the journey ends with the confirmation email and/or a text message.

    Activities like early hypotheses session, through to personas building, demo’s and deep dives into feature lists discussion all still have their place in the remote workshop scenario – they just tweaking to ease them through. Everyone must understand the purpose and the outcomes of your activities. For instance customer journey mapping; recognised as one of the more challenging workshop activities especially amongst debutante participants I recognised I had to most of the heavy-lifting myself.

    My goal for this instance was to quickly understand the current journey within a limited time, involve as many internal stakeholders from bus dev, legal, CS to engineering.

    Have at hand your collaboration doc, detailing activities with timings and outlining techniques. This acts a guide through all your calls and should be shared on screen and as a single point of truth when concluding the workshop. My take out here is keep it simple, use bullet points and subtle branding.  

    Google Docs is your friend here. It’s also a good idea to later move your visual findings to Mural and Miro (formerly RealTimeBoard)

    Ideation, in a low fidelity way

    SHARE BOARDS

    CHAT & messenger apps

    Initial first stage ideas from modal windows to small reveal to large reveal concepts. All helped lay the foundations in a low fidelity, if less collaborative, way.

    When mostly everyone is remote, take advantage of Real-time board or Muraly or Sketchboard. Even splitting participants into columns on Google Sheets and allowing real-time contribution is a workable solution.

    For instance, a spontaneously pencil sketch can be captured on your mobile and shared relativity instantly across Slack, great for what I call remote ideations. These can then be cataloged in your collaboration doc and / or uploaded to your Miro board.

    Digital Prototyping from the Digital Experts

    Taking the very best of concept #2 enabling the user to both see availability but also to drill-down and add must-have functionality. Also cherry picking elements from #4 and solving the visibility of contractor availability.
    Taking the very best of concept #2 enabling the user to both see availability but also to drill-down and add must-have functionality. Also cherry picking elements from #4 and solving the visibility of contractor availability.

    There is a benefit to being digital designers thinkers in a digital world. So take advantage of this when building and eventually sharing what is in most cases, a digital prototype. Use industry standard tools your clients should be familiar with that can aid both sharing and collaborating within a remote environment.

    You should still be starting with low fidelity sketches from you Ideation Sessions (see earlier) but eventually this will lead to the big reveal. InVision is my weapon of choice here, it’s quick, it’s collaborative and it’s becoming the industry standard.

    Post workshop wrap-up 

    Personal details

    Pre-registration

    Feedback and comments will help shape and strengthen future workshops.

    In true 360 fashion and in the spirit of UCD from my remote perspective it is good practice to reach out to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop. Ask for assistance in completing an evaluation and eave the door open to respond say within a limited time period to keep the data fresh.

    There will always be pitfalls to this type of distance collaboration, my key take-outs are;

    • Reduce friction by introducing activities more appropriate
    • Tell your team what you are about to do
    • Tell them what has been done
    • Follow your script, set out in your collaborative doc

    Finally, inform the team that there is a central repository (Dropbox or Miro or other cloud share is ideal for this) and ensure all have access; this becomes a great place to dump visuals, photos, text files or movies. This is also a great place for the collaboration doc which eventually evolves into your UX report.

    So, have fun by keeping the dynamics high, reducing distractions don’t forget to learn yourself and document religiously. Ramp up your note-taking skills, you’re going to need them!

    Appendix

    Your remote toolbox*

    • Google Docs, Sheets and Slides – the go-to applications for collaboration.
    • Real Time Board — A remote whiteboard tool for stickies and comment
    • Go To Meeting / Zoom — Video conferencing that allows you to show slides and record screens.
    • Slack – Document your chats, and share group or personal videos.
    • uxpressia.com – Online journey maps and personas

    * Please note this toolbox is by no exhaustive. This industry is was booming and pivoting every day.

  • Why do tech guys love drop downs?

    Why do tech guys love drop downs?

    TLDR: Traditional drop downs stifle UX in regulated financial software. They overload users with hidden options, hinder transparency, and increase cognitive load. But there are alternatives, prioritise immediacy, transparency, and champion user-centric solutions.

    Contents

    Recently I’ve been involved with implementing Design Thinking and best practice UX for a heavy technical suit of applications. Although I’m pushing collaboration and inclusivity, especially with the developers, I can recognise that look in their eye when I’m evangelising best practice and stressing user’s needs and wants.

    It’s not their fault.

    To give you a snapshot of this established and mature Agile team, we need to step back. Within a heavily regulated financial development environment, tech guys concentrate primarily on tech functionality. Task orientated user flow (UX) followed by aesthetics and that ‘delight’ moment (UI) very much take very a back seat.

    When select menu has less than 7 options it suffers from a lack of up-front information.

    So cycling back round to the title of this post, I get constantly asked “Please can we use a drop down here’. I’m not Mr Anti-Dropdown but I always ask why?

    Let’s NOT use a drop-down

    Drop-downs seems to be a one-stop shop killer solution for every developer’s requirement. We have a registration form to design, and there is a question about gender. M or F, ‘Lets use a drop-down’. A news article page within a CMS where an editor can choose a collection of background brand colours; ‘Lets use a drop-down’. A mobile home page with three sections, ‘Lets use a drop-down’. Although not so much with iOS developers, it seems this breed have a tighter aesthetic.

    For a better UX experience, be transparent with your users. Show them their choices rather than hide them behind a drop-down.

    The ‘why not’ revolves around these three simple points;

    1. Hiding selection choices behind a drop-down isn’t best practice. Especially when there is the on-screen real estate available.
    2. Displaying the user choices adds immediate vision and scope, reduces the cognitive load and allows the user to see their destination.
    3. For consistency across platforms, would that mean a drop-down on iOS devices – now you Apple fan base out there love your Apple T-Shirts and the WWDC Conference, but it doesn’t dictate best practice UX? This would not be my recommendation – especially the ‘nasty’ native iOS touch drop down.

    I can fully appreciate when you have a selection of more than say 6 – 8 items (this number varies) then you should default to drop downs. But the bigger question is; If you could provide an option for the user to click straight through, where they can see all their choices at a single glance, and you have the on-screen real estate the you should absolutely push for a more transparent solution.

    The 100 option drop-down

    Allow your users to starting typing to narrow their choices and then offer them a limited and tailored number of selections.

    A classic example is the auspicious country-selector with it’s 100 options. There is no no quick and easy overview option. And those of you from an ‘United” country, well it is potluck whether you’ve been bumped to the top or your country is listed by one of its other names. My preferred choice is to use auto complete menu instead – need visual

    When select menu has less than 7 options it suffers from a lack of up-front information. The user has to click in order to see the available options.

    So what’s the definitive best practice answer then?

    When to use on desktop

    Use radio buttons for choices under 7

    For web you should use radio buttons when choices under 7. Your users will be able immediately scan how many options they have and what each of those options are, without clicking (or typing) anything to reveal this information.

    This is particularly true for the ‘Please select your gender question’. At the start for the 21st century there are definitely under 7 choices here, so please use radio buttons.

    Use Mobile convenient add-ons to boost your productivity

    Type “Af” and Afghanistan, Central African Republic and South Africa drop-down

    User are discouraged by the perception of many taps. There is always the ‘fat finger’ issues, but more importantly today mobile savvy Gen X, Y or Z, who interact everyday with data driven (server side) continual validation apps. Always-on spell check, auto fill name and address field and real time dynamic delivery options for example. This is especially true on the smaller screen – speed, convenience and time are crucial factors when completing tasks.

    Conclusion

    Avoiding dropdown menus is a crucial design pattern on mobile platforms. Is there a faster alternative, better UX choice to reduce usage errors.

    Experienced developers are a great resource. As a future thinking UX-er you should always challenge, ask the right questions and be the user; Does this control choice make my life easier?