Edge Banking

Banking app that allows you to securely transfer funds with Western Union integration.

Duration

March-April 2021

Team

Solo Project Working with WU Director

My Role

UX & UI Design

Create an bank application web and mobile flow for a regulated money transfer service that will allow bank customers to send money to their family or friends internationally funded with their bank account. The banking institutions would integrate with Western Union to provide this service.

Project Overview

Problem

This type of international money transfer is highly regulated by different government agencies and policies (Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Dodd Frank Act, FinCEN). The flow of their existing UI was outdated with too many screens, too much text and complicated for the user.

Solution

Create a seamless integrated WU application that looks good and is user centered. Simplify the flow from 12 screens down to 9. Update the UI so its attractive to both older and younger generations. Cut down the extra text as much as possible so that we can save users time.

Approach

01. Discovery

Understanding the Problem
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews

02. Concepting

User Personas
User Flow Diagram

03. Prototyping & User Testing

Wireframes
Usability Testing
Iterations
Final Design
Style Guide

Competitive Analysis

Before beginning my user research I wanted to look and better understand the other money transfer apps on the market. The two main ones being Paypal and Zelle. Paypal allows a lot of the same features currently as Western Union like currency conversion but where as WU can convert 130 currencies Paypal can only support 25. They are also lacking in locations in comparison to WU.

With Zelle it is already doing something similar to the goal of the project. You can access it from your bank dashboard so you don't need to go to a secondary app to send money. What Zelle lacks is that it doesn't offer international transfers and you must have a bank account to receive the money as well where with WU you do not.

User Research

I created a survey with 5 different questions I had and posted it to several groups to get feedback on the types of people that are making money transfers and what they look for in a money transfer service.

10 Participants

5 Questions

Remote

>5 Minutes

Interview Goals

Interview Findings

01. To learn what existing apps people are currently using to make their money transfers.

02. To learn the age range of users who are making money transfers.

03. To discover what users look for when deciding to make a money transfer with existing apps in the market.

04. To find out how often and to who users are sending money to.

01. Most participants use Venmo and Western Union to make their money transfers.

02. Most users transfer money monthly.

03. Majority of users are aged between 25-30 and 45-55 years old.

04. When looking for an app to use majority of users look for one that is reliable and convenient.

05. Majority of participants send money to their friends and family.

Personas

Research insights above enabled me to create personas to summarize and illustrate the needs for money transfer apps. Personas acted like a compass and helped enormously with user-centered decision making.

User Flow Diagram

Having understood user needs, I was able to make predictions for how people would use the application and what they would want, expect, and find frustrating.

Wireframes

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Low Fidelity Wireframes were created to outline the basic layout of the app and to layout the actions needed to complete each task.

Mid Fidelity Wireframes

Mid Fidelity Wireframes were given more detail and UI elements were added.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Low Fidelity Wireframes were created to outline the basic layout of the app and to layout the actions needed to complete each task.

1/2

Usability Testing

The goal of this usability test was to assess users understanding and ease of use when interacting with the app and to successfully complete a money transfer.

4 Participants

1 Task

In Person

25-30 Minutes

Test Results

Based on the notes and recordings of the tests, affinity mapping was used to sort the data of the test result and map out the patterns and the related information. Revisions were then implemented based on severity and priority of the usability error.

3 of the participants mentioned that the "continue" and "back" buttons are too close together which could lead to user error.
1 participant wished that there was more space between input fields.
3 of the users were confused on the conversion aspect of the mobile screens.

Iterations & Revised Design

The following iterations have been made based off of usability testing, peer-reviewed feedback, and visual design principles.

Receiver Details

Issue

Users who plan to use the WU feature often would have to re enter receiver details even if they had sent money to them several times before. The contents of each field were too small and too close together. This makes entering in information more difficult. The back button was also too close to the continue button and didn't make sense with the layout.

Solution

Adding a past receivers option will allow users to select their past receivers and save them time. Adding space between each element with prevent user errors and allow for better readability. Having the continue and back buttons more spaced out will help with user errors and accidentally clicking the back button.

Transfer Details

Issue

Several users brought up how the amount to send option was a bit confusing and hard to get a clear idea on what was supposed to be happening.

Solution

Moving the amount to send boxes to be side by side with the conversion symbol along with the exchange rate underneath and with more space between the promotional code was easier for users to make sense of.