A case study about my experiences at Neugelb Studios and supporting a project.
My role:
Lead UX & service designer, mentor
Methoden:
Market & User Research, User Interviews, Thematic Analysis, Quantitative & Qualitative Data, Personas, Problem Framing, Competitive Analysis, , IA, User Flows, Sketching & Wireframing, Branding & Visual Identity, LoFi Mockups, Prototyping, HiFi Mockups, Workshopleitung, Teamleitung, Usability Testing
Tools:
Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, Confluence, Keynote, Invision
read case study:
"Transparente Bankenprozesse"
Our Challenge
Trust in banks is decreasing because their products and processes are perceived as too complicated and opaque. Advice on traditional financial topics such as wealth creation and retirement planning feels similar to a telephone call to conclude a new telephone contract. Communication is not transparent and consumers lack understanding and awareness when dealing with their own finances. With the first salary, the question of investment comes to the fore, but this should neither be a gamble nor lead to problems, especially if the market experiences a new crash. So banks are under pressure to offer people a solution. Together with students, we have developed a concept that reorients the most popular investment, buying a house, in a new and user-centered way, so that it goes beyond just a marketing page.
Making Commerzbank more human with students.
Hannes Kober
"Je höher der Geldbetrag, desto komplexer
die ganze Angelegenheit."
Projectplanning
8 Sprints to Prototype
From planning to presentation, a roadmap was defined in which the milestones and results were recorded up to the presentation to Ulrich Coenen (the bank board). This cooperation was negotiated by Prof. Phillipp Thesen and Holger Grünwald.
Ideation trip with students and Neugelb | A flight to Porto the "5-day sprint
Day 1: Find a topic and research stakeholders
For us, the topic of “explore banking” became “Transparent Banking Services”. But what understanding do students have of banks, their products and services? Which target group is the one with which we can identify? What expectations are we talking about?
👉 N26, ING, Sparkasse & Tomorrow App stay as competitors
Day 2: Analyze
We identified & prioritized the most important & critical points from the banking product and service world. Our first ideas from the brainstorming focused on simple solutions to the biggest “fuck ups” (pains) in the services.
👉 Online processes are not always possible online. Offline processes are time-consuming and involve dependency
Day 3: Idea-Pitch
We formulated a vision that should correspond to the demands of a human-centered innovation: "Past, initiated and future processes between people and banks should be comprehensible again and feel as safe as ordering a pizza."
👉 Customers should remain in control of their money and not feel “ripped off” once the contract is signed.
Day 4: Teambuilding & POV
On this day we tried to change our perspective and approached this day very casually. We walked through the streets of Porta, finally had time to talk to each other, drank wine in urban places decorated with street art and exchanged ideas about the next steps in the project.
👉 Time-out - lets assimilate on vision and expectations
Day 5: Back to the real world
On the last day we enjoyed the flight back to Frankfurt and during the flight we prepared an initial visualization of an existing online/offline flow so that we could compare them later.
👉 Hard to do collaborative-work in a flubbing flight #no wifi #seats
view month later
Build measure learn
In the weeks that followed, we worked on the project for two days every two weeks. So we continued to work on our ideas from Porto and evaluated them with the bank's experts. We also asked for various insights into current hurdles and pains in order to be able to tackle the process of building financing.
All about Insights
Users perspective
We put on the user glasses and put ourselves in the situation of a persona. The following questions should help us further in process development in order to generate research insights and hypotheses:
How much can I afford?
Which property is right for me?
Who needs which documents from me?
What should I put attention on?
How old will I be when the property is paid off?
Who will help me and advise me?
#1 Insight
People invest their money in real estate, cars and home furniture
#3 Insight
Advice goes beyond the installment calculation
#2 Insight
Real estate is not just an investment, but a retirement provision or a life plan
#4 Insight
With such large amounts, you'll have to go to the branch at some point to be on the safe side
From the sofa to the branch to the new home
Financing a new home is complicated and perceived as overwhelming. The online process does not work because it does not exist and the internal bank processes are not clearly understood. There is a lack of transparency - starting with the conditions and the notarial approvals and ending with advice on the relevant insurance policies. Since at some point going to an advisor is no longer a question when it comes to large amounts of money, we have decided to:
Optimize the transfer of information from the digital ecosystem so that the process feels as simple and carefree as possible. Customers should no longer have the feeling that they are starting from scratch when it comes to advice.
Dynamic Dashboard with active products
Planned goals in the first place with an outlook on how far the goal has been achieved.
A financing plan instead of a final route
From finding an advertisement to collecting all relevant documents to finding the right time to visit the branch
Checklist instead of phone calls and question marks
Generating a feeling of security through checklists
Worthwhile branch visit
Arrange an appointment with a personal contact and automatically transmit the status quo.
The branch is no longer a solo effort
Transfer the process and continue together where there are questions.
Pitch presentation to CEO Ulrich Coenen:
"This is a innovation, and win win situation.
I want to have this for my product"
Sandy Kauer (Service / UX Designer) and Murilo Fonseca (Senior UI Designer)
with students Felicia Burger, Denise Genctürk, Yifeng Lin
