Capital One — A UX Case Study
Adding a feature to the Capital One iOS app to streamline the refund tracking process.
First, I want you to think of any previous online returns you dropped off at the post office.
What did you do with the tracking receipt? Did you actually get refunded for the item(s)?
If this question has left some of you wondering or even checking now whether you got refunded for that one Amazon item from a few months ago — then welcome, this feature is for you.
Overview
There is no way to track whether the refund credits back to the users’ accounts. Often, many are left without a refund until months later when they realize and reach out to their financial institution or the merchant to follow up.
The problem
An estimated 2.14 billion people made online purchases, which is not expected to slow down. The average e-commerce returns hover around 20–30% for various reasons.
Even when my return was delivered to the merchant a month ago, I never saw a refund credited to my account; not once, but three times. Only when I would follow up with the merchant would I receive an “apology” and be immediately refunded.
The solution
This refund tracker feature to Capital One’s mobile app serves the users innovatively and authentically by ensuring they will always be kept in the loop about when a refund is expected to adjust their credit or notified of any unresolved refunds.
After all, Capital One’s mission is to help customers succeed by bringing ingenuity, simplicity, and humanity to online banking.
User goals
Have more control over their hard-earned money and have ease of mind when it comes to waiting for a refund to reflect their line of credit.
Business goals
Engage users with our app and increase customer loyalty and satisfaction. Also, reduce the number of customer support inquiries regarding refund status.
Hypothetically, the primary metrics I’d observe are the number of refunds consolidated by the end of Q4, the increase in app store reviews, and the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score.
Design principles
Currently —
Consumers can track their delivery parcels, but why isn’t there a way for us to track our expected refunds?
I wanted to see if there was a similar feature experience implemented with any of Capital One’s direct competitors. I found that there is not any feature or capability yet.
For Who?
Due to time constraints, my ability to conduct in-person interviews was not feasible. So, I sent out surveys to gather insights (full research plan).
From the user surveys, here is what I uncovered:
The findings support my hypothesis that users do not have an effortless way to track their expected refunds. Oftentimes, many are left completely forgetting about the initiated refund in the first place.
Post-user interviews, 38% expressed that they forgot about a returned parcel and checked to see if they even got refunded!
The design process
Integration
When navigating through the app, it seemed logical to integrate the new feature within the Account Summary page underneath ‘Upcoming Bills’.
From a user perspective, the most important feedback we would like to know about our finances are:
The journey
Constructing a quick visual user flow of the expected path gave me insight into what screens would be necessary, what screens could be reused, and if any existing pages within the app could be recycled.
Use-case
There are many parties involved in ensuring a consumer’s refund gets processed. It was to my advantage to communicate this during design critiques where I could explain and show logistically how I imagined this to work.
Structure
Visually, how does this feature look integrated into the app?
Almost binned…?
Time to showcase my idea (the most nerve-wracking part). I shared the concept and wireframes with peers and a senior design mentor to receive feedback.
When I was explaining the concept and wireframes, the mentor interjected and said, “Have you done any research for this? Is this even a product to solve for? You should really go back and validate more research before progressing.”
Valid feedback, right? You should always conduct research. After all, it is what validates your design decisions and necessary product development.
However, it was the tone and delivery I received that distraught me. I was taken aback and fell silent as I felt humiliated in a group critique with a dozen other peers.
“Okay,” I said. I was left second-guessing my entire concept; doubts like “Well, she is a senior designer, she knows what she is talking about” and “She is probably right, this concept is useless.”
I contemplated for the rest of the day what I was going to do, scrap all my work and start new? Or continue. Although she was right, it wouldn’t feel beneficial if it wasn’t going to be impactful to the user, ‘business’, or ‘stakeholder’.
Saved by Reddit forum
Before completely discarding all my invested time and efforts, I dug deeper to see if there was a need or want for this product. I was so glad I did.
Coming across this Reddit thread reignited my passion for this concept and to pursue the project; reading about dozens of real people experiencing this exact pain was reassuring.
The design process cont’d…
Moving forward I fleshed out the rest of the screens in high fidelity and prototyped for usability testing.
Test and Iterate
I asked participants to complete two tasks:
- Track a refund from a previous transaction
- Check the status of the registered refund
View the usability testing plan here; the testing report here; and the analysis here.
Like all designs, it’s important to get user feedback on how a particular design works, what doesn’t, and how to improve it. Here are my four design improvements following the usability testing feedback and analysis:
Final designs
Seamless tracking
Find the respective transaction you are expecting a refund from and track it within the Capital One mobile app
Peace of mind
A summary overview of completed, unresolved, and pending refunds. Never miss out on ensuring you get your hard-earned money back.
Concluding thoughts
From research to usability testing, I am proud to have accomplished this in a 1-week timeline. I defended my project and problem scope in a design critique, which may normally be glossed over in the “real” world.
There were no available resources of Capital One’s design system or components, so managing to replicate an overall seamless design was not easy — but I learned a lot by mimicking.
Not only would this feature help users ensure they get every refund back, but alleviate the amount of customer support inquiries from both the merchant and the credit institution.
Realistically, I can only imagine a lot of legal and technicalities would go into implementing a feature like this. But that’s what BootCamp projects are for, right? Creative exploration and ideation.
If you made it to the end, thank you so much for reading. Feedback and comments are always appreciated.
Cheers!
Candace | LinkedIn
