Bring Contents where Customers Are
My Role: UX Designer| Duration: 4 Weeks | Year: 2013 |
Tools: Balsamiq, App Annie, Grammarly
Context and problem to be solved
The development team dedicated to mobile banking at Banca MPS had just finished the project related to the app for Android tablets, which joined the existing iPhone, iPad and Android smartphone. In the team, I had been responsible for the user experience.
As a team, we put a lot of effort into the various developments of the apps. Once the team completed the project, the focus shifted to something else. I started analyzing the data with a fantastic tool, App Annie.
The download data drew a super flat parabola, as a result of the app downloaded in the stores from Customers. So I hypothesized that product pages published on the bank’s website did not produce any substantial effect on downloads.
It was crystal clear that applications had to be pushed towards our customers.
Analysis of possible solutions
In my role, I had access not only to the data relating to the downloading of the apps but also those relating to traffic on the bank’s website. So I took advantage of an element I knew about: the second most visited page of the site after the homepage was the one Internet banking’s logout page. The system redirected Clients automatically when they logged out.
I needed a landing page there, so I asked developers for a new template. To go on this path, I should have asked for some budget to finance it. Unfortunately, it was a moment when any form of investment by the bank was at a standstill due to the need to cut costs. I should have found a different path.
I then focused my attention on a template, among those already available in the content management system, consisting of only two placeholders: title and body of the text: as it was plenty of possibilities, I gave it a try.
Solution
By a stroke of luck, I noticed that Twitter’s logout page listed applications for each platform there. The first solution I designed in Balsamiq Mockup was copied, ehm, inspired by Twitter.
The template that I could use didn’t leave all these spaces on the page. I had to make choices. So I deleted the app for Blackberry, residual among Clients, but distributed as a corporate smartphone to colleagues. A user target to reach through internal communication. Always to save space and, why not, simplify the page, I grouped the devices on the iOS and Android operating systems.
It was also necessary to have images that were of a precise size due to the limited space available in the body of the page. Always with Balsamiq Mockup I then created images that reproduced precisely the final ones and I inserted them in the cms.
In this way, I could:
- test them internally with my colleagues and further refine the solution;
- explain to my managers the final effect of the solution;
- give precise indications to the graphic. As I knew she is a print graphic designer, my requests had to be very detailed to eliminate all possible doubts.
As shown below in Google Play and App Store downloads, already at the beginning of the year, the data no longer drew a perfect curve. I had tested other solutions, for example, the tag at the top of the pages to push the app on our Customers.
However, what happens from May onwards, when this page went online. Well, I was super happy!
It was necessary not only to publish the apps but make them visible to Customers to augment their possibilities of access to their bank account and have an effective impact on their experience.
Results
A straightforward solution, obtained at no cost, has allowed us to achieve outstanding results.
On Android devices rather than on iPad, we had even more than doubled the downloads year on year.
+ 118% on Android devices
+ 122% on the iPad
+ 15% on the iPhone
Lessons learned
- Developing is not enough; you also need promotion. This case study starts with the error of a team, of which I was a part of, that underestimated marketing activities necessary to inform Customers of the available apps.
- Never lose sight of the big picture. After developing four apps, a sense of fulfillment prevailed in the team. But work loses its meaning if it does not reach customers. Never, never, never forget customers.
- Don’t pursue perfection but effectiveness. Even if we remind it often to ourselves, we continue to pursue perfection in the short term instead of looking at the substance and bringing home results.
- Resilience, curiosity, desire to deepen are among your talents. Remember this.
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