investigating communication preferences for online banking users

mY ROLE

I led the UX strategy and design for improving KeyBank's online banking alerts and paperless preferences. I conducted usability testing and delivered a comprehensive discovery overview, including client journey maps, user flows, surveys, and distilled insights.

Collaborating closely with a product designer and content designer/UX writer, I also led a 4-hour design thinking workshop to shape the future state experience.

DESIGN TEAM

Bre Walker, Sr. Product Designer

Pauline Thach, Product Designer

Margaret Freeman, UX Writer/Content Designer

WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS

The 14 members of the Digital Client Experience agile squad, including engineers, product owners, line of business partners, business analysts, QAS, a marketing consultant, and the scrum master.

CONTEXT

the challenge

KeyBank’s digitally active clients are struggling with an outdated, disjointed and confusing alerts and notifications experience. The absence of a centralized home for the management of communication preferences forces clients to navigate to multiple pages, causing cognitive overload and user frustration. The client experience is built on outdated back-end technology and a needed a major upgrade to the navigation and UI.

Why was this particularly important?

KeyBank is projected to spend $100 million over the next 4 years to print and mail statements to clients.
Account alerts help clients monitor their finances, avoid fees and protect themselves from fraud.
Enrollment in alerts and paperless were stagnant.

the approach

DISCOVERY

Conducting user surveys and usability tests to understand the current state of the experience.
Market research to identify consumer trends and attitudes, outline industry best practices and see what our competitors are providing.

WORKSHOP

Establishing a shared understanding of the current alerts and notifications experience for all future project contributors.
Utilizing the collective knowledge of our squad to document business goals, success metrics and known technical constraints and dependencies.
Envisioning a future state experience together as a agile team.

SYNTHESIS & NEXT STEPS

Document design and data analytics opportunity areas.
Work with stakeholders to create a feasibility, viability, and desirability mapping.
Refine scope and requirements.
Begin design ideation.

DISCOVERY

mapping the current state

There is a disjointed user experience across the three digital channels (desktop web, mobile app, and mobile web). Each has at least four different entry points for managing banking alerts and paperless preferences, leading to a fragmented and confusing user experience. The UX is inconsistent across channels, with varying labels, capabilities and user flows, causing frustration for users when they switch between devices.

gathering deeper client insights

We set out on a mission to enhance the online banking experience for KeyBank's clients. To understand their needs and frustrations, we dove deep into UX research.

We started with usability tests, guiding users through common tasks to spot navigation challenges and verify the issues reported in call center feedback. Next, we conducted client surveys, capturing their thoughts on paperless preferences and discovering how and when they wanted updates on their bank account activity.

Through these efforts, we uncovered the following key insights:

Users find our navigation disjointed and confusing.

The lack of a centralized alerts and notifications experience leads clients to not only be confused, but to fail at fully managing their alerts preferences.

Users want the enrollment and management experience simplified.

Users expressed dissatisfaction with the inconvenience of updating each alert individually. The lack of global alerts settings and delivery preferences forces clients into more clicks, leading to cognitive overload.

Users want more control and options for their communication preferences.

Without more personalization, clients are forced to receive notifications they didn’t sign up for and don’t want. Coupled with inconsistent alert options across products, clients are finding the experience inconsistent and unnecessarily frustrating.

Users want us to set better expectations and define our experience.

Not all clients understand what alerts and notifications are. Our experience doesn’t clearly define or distinguish between the two, causing more confusion for clients.

“...there should be one main place where you can manage notifications. It feels like if you don't click through everything you will miss something.”

documenting the user journey

To analyze user experiences, we developed two journey maps. The first one mapped the on-boarding process for new clients, while the second focused on long-time clients who haven't updated their alert preferences.

These maps helped the squad and stakeholders to visualize the challenges and pain points clients were facing, allowing us to identify opportunities for improvement and enhance the overall user experience.

WORKSHOP

getting stakeholder buy-in

The next step in the redesign was bringing stakeholders into the process. To do this, I collaborated with my team of designers to plan and facilitate a discovery and ideation workshop.

The 14 members of the Digital Client Experience agile squad, including engineers, product owners, line of business partners, business analysts, QAS, a marketing consultant, and the scrum master were the participants.

PURPOSE

Establish a shared understanding of the current alerts and notifications experience.

Document business goals, success metrics, and technical constraints.

Envision a future state together as an agile team.

ACTIVITIES

Discovery Overview (large group)

To educate stakeholders on the UX and market research conducted and walk through the user journey maps.

SME Knowledge Gathering (small groups)

To explore and document business and technical goals, gaps in data analytics, and dependencies.

Reverse Brainstorming (large group)

To imagine how and in what ways we can utilize our findings to improve the user experience and drive business goals. Generating potential solutions and identifying any unintended consequences.

sIGNIFICANCE

This workshop highlighted the power of collective knowledge, fostering a collaborative environment where all voices were heard. By leveraging design thinking principles, we aligned on a user-centered approaches that would enhance both the user experience and business outcomes.

SYNTHESIS & NEXT STEPS

best practices & hero concepts

After gathering business goals and potential solutions, we turned to market research and a competitive analysis of seven banking competitors to identify best practices and compare our ideas to the competition.

Here are the best practices we discovered, along with refined UX opportunities for our redesign:

Allow clients to personalize their communication preferences.

Giving users control over when and where they receive alerts/notifications ensures relationship growth.

Concept: Implement customizable alert settings, including quiet hours, to give users control over their notifications.

Create a centralized destination for communication preferences.

Users want to quickly decide the types of communication they receive and the channels used to do it.

Concept: Develop a centralized, interconnected hub for managing all communication preferences, accessible from global and secondary navigation.

Clearly differentiate between alerts and notifications.

Consumers see alerts (essential and urgent) and notifications (informational and optional) as different types of communication and user preferences vary depending on the type of communication.

Concept: Clearly categorize and separate alerts from notifications to reduce confusion and enhance usability.

Educate clients on how they can use alerts to protect their accounts

There are a multitude of alerts clients can choose to stay informed. Providing context empowers clients to make informed decisions on how they’re communicated to.

Concept: Integrate educational elements that inform users about the benefits and purpose of different alerts, fostering a sense of security and control.

solidifying next steps

Our journey to enhance KeyBank's communication preferences experience has been both insightful and collaborative. Through rigorous UX research and design thinking workshops, we've gained valuable insights into user pain points and preferences, laying the groundwork for meaningful improvements.

As we transition into the ideation phase, we'll continue to leverage these findings to develop solutions that prioritize user experience and align with our business goals. By involving our partners and stakeholders every step of the way, we're poised to create a digital banking experience that exceeds expectations.

Our next steps involve further ideation and collaborating closely with product owners and developers to ensure feasibility, viability, and desirability.

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