Facilitating the user’s daily life in the Sicoob Bank app
How UX Design helped Sicoob Bank users of the app to carry out daily operations in a much simpler and clearer way.
First of all, it is important to make it clear that this is a case study from my UX & Design Thinking course: User Experience in Business, from Udemy, so it was not a request from Sicoob Bank and therefore I do not have access to information privileges, such as the app’s operating context, development teams, etc.
The challenge
Despite having a high score in the Play Store(4.8), in practice, the Sicoob Bank´s app leaves much to be desired in terms of usability and practicality in operations that are normally not complicated in other bank applications, hence the challenge:
How to facilitate the most used operations in the daily life of Sicoob Bank´s users?
The current scenario
Sicoob Bank is the biggest partner of the cooperatives, being the main responsible for the viability of the financial movement of large and small entrepreneurs spread throughout Brazil.
It recently launched a daring campaign, inviting citizens from all social classes to open an account at this bank, regardless of their purchasing power. The result was a success, attracting clients of the most varied profiles, including myself, to use this account in the most common banking actions of the day, and when I speak of my profile, I believe that I describe a significant portion of clients: those who need to carry out simple transfers and payments, without the need for in-depth technology knowledge.
I started using the application, but I found it more difficult than usual to handle the account, which left me with a feeling of frustration. Then I accessed apps from other banks and realized that there was nothing wrong with me (whew, I started to feel outdated!) and I had no problems finishing my goals.
I entered the Play Store, looked for the bank application and, to my surprise, it had a good rating and acceptance, but what made me even more curious was when I started reading the comments from other users. Many stories were similar to mine and others with more serious difficulties, below are some of them:
“I updated the App to the new version. It turned out beautiful. Too bad it didn’t work anymore. It is much slower and some functions are IMPOSSIBLE to be used. Transfer is one of them. Each click I gave to select an option took 2 minutes to be “understood” by the App (I’m not exaggerating), which was stuck. I had to perform the operation on my computer (I’m glad I was home as it was urgent). It is not acceptable for a banking App not to work. Ombudsman does not work.”
“The bank is good, but the App is from the 1980s. The interface is ugly, it looks like it was designed for the last century, the side menu is horrible, not practical, messy, difficult to use. Finding something you want is not intuitive at all. They could change the face of the App, better categorize the options, facilitate navigation between sections and icons, make the user’s life better.”
Project’s goal
Given the analyzed scenario, I defined the following objectives for the project:
Personas
After understanding the perceived need, I tried to get to know some people through surveys and interviews and then defined the profile that best represents these users, through Characterization of persona, Storytelling and Storyboard:
“Once upon a time there was a person who received an invitation to open an account at Banco Sicoob and accepted. Every day he accessed his account, but could not use it, as he did not know the tool and resources available, consequently he became frustrated and continued to use her old account at another bank, as she was already familiar with it. One day, she received a message offering help to use the application, still in disbelief, she clicked to see what would happen. Because of that, she discovered that the application had been updated and it was much more responsive and friendly. Because of that, he was able to know and use the resources much more easily. Until finally, he discovered several more advantageous options than other banks and started to use only the Banco Sicoob account for all his questions.”
From this definition of persona, I raised some hypotheses about what would be the possible problems:
Researches
Benchmarking
But as we know that there are other apps that deliver the same service, I tried to analyze other banks to better understand the difficulties that Sicoob Bank users are having compared to these other similar apps:
User journey
By analyzing competing apps and user reviews, I was able to begin to understand their real needs and the most critical points of the current app, and then I did the user journey in order to see possible opportunities for improvement.
Solution ideas
It was very important to carry out this research, because as shown above, some points of difficulty became clear and, consequently, the proposed solutions:
- Amount of information on the screen — Too much information makes the user lose focus, easily get irritated for not finding what he is looking for and, finally, abandon the app.
Possible solutions:
- Leave the most basic options on the screen;
- Enable customization of the main menu, leaving available only the 5 options most accessed by the user;
- Presentation of the step by step as the operation progresses. - Clean layout — in addition to less information, larger buttons, more visible letters and better defined spaces between sections can help you find the desired operations better.
Possible solutions:
- Increase the spaces between buttons and sections;
- Choosing a font (or fonts, if applicable) that are more objective, sans serifs help to achieve this result more easily. - Simple x complex — When using banking services, the simpler and faster, the better. Less is more.
Possible solutions:
- Decrease the number of steps in carrying out operations.
Doodleframes
Once the solutions were defined, I designed the first change ideas to implement in the app in the future.
I used the Crazy 8 technique to test the suggestions listed above.
That moment made me realize that being simple in a bank app is a big challenge due to the nature of the services, which need to offer complete options and also receive commands made by the user (such as amount to be transferred or received, payment date , type of payment, etc.). That’s why I chose a service to develop, and that service was PIX.
Then I made the sketches that covered the path of this function.
Wireframes
After better visualizing the steps of the chosen action, it’s time to make the skeleton of the application with a little more fidelity in its path.
User testing — poor quality prototype
With the low fidelity drawings, I made the first prototype and tested it with some users. This moment was very important, because in the same way that in the User Journey I began to better understand the pain of users, the tests showed me the real difficulties and different ways that each person uses the same application, even making me see improvements already at this stage . Below are testimonials from some who took the test:
“I found it intuitive, I was a little confused at first, I clicked the Pix button again and it took me to the beginning, then I saw where it was going and I didn’t have any difficulties. I didn’t like the colors of the buttons.”
(Hanna Beatriz)“When sending the receipt, I found the field to enter Whatsapp or email unnecessary, usually the application or cell phone already has this data. But I found it easy to use, a very informal source, everything similar to Nubank.”
(Fábio)“I was confused right at the beginning with the Transfer button, because when I go to make a Pix, I either want to PAY or RECEIVE. But after I understood, everything was fine, I had no difficulties operating.”
(Sabrina)
High fidelity prototype
First tests done, feedback collected and improvements implemented, the time has come to build a high fidelity prototype, still focusing on the PIX function as the test’s flagship, but this time enabling some other functions so that the user can have a better idea actual operation of the buttons.
Finally, I built the prototype in the Marvel app and made it available for further testing.
Want to see the working prototype? Click here.
Usability test
The first usability test with the low-fidelity prototype was fundamental, as it showed me how much the user’s experience in contact with your product can improve the final result.
It was so enriching that I tested the high fidelity prototype with more than 5 people and all of them had insights that greatly contributed to the final development of the application.
In general, there was no difficulty in completing the task, but at the beginning there was a slight delay in understanding the available options because they were used to the way their bank offers the service. At that moment I noticed a phrase I heard from Leandro Rezende during the course: “your user spends more time on other apps than on yours”. So I tweaked what was different and used terms more often found in other apps.
After environmentalization, some found information and steps unnecessary, for example, the option to enter data when sending the receipt.
Final considerations
As Leandro Rezende says: “You don’t learn to drive just by watching someone else driving”, and this truth was very relevant in all stages of this process.
With that in mind, I forced myself to step into the user’s shoes, look through their eyes and try to think what could improve their lives when using the chosen product and, without a doubt, trying it out is a transformative experience.
More than better quality products, UX Design made me learn how important it is to connect with people, because when we understand their challenges, we can propose solutions that make a difference in their daily lives, and how powerful it is to give someone the feeling what it is capable of, or the satisfaction of successfully completing a task, simply because UX Design has made me deliver a product that understands users, and therefore serves them.
But obviously I didn’t revolutionize the banking application market through my work, I see that I managed to improve a functionality of the Banco Sicoob application, but I still think that the solution I proposed can continue to evolve. Therefore, my next steps would be to test the high fidelity prototype on a larger group of people, observing not only the completion of the task, but also the time spent in the execution, this new parameter would change the way of measuring the reach of success.
In addition, I would use the positive points of the acquired experience to improve the other functions of the application, which would probably work in some that follow the same pattern, but it would be a starting point for other functions that do not fit the reasoning covered.
This case was developed during the study of the UX & Design Thinking: User Experience in Business course, a Udemy course, developed by UX Designer Leandro Rezende. This experience led me to seek to deepen myself in the studies and knowledge of UX and for that I found the UX Unicorn course.
Leif Bessa — LinkedIn
