Problem Statement
How do I redesign the deposits section of the website in order to make it more understandable for all user groups?
Outline
While working in the design team at Kotak Mahindra Bank, I got the chance to work on redesigning the Kotak deposits section of the website. I worked with a product designer who I assisted, along with two product managers.
This section basically consisted of three kinds of deposits: Fixed, recurring and tax-saving. In this section, a user basically has to choose any one of the deposits they wish to invest in as per their choice, and go through a subscription process to get registered for the same.
We had a discussion with the product managers regarding what all improvements can be made, keeping in mind the consistency and the colour scheme of the brand.
A lot many times during the process, we had questions like - Which out of these fields is the most important? Is the field name easy enough to be understood by the user? Are there too many interactions?
Here is where I feel some user research could have been helpful, in order to answer these questions even better.
Timeline
Since this research wasn’t conducted practically, I did not have a set timeline that I could refer to. Hence, I myself went ahead and defined a timeline of 6 days to complete the research. I decided upon this timeline based on certain factors like urgency, and the time we actually took to finish the redesign.
Research statement and goals
As conveyed by the product managers, the current design was a bit outdated and difficult to understand. The main objective is to redesign the deposits section such that it looks clean and is easy to understand.
Here are the two main goals for the same:
- Identifying the mental models and expectations of the users while signing up for any kind of deposits.
- Identifying the problematic areas in the current design.
Research methodology
In order to select the research methodologies, I first identified the phase at which the project was currently on.
I believe this project was in the Evaluation phase of the cycle, since there already exists a defined design for deposits (which needs to be further worked upon).
Here are the research methodologies I decided to go ahead with:
Focus Group
Before beginning with the testing of the current design, I would like to conduct an exploratory form of testing with the aim of identifying the mental models/expectations of users for the deposits section.
A focus group would help me understand the attitudes of different user groups all at once. It would easily help me identify the difference in the preferences of different types of users, at a much quicker pace compared to interviews. The insights obtained from this testing will help me achieve my first research objective - identifying the mental models and expectations of the users while signing up for any kind of deposits.
I will take an audio recording of this session, and will also list down important points all throughout.
Here are the questions I will be putting forth in order to start a discussion with the group:
1. How has your experience been while registering for deposits via an online mode?
Follow up questions:
- Why did you like/not like that?
- Do you have any suggestions on how it can be improved?
2. What is the maximum amount of time you would be comfortable to give for an online subscription to deposits?
3. What details do you think you will have to provide, while subscribing to deposits?
4. What data would you want to be notified with while going through the subscription process? (For eg: account balance, nominee details, etc)
Usability Testing (of the current design)
I found usability testing to be the best method for achieving my second research objective - Identifying the problematic areas in the current design.
For this method of research, I will individually moderate each of the participants and will ask them to perform certain tasks in the deposits section. I will be asking questions and taking down points while they’re performing the testing.
However I will ensure that I don’t pressurize/interrogate the participant to an extent that it will affect their behaviour while performing the task. I will make it look like a friendly discussion to make them as comfortable as possible.
I will also include a member of my design team to note down all the insights obtained during the session, and record the session as well if the participant agrees for the same.
Following are the tasks I will be asking each of the participants to perform:
- In the FD Section, select a rate of interest and time duration of your choice
- Add a nominee in the FD Section
- Proceed without a nominee in the recurring deposits section
- Register yourself for tax saving deposits. All details including the advanced options should be added
Here are some of the questions I will ask the participant while they’re performing the task:
1. May I know what it is that you are not able to understand here? (If they’re stuck somewhere)
2. There must be a reason behind you making that assumption, may I know the same?
3. I see it took you longer than usual while doing this, may I know what caused that?
Do you think there is a better way of representing this?
4. Once the testing is done, I will ask the participant to describe their overall experience in a gist, and mention suggestions for improvement wherever needed.
Recruitment criteria and process
For this study, I think it would be best to take in Kotak deposit customers as the research participants. I believe the existing customers can be divided into the following four personas:
- Young Adults (Ages: 20-30)
- Working Professionals (Ages: 31-55, Working for a living, Male/Female)
- Homemakers (Females, Homemakers)
- Elderly people (Ages 55+, Retired individuals)
2-3 participants will be selected from each of these personas. A survey can be rolled out on the website/social media handles asking for volunteering as participants. They will be offered a 20% discount on products purchased with Kotak debit cards, in order to recruit quickly.
They will then be contacted via email/phone call.
Analysis and synthesis process
After the session with the focus group, I will go through the audio recording and the points I have noted. Based on that, I will list down the insights and assumptions that were most agreed upon during the session.
After usability testing with each participant, I will go through all the takeaways and insights that have been noted down by the team. I will check whether the assumptions made previously about the design being outdated, and being difficult to understand, go in line with the insights or not. I will also make a short summary of the insights, pain points and suggestions after each session.
Once all the usability sessions are completed, I will go through all the audio recordings with frequent breaks whenever necessary. I may take in a few team members for the same. Based on the recordings, I will make an exhaustive list of the insights, takeaways, pain points and suggestions. I will further present these findings in an organised format(report) to the stakeholders.
Output and deliverables
I will be presenting the stakeholders with the reports of both the focus group and usability session. I will also present these reports to any other concerned team/person like marketing, content, development, etc.
I will be listing down all the plausible solutions that can be made based on the research, which will be presented in the form of information architecture maps.
Next steps and recommendations
Once the reports and insights are discussed with the stakeholders, the design team will start working on creating lofi prototypes. These prototypes will then be further tested for validating the design, and gaining any further user insights.
