A new bank essence from natural interaction

The evolution of the new mobile strategy for UBI Banca

The context

Departmental silos and a multitude of apps

The complexity of digital transformation and the necessity to innovate quickly led to a technological and experiential fragmentation of UBI apps, reflecting the differing internal organizations and the distance among the various teams of the UBI project.

The first challenge

Replace the fragmented UBI Banca mobile experience with a single app

Our goal was to simplify the complexity of the mobile in UBI Banca, made up of 6 separate apps, each with numerous distinct features and its own identity.

We removed the fragmentation, favouring a more pleasant, simple and unified experience for all mobile users of UBI Banca.

The second challenge

Focus on customer retention, anticipating the effects of PSD2

We went beyond banking, exploring and introducing services that are not typically part of that universe, thus able to differentiate the UBI Banca offering and generate continuity in customer relationships.

Innovative services like secure document archiving and IoT security monitoring allow UBI Banca to reach its customer beyond the banking arena.

“Swipe Engine”

Switching between services is immediate and many features are already active, thus reducing the distance between the digital and real worlds.

Design Thinking & FinTech

We went beyond the surface, redefining the mobile experience of UBI Banca by way of exploring future trends ini FinTech, then considering how to integrate these variables as part of a design thinking process.

Phase 1

Discovery & Research

Map UBI Banca’s existing mobile experiences

Phase 2

Inspiration & Envisioning

Fintech Consumer Trends

Phase 3

Analysis

UBI War Room

Phase 4

Insight to User Stories

Design Sprint 1

Phase 5

Radical Innovation

Design Sprint 2

PHASE 1

Discovery & Research

Map UBI’s existing mobile experiences

A series of workshops dedicated to knowledge exchange and fostering awareness in all relevant stakeholders

Stakeholder Workshop

Together with the 15 UBI executives, we mapped the stakeholders involved in the bank’s mobile strategy.
We observed and understood the various roles and relationships among them.

Clients & Personas Workshop

We worked together with 20 customer-facing Branch Managers to get a more complete qualitative picture of UBI’s customer base. Each work group created personas as part of a structured activity, made easier using DGI’s customized Personas Canvas tool.

Who is already using UBI Banca's apps? Anna Maria represents the combination of the team’s input on this user.

Who do we want to reach? (i.e. start using the UBI app)

Observe & Understand

In parallel with the other workshop sessions, we observed and understood the world of UBI Banca using various research tools, both qualitative and quantitative.

Focus Groups

We spoke with mobile app users of UBI and competing banks to understand the role of digital services, the drivers of adoption and relationships, experiences, and expectations of bank customers.

Quantitative Analysis of existing UBI Apps

We reviewed analytics and research data provided by UBI Banca to understand the actual use of each app.

Netnography

We analysed comments and customer feedback of UBI Banca apps, as well as those of its primary competitors, to better understand the pain points.

Inspirational Benchmark of Fintech Apps

We researched and analyzed competitors, emerging technology trends, and startups to identify themes that could be applied to the UBI Banca context.

PHASE 2

Fintech Consumer Trends

Inspiration & Envisioning Workshop

A day of inspiration, during which we explored the decalogue of the primary FinTech trends, their influence on banking apps and how they could respond to the needs of the personas that we had created together in the second workshop.

Context, Use & Potential Benefits

Meanings, not info (UX of data)

Receive meaningful information, companionship, scenarios and options rather than raw data

My Data Bank

Banks have long kept valuable physical objects secure, why not our valuable private digital artifacts–data?

Identification

Users are beginning to culturally accept new forms of identification once considered unsafe.

Real time services

Today’s users expect services and feedback in real time, including instant payments

Continuity

The information about each customer must pervade the entire company organization, thus strengthening customer experience continuity

Everybody wants to (also) be a bank

Major technology players (Amazon, Airbnb) and startups (Affirm) are all becoming competitors of traditional banks

Automatic memories

Tracking user behavior allows systems and services to become proactive agents

Conversations

The distance between brands and customer disappears and becomes conversational; social interfaces allow them to interact as equals.

Casual User

People are often temporary users of chosen brands and services, using a variety of providers to do similar tasks

Bank is a place

As services become digitalised and decentralized, the bank branch needs to be reimagined and could have a more significant communal or social role

PHASE 3

Analysis

UBI War Room

Design guidelines for mobile banking

The UBI War Room at DGI

Mapping strengths and pain points of the various apps

Analysing user flows to discover the features present in multiple apps

Applying FinTech trends to design guidelines

The Manifesto

For each of the existing UBI Banca apps, we evaluated strengths and weaknesses.

From this analysis and our workshop experience emerged 10 + 1 strategic points for our manifesto, a series of design principles that frame and support the redefinition of UBI Banca’s mobile strategy.

Like “the rules of the game”, the 10 points of the manifesto are guidelines for UBI Banca’s team to consider during the design process, as a way to keep the experience coherent and consistent.

PHASE 4

Insight to User Stories

Design Sprint 1

Assumption: UBI Banca would like combine its various apps into one single app.
The challenge at 3 months: design how users access services, information and transactions in just one app.

Crazy Eights!

Only 5 minutes to sketch up to 8 ideas!

Day 1

Understand

We reviewed our research, what we know about the users, and defined a focus for the sprint. We started out by listing our assumptions.

Day 2

Diverge

For each of the personas we selected relevant scenario and user stories, then generated numerous design solutions.

Day 3

Converge

We extended several of the concepts to narrow down and select the best ideas.

Day 4

Prototype

We created mockups and animations to implement an interactive prototype.

Convergence & Personalisation

UBI Banca asked DGI to “converge” various apps into one app. We went a step further to create an assistant that capitalizes on the potential offered by new mobile technology.

We identified common modules in all of the app as well as the most used features to create a single banking tool.

Personalization allows for immediate access to the most relevant features, a real-time service able to adapt to the needs of each single user.

Usability Test

Validate the hypotheses generated during the design sprint

The Critical Path

Qualitative research and analysis of the new single UBI app

The objective of the test was to validate hypotheses and confirm assumptions.

We simulated the real experience of using the new UBI app with a panel of 5 users, with a mix of age, saving habits and usage of UBI’s existing app and those of its competitors.

We defined the test scenario and proposed various tasks based on our user stories and personas.

Personalisation & Pre-login

PHASE 5

Radical Innovation

Design Sprint 2

Final convergence: Innovation in 18 months, from rationalization to conversation

Distruptive App

The swipe gesture is a tool for reducing the distance between the digital app and real world, allowing for instant access to features like the camera and the conversation hub.

People-centered Bank

All of the relevant proactivity of the bank just a swipe away. Conversational banking makes the client feel like she is constant contact with a partner who attentive, proactive and responsible.

The conversational app uses natural language to create the interaction between the user and introduce sales automation processes.

“Eye Tracking”

Learn about the “very first impact” of the app

Validate

Free Navigation

The objective of the Eye Tracking study was to discover the app’s “very first impact.”

We simulated the real user experience of the new UBI app for a panel of 6 users, who represented a wide range of age, saving habits and bank clientele.

We proposed a scenario based on Anna Maria, our persona of a typical UBI Banca app user, and as a task, an exploratory and spontaneous navigation of the app and its features.