Revamping UCO mBanking Plus App

Project Type

User Case study for UX Design.

Goal

Ideation of user friendly interface design for regular users of the mobile application.

Location of Users mapped

Bengaluru, Karnataka

Time frame for evaluation of Users

12 months (January 2024-December 2024)

Role

User Experience Designer

Overview

This is a Case Study of UCO mBanking Plus Application usage among real customers based on testing and analysis in the time frame of 1 year (2024). The project includes feedback from a wide range of customers, including digitally and situationally challenged individuals.

Discovering the Case Study of UCO mBanking Plus App

UCO Bank is a Government of India Public Sector Undertaking founded in 1943, headquartered in Kolkata, and operates with 43 Zonal Offices spread all over India and two International Financial Centers in Hong Kong and Singapore. It boasts of a robust Capital Base, a high proportion of Long Term Liabilities, and a diversified Asset Portfolio. With this extensive country-wide and overseas presence and a large and diversified client base, and all branches integrated under Core Banking Solution(CBS), it is crucial to mark a strong presence on the Digital Platforms too, so as to cater to the "instant" needs of every demographic.

At present, the Bank has 2 significant mobile applications for the masses, UCO mBanking Plus App for Savings Account Customers and UCO Corporate mBanking App for Current Account holders. During my stint in the Bank as a Front-desk executive, one of my roles was to understand and expand the customer base on Digital mediums. I had a daily interaction with over 100 customers and groups from all walks of life, and it helped me deeply analyze the gaps between a real User and Application Developer. Here, my lessons of around 1 year, and my insights on developing a more User-friendly Financial Application are illustrated and summarized as a User Case Study Portfolio Project.

Here is a broad categorization of Users from UCO Bank that have been analyzed for this case study. We can generalize any Indian Financial Institution's Individual Customers into similar heads. Kindly note that the Users here come from all walks of life throughout both rural and urban India, and may not be Financially and/or Digitally Literate, but nevertheless, are a part of this study since they participate on Digital platforms for their Social/ Financial interactions, and it's desired to bring them to using the UCO mBanking Plus Application for their day-to-day banking requirements.

A general categorization of Users of UCO mBanking Plus App based on my posting experiences in Bengaluru, Karnataka and in Ranchi and Dhanbad, Jharkhand. The Orange fields indicate the potential Users that need to be focused in the purview of this case study.

The Opportunities and The Challenges

Tools used in this Project

Canva, Figma

Defining and Narrowing down the Problem

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Here are a few snapshots of the UCO mBanking Plus App taken from the Google Playstore. The interface is simple, full of icons, and operates by means of both clicking the button and scrolling the menu. The comprehensive list of options cover most needs of a User online, within the purview of safety and security commitments provided by the Bank.

Screenshots of UCO mBanking Plus App, Source: Google Playstore

General Emotions of Users towards the Application

General categorization of my Userbase as studied from Bengaluru, Karnataka. Experience from previous postings in Dhanbad and Ranchi, Jharkhand has also been taken into account here. The reviews from Google Playstore have also been considered for reference.

Defining our Problem Statement : 5 Why's Approach

Deductive Analysis of the Problem Statement.

Problem Statement: Preserving the Comprehensive features of UCO mBanking Plus Application, while creating a Minimalistic and Accessible User Experience.

Ideation and Brainstorming on the Design

User Personas

User Journey

User Flow and Information Architecture

Prototyping the Design

Mood board, Storyboard

The original Color Palette of the Application has been preserved for recreation.

The Landing Page has been preserved here, and Layout changes have been attempted in other pages.

Low-fidelity Sketches

Brainstorming different layouts and factors to consider in the design.

First design Iteration

First iteration, based on need to minimize number of options on the screen in order to create a clean structure.

PAGE 1: Revising the design from first iteration and rearranging functions to new categories to eliminate repetition.

Second design Iteration

Revising the design to make it ergonomic is not enough, we also need to look into the daily needs of a User in order to understand the chronology of menus. The needs of Business should also be accounted for in order to maintain balance. Here, based on my experiences on the front-desk, I pondered over the 21 pre-existing menus, keeping myself in the shoes of Customers, and walked through each menu with a different life situation, like a different story, and tried to comprehend the psychology of the User. It is to be noted here that I have not accounted for highest click-rates of every button, as that data was not accessible to me, although it would have been a good starting point in analyzing the design.

High-fidelity prototype

Evaluating the Future

Inspirations

1. Here is a very interesting Article on building Financial Applications by Nielson Norman Group, which served as an anchor and inspiration to this Project: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/vanguard-mobile-app/

2. Another one of my favorites is this Article from the same source, which discusses why clarity of thoughts is a precursor to efficient decision making. This article has a huge influence on the criticality of this Project's problem statement: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/sludge-decisions/