Gakii Gitonga
I&M OTG Retail app
I&M Bank has two main apps which customers mainly use for transactions.
These are:
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On The Go (OTG) Retail app
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.On The Go (OTG) Business app
Both apps have both web and mobile versions.
The main focus of this project was OTG retail mobile app.
Task
This was my first task immediately after joining the bank and I carried it out in 3 phases.
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PHASE 01
UX Audit
I audited the retail mobile app using a few design principles such as the following:
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Consistency
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Usability
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Hierarchy
PHASE 02
Prototyping
Based on the UX audit assumptions and recommendations, the next task was to design prototypes which would then be used for testing with customers.
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PHASE 03
Research
After designing the prototypes, I then recruited a few customers who I was able to interview on their general user experience on the app as well as test the prototypes which I had designed.
Objective
The aim of this project was to identify a number of features which could be improved upon in sprints during Q1&Q2.
Phase 01
UX Audit
1. Consistency
One of the principles which guided my in auditing the mobile app was consistency. The look and function of all design features need to be consistent for all customer journeys. Among the inconsistencies I was able to point out, was the inconsistency used in copy used to describe the exact same features on the app. An example is as shown below.
Recommendations
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Use either 'Utility Payment' or 'Pay Utilities'
2. Usability
It should be easy for customers to learn the app the first time they use it or even remember how it works after a while of not using it. The learning curve on OTG retail mobile app has not been a great challenge, however, there are a few features which I noted are not consistent with other features on the market and could potentially be overlooked by or confuse customers.
These include:
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Notifications icon for New Features on the app on the top right corner looks like a download icon and not the familiar 'bell' icon popularly used on other apps.
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Copy used to describe some of the new features such as 'Mpesa Xpress' can confused customers. This feature describes transferring money from Mpesa to an I&M personal account. Some customers can confuse this with 'Mpesa Xpress Billing' which is a feature that allows customers to buy apps and digital items.
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Brand logos which could assist customers with easy identification of billers was not utilized.
Recommendations
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Use bell shaped icon for notifications as it is more popular on apps
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If possible, new features can be introduced to customers through use of splash screens after they log onto the app. They may overlook the current location of the notification icon as the primary goal of the app is to make transactions, especially repeat transactions.
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Change 'Mpesa Xpress' to 'Mpesa to bank'.
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Use appropriate brand logos for users to easily identify which beneficiary they are paying to.
3. Hierarchy
OTG retail app is mainly a transaction app and the assumption which I made was that the four main features displayed under 'What would you like to do today?', are the most popular payment features.
However, after consulting with the advanced analytics team, it became very evident that 'Buy Airtime' is not used frequently by customers as previously assumed. Therefore, I identified an opportunity for the bank to optimise a more lucrative and popular payment feature by replacing it with 'Buy Airtime'.
Prototyping
Phase 02
Some of the recommendations made were easy to implement as they did not require much effort. These were recommendations made concerning logos, icons and copy.
However, I wanted to test the possibility of changing how new features are introduced to customers with the assumption that they will overlook the current design.
For this, I came up with two options:
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Use of Splash Screens
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Use of real estate on the dashboard
1. Use of splash screens
2. Use of the dashboard
Phase 03
Research
Recruitment
In order to recruit customers, I had to collaborate with the customer service department since they interact with customers more regularly and would be more familiar with them.
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Participant Requirements
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Frequent user of OTG retail app
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Uses 3 or more payment types to make transactions
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Research method
Online Interview
Given that most of the participants had limited time to make it for a physical session, it was more convenient to accommodate them by hosting an online session.
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Research Session
I carried out research in 2 sections as follows:
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Section 01
User Research
This was to collect any data on pain points which customers may be experiencing and we are not aware of.
Section 02
AB testing on display of new features
This was to mainly test customers preference of display of new features.
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Conclusion
The following are some of the conclusions made from the research:
Copy
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Customers indeed did not know what 'Mpesa Xpress' means. Only after getting an explanation of the feature did they express that they preferred a different name to describe the feature. eg. 'Mpesa to Bank'
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Dashboard Payment Types
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Customers validated that 'buy airtime' is not a priority payment feature and therefore there is an opportunity to replace it with a more relevant payment feature. After consulting with the product owner, a collective decision was made to add 'Mpesa to Bank' as a replacement for 'Buy Airtime'.
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New Features
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Customers preferred having splash screens compared to having the new features displayed on the dashboard since they would like the option to skip a new feature they are not interested in and quickly access and make a transaction.
This is still an ongoing discussion.
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