Standard Bank – UX Research
My Role
User Research
Research Documentation
Analysis & Synthesis
Strategy Design
How might we enable Standard Bank, South Africa to identify key points of intervention in the user journeys in order to attract new customers & retain existing customers?
Project
Goals
- 1. Discover the relationship between people across different demographics and money
- 2. Uncover the hopes & expectations people have with their Bank
- 3. Discover key point in the user journey where Standard Bank should intervene for better UX and revenue generation
Standard Bank is one of the oldest and biggest banks in South Africa, but they were failing to achieve their targets for attracting new customers and losing them to their competition. They needed to discover where were they failing in their communication and service offerings and how they could evolve with their customers and avoid being irrelevant. They needed a new strategic direction.
Skills
Used
- User Interviews | User Personas | Journeys Maps
- Card Sorting | Information Architecture
We conducted research employing Human Factors International's own technique which focuses on uncovering the Persuasion, Emotion and Trust (PET) related aspect of user experience. We focussed on understanding the who are the users, what are their ambitions, issues and needs, outlook towards money, the mental blocks and drivers related to money and what service offerings from a bank would truly address their needs. We also looked at the various touch points across which they were currently receiving their service from the bank. This research was conducted across 2 major cities in South Africa.
This research helped us in mapping various user personas that the bank needs to focus on. Each persona had varying ambitions related to money and thereby had different hopes & expectations from their Bank. It also helped us highlight potential points of intervention in the user journeys where Standard Bank could address customer issues by offering tailor made services and generate revenue. Since the key channel of interaction between the customers & banks in South Africa was USSD, we also looked at their Information Architecture (IA) and optimised it with a focus towards usability and increase task completion.
Key Intervention Points in the User Journeys
User Segments
Information Architecture
Project
Impact
- 1. The research help expose the key moments in the user journey where Standard Bank could make the most impact
- 2. The research highlighted a need for a more evolved and touch point specific service offerings
- 3. The insights helped Standard Bank identify new user segments and how they could target them
Learnings
Evolving is the key to being relevant: Standard Bank had not diversified their service offering portfolio in a long time. With a lot of older customers being with them for several years, decades even; they had failed to evolve with the user and the changing technological landscape of banking. As a designer consulting with service providers, it is important to be able to communicate to the client through research, the difference between 'evolving' and 'improving'.