Improving the Bizum experience of Bank Sabadell for easier and more intuitive transactions.
Role: UX/UI Designer
Duration: 3 days
Responsibilities: UX Research, UI Design, Prototyping, User Testing
Bootcamp project
Project Scope
For this project, the aim was to redesign in 3 days a specific user flow from a native application.
I chose the Bank Sabadell, as it is an application that I use quite often and that I am familiar with. The user flow that I focused on, is the bizum transaction with a goal to improve the user experience through research and the redesign of the user interface.
Problem Statement
The application through its design conveys trust to the users, yet it lacks the desired level of closeness and intuitiveness. Consequently, although users can complete tasks such as sending a Bizum payment, the process may feel mundane or more complex due to the absence of the heuristics application.
Hypothesis
By focusing on the application of the heuristics, reorganizing the information architecture and by improving the user interface to make it more intuitive, the user could complete the task easier while also trusting the process.
What is Bizum?
It is an easy and quick way that allows you to transfer money to other people’s bank accounts just by entering their phone number.
Existing screens
These are the screens of the existing application of the user flow that I will be working on.
Research
Brand Analysis
The first step to approach the problem, was to understand better the brand values that they are promoting and the relationship/ interaction they aim to have with their clients.
As they state in their official website:
“Our management model focuses on taking a long-term view of our customers, through constant efforts to promote their loyalty and by adopting an initiative-based, proactive approach.”
Insights
Commitment and non-conformism (way of being)
Professionalism and effectiveness (way of working)
Empathy and Openness (way of interacting)
Decision
In this project due to the limited amount of time that I had, I decided to focus more on the aspect of ¨Empathy and Openness¨ as it is something that can be reached and improved through design.
Heuristics evaluation
For the following user flow, I conducted the heuristics evaluation.
Making a bizum payment
Results
In the flow I decided to implement or improve the following usability principles:
User control and freedom: I noticed that the user doesn’t have a clear and easy way to leave the bizum process at any stage
Error prevention: the user cannot easily recover from a possible error
Recognition rather than recall: while in the bizum process, the user is not aware of where they are in the process and how many steps are left to finish
Style Guide
The following step, was to create the current inventory of the Bank Sabadell application, in order to understand better and more clearly if the brand values were met and expressed through their design.
So, I examined the icons, the buttons, the typography, the colors and the different components to understand if the consistency, empathy and openness was achieved.
Insights
Through the examination of the existing UI elements, I gathered the following insights:
Icons: there is no consistency between the style and the line weight of the icons
Buttons and text fields: lack of consistency in the size of the buttons and in the corner radius of each one
Typography: there are a lot of different text sizes even if they are used for the same purpose
Moodboard and Style Tile
After analyzing, I had to start making some decisions regarding the elements of the application based on research.
- The basic colors were kept the same as they are important for the brand image and how clients relate with Bank Sabadell.
- The typography was changed to “Poppins” as it is considered one that feels closer to the user.
- I redesigned the action buttons, so that all of them have the same height and radius corner, focusing on the consistency of the application, thus enhancing and highlighting the company’s values.
Updated Components
Final design and changes
The first screen that I thought would be important to redesign was the homepage.
I researched the main reasons why people are using the bank applications and found that it is mainly for 3 reasons:
1. Check quickly all the recent transactions in order to keep track of them
2. Have under control all of their accounts/cards
3. Realize any type of transactions easily through their phone
Learnings and next steps
Redesigning an application for a very big company can be quite challenging, especially for those companies who care about their customers and want to provide a good user experience.
- I learned that by conducting a brand research you can gain a lot of valuable insights that help you understand the reasons of why a company promotes their brand in a specific way and from there you can start making decisions that will increase even more the liability and trust towards the customers.
- Implementing a more intuitive navigation system and by simplifying processes can result in a significant increase in user engagement and satisfaction.
- The incorporation of consistent visual elements and the application of the heuristics, can enhance the brand recognition and trust among users.
As a next step, I would conduct a usability testing with the prototype, in order to redefine the design and highlight the areas for improvement.
Thank you for reading!