Project Overview
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Nationwide Building Society aimed to enhance their mobile banking app by introducing intelligent in-app and push notifications. The goal was to develop and test a proof of concept (PoC) for implementing personalised, contextual notifications to improve customer engagement, provide timely information, and enhance the overall user experience
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Key Responsibilities
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Collated and analysed NBS research to identify user needs and define initial use cases for the PoC, demonstrating a thorough understanding of user-centred design principle
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Gathered stakeholder requirements and collaborated on technical capability mapping exercises
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Designed user journeys in Miro and built Figma prototypes for four user journeys
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Utilised Agile methodology and documented the work using Confluence
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Managed sprint planning and prioritisation of tasks using Jira
Design Process
Research and Analysis
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I began by reviewing and analysing existing NBS research to identify user needs and define the initial use cases for the PoC, demonstrating a thorough understanding of user-centred design principles. Additional requirements were identified during stakeholder meetings which I used to share the initial research insights.
To support the discovery process I collaborated with a content designer to identify the content type, format and core functionality offered by competitors.
This revealed that routine hygiene and servicing content, such as transaction and suspicious activity alerts, were table stakes, while more innovative banks were using push to provide valuable content like spending insights and savings tips.
I also reviewed NBS's existing SMS notification service, which many members had opted into, indicating a desire for real-time updates. However, these SMS messages were less effective and more costly than an in-app solution.
Collaborating with Atomic
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Atomic was chosen as the most suitable notification platform solution. The design team needed to understand Atomic's capabilities, limitations, and prioritise key functionalities benefiting NBS members. Regular meetings with Atomic allowed learning about their platform architecture, features, and UI customisation capabilities, aligning the in-app notification experience with the platform's technical capabilities.
Atomic's stream-based approach, with streams containing action cards within stream containers, offered a flexible and customisable in-app notification experience for NBS members.
User Needs and Scenarios
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Through a user needs mapping exercise, I identified three key types of notification content that would be most valuable to NBS members: near-real-time event-driven notifications (e.g., money landing in an account), planned/scheduled communications (e.g., service outages), and marketing messages (e.g., offers and promotions).
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I then translated these needs into user stories and initial flows to then mapped out the corresponding user journeys to validate the feasibility of the proposed solutions.
Crafting User Personas from Money Mindsets
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For user personas, I began with the NBS "Money Mindset" framework, which provided insights into user characteristics, intentions, and behaviours regarding financial management and attitudes towards money, based on comprehensive research conducted with NBS members.
I also considered existing personas from the mobile app team that aligned with our user stories and insights gained from our user needs mapping exercise. After extensive consultations and stakeholder discussions, my team and I crafted four hybrid personas, each embodying a unique user story.
User Journey Mapping
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I then translated the personas into core user journeys to highlight key touchpoints, pain points, as well as the members' goals, thoughts, and feelings at particular stages within the journey. This exercise helped me visualise and communicate how our personas would utilise the new notification functionality and how it might affect them positively or negatively. It allowed me to identify further areas for improvement whilst re-evaluating existing assumptions.
Prototyping and Testing
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I translated three of the four user journey scenarios into a Figma prototype and tested it with nine participants, including NBS members, non-members, and individuals with special needs.
The research objectives focused on identifying user preferences, essential functionalities, valuable concepts for NBS members, and accessibility requirements for the in-app notification experience.
During the 1-hour online sessions, participants walked through the prototype scenarios based on provided tasks. I took detailed notes on Miro, while the principal researcher facilitated the sessions and later led the analysis, synthesizing insights that were subsequently shared with stakeholders.
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This rigorous process allowed us to gather valuable feedback, identify key user needs and preferences, and ensure an accessible and inclusive in-app notification experience for the diverse NBS member base.
04 / 2023
End
12 / 2022
Start
Outcomes
The resulting in-app notification experience leveraged Atomic's notification platform to deliver a seamless and customisable solution for NBS members. Key features included:
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Streams and stream containers to organise and manage different types of notifications
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Customisable UI elements to align with the NBS brand and design system
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Integrated transaction insights to provide valuable context for real-time account updates
With the POC we were able to show that an intelligent in-app notification system not only has the potential to improve the overall digital experience for NBS members but also support the company's strategic goals by reducing reliance on less effective and more costly SMS messages.
Learnings
The Nationwide Building Society (NBS) project was an invaluable learning experience
that has greatly enriched my skills as a senior UX designer. As my second project in financial services and the first focused on in-app messaging, several key takeaways
were particularly impactful:
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Understanding Technical Capabilities and Limitations
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Collaborating closely with the Atomic team, the third-party notification platform provider, highlighted the importance of deeply understanding technical capabilities and limitations when designing innovative in-app experiences. This has sharpened my ability to bridge the gap between design and engineering, ensuring successful implementation of user-centric solutions.
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Applying Industry Best Practices
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The research I conducted on people's expectations regarding notifications and industry best practices was instrumental in helping me develop the right design approach. This allowed me to apply proven strategies for crafting effective, valuable in-app notification experiences that meet user needs.
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Governing the Notification Experience
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Beyond the core PoC, my team and I identified the governance of notification messages as a critical consideration. We worked with a dedicated team to develop a framework for managing notifications and ensuring NBS members receive the right messages at the right time, without feeling overwhelmed. This strategic undertaking allowed us to apply a holistic, user-centered approach.
Resources
Team
1x UX Researcher
1x UX Designers
1x Content Designer
1x Business Designer
Chat analysts
Engineers
1x PM
Tools
Figma
Miro
Aurelius lab
Adobe Creative Suite
Power Point
Confluence
Jira
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