Industry

Financial services – retail banking

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Role

UX architect and solution oversight

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Situation

A North American super-regional bank made a public commitment to digital transformation. One aspect of this transformation was engaging children and their parents in financial literacy through a novel digital platform, to build loyalty and to generate buzz.

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Action

The insight that children have difficulty understanding money because they rarely see it inspired the platform concept: a connected online experience involving two components linked to the child’s bank account. The components are a physical piggy bank and a responsive app. I led a design team to elaborate the concept, which enabled funding to be secured. I then guided the ethnography team in planning and executing the research protocol. The research provided deep insights into the need for the app to allow for parental control, and the nature of that control. We created the physical product design, including electronics and the algorithms for lighting up the piggy bank. The visual design team established the creative treatment for the app, while the UX team specified all of the usage flows for installation, setup, registration, and usage of the apps. I oversaw aggregation of these elements as well as the copy. We elaborated the conceptual through to detailed designs, which the research team then used to gather end-user feedback. After revisions based on the feedback, we fully developed the components and packaging.

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Impact

Unlike most software and web-based design challenges, there are few design conventions on which to based the framework or interactions for such a unique product. User feedback demonstrated a widespread and very positive reception for the concept and specific solution design. Regrettably, just prior to launch, the bank was purchased by a competitor and the project was cancelled.