USER RESEARCH REPORT SMILE / THE CO-OPERATIVE BANK
TEAM BURST DXD UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE HYPER ISLAND UK MARCH 2019
2
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
USER RESEARCH REPORT SMILE / THE CO-OPERATIVE BANK
TEAM BURST Bethan Phillimore Unni Soelberg Ranjit Bhinge Sebastièn Malomsoki Tanya Ponomareva
Hyper Island UK – MA Digital Experience Design Module 2: Understanding People March 2019 Industry Leaders: Cate Care & Lydia Howland Word count: 1473
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
3
Introduction The purpose of this paper is to show insights and give recommendations to Smile bank regarding ways to connect with younger generations, demonstrating how they might offer a better day-to-day banking experience and embracing their original cutting edge aspirations. The research project was addressed by the team ‘Burst’ at Hyper Island, Manchester as part of the Understanding People module on MA Digital Experience Design. Additional support came from the industry leaders Cate Care and Lydia Howland.
Executive summary
We used a range of research methods and tools to investigate the target group’s perception of banking, relationship with money and knowledge of Smile. From this, we gained a substantial amount of observations and insights, and by synthesising all data, we found one the most impactful:
The vast majority of people use digital banks as secondary ‘wallets’ and traditional banks as their primary ‘vaults’, not preferring one or another. Stemming from this insight, we explored the deeper meaning of having a flexible bank. Primary research found that people desire personalised banking solutions for different life events they experience. At the core of the problem was an inconvenience of finding a new bank for continually changing needs of people. This is where we addressed an opportunity for Smile to fill the niche between “wallets” and “vaults” and explore three areas to better position themselves. Based on this finding we discovered three main opportunity areas for Smile to provide their customers with a unique opportunity. These covered utilising the flexibility and convenience of a “wallet”, and the trust and security of a “vault”, also using the legacy Co-op bank built over the years. 1.
An integrated experience that combines vault and wallet functionalities. This opportunity lies within a theme called: A secure bank which is also extremely convenient.
2. Making ethics comprehensible and interactive for young people. This opportunity lies within a theme called: Ethics as an experience. 3. Making financial education accessible and coherent for young people. This opportunity lies within a theme called: Personalised educational advice on finances.
4
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
5
Jo-Vin could arguably be seen as an extreme user, as his behaviour with money is very different from the average. He lives at home and saves 85% of his monthly wages, which he puts towards a deposit for his first home.
“Without understanding what people on the far reaches of your solution need, you’ ll never arrive at solutions that can work for everyone.” IDEO, designkit.org
6
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
7
8
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
Methodology Discussion Guide Our discussion guide (IDEO, no date) was based on initial secondary research and focused on three main subject areas. These were: The relationship with money Perception of banks Opinion on ethics From these topics, a loose interview framework was created and adapted for each participant. The discussion guide aimed to ensure the same subjects were covered to some extent in every interview.
Tools Money can be a sensitive issue. Using tools for the user interviews not only offered a fun way to engage the interviewee, but also gave us profound insights. Timeline This tool was used as an ‘icebreaker’ (Care and Howland, 2019) to help the interviewee feel comfortable. We asked participants to plot significant life events on the timeline, unrelated and related to money, and was referred back and added to when other money-related events were brought up. By having these events plotted, we could see which were most significant to the user and how money played a part in these events. Card Sort The card sort tool (IDEO, no date) was used to ask the participant to identify Smile or another bank as an object or an animal. It was designed as a way to gain more in-depth and less obvious insights but relied on the participant being able to extract qualities and make connections abstractly. The card sort was particularly successful when used in the client interview. Show wallet contents (Care and Howland, 2019) Asking the participant to discuss the contents of their wallet proved highly insightful. In most cases, the participant uncovered more bank cards than they remembered they had. We asked the interviewee to rank the contents based on importance to gain further insights into how they prioritised banks.
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
9
Summary of Primary & Secondary Research People want their bank to make their life easier People have incredibly hectic lives, and the bank should not add complexity to their life. People want to be independent with their finances Financial Independence is essential to young people. It brings a feeling of accomplishment as well as enhances their social position in their peer group. People want contextual education People want to be guided, and not told what to do
10
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
11
Opportunity Area 1
A secure bank which is also extremely convenient An integrated experience that combines vault and wallet functionalities. Summary According to Accenture’s 2018 UK Financial Services Customer Survey, 43% of bank account holders in the UK would like their bank to merge physical branches with digital services, allowing them to interact with their bank in the way that best suits them. This was also confirmed from our primary research. This insight leads to a vast opportunity for Smile to merge the traditional ‘vault’ services with the new digital ‘wallet’ services, and provide their customers with an integrated experience of convenient spending and secure savings, augmented by rich combined analytics. We imagine this as a single application where a user can set combined financial goals, receive contextual notifications and visualise a comprehensive overview of all their finances.
VAULT
WALLET
SMILE Positioning Smile could bridge the gap between the ‘vault’ and the ‘wallet’
12
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
Next step: Our suggested next step for Smile to combine vault and wallet in one single application. The combination will help the customers to better manage their finances as a whole, by giving a better understanding of how one influences the other. Having all the finances on one application will provide Smile with better analytics and a better understanding of their customers’ needs. In turn, this will help them give more personalised service and provide relevant suggestions.
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
13
Opportunity Area 2
Ethics as an experience Making ethics comprehensible and interactive for young people. Summary From our research and insights gathered, we found there to be an opportunity to make ethics in banking more tangible. When the question of ethics was raised in our conducted interviews, most participants found it difficult to put into words how they interpret ethics, even more so when ethical banking was mentioned. According to the Millennial Impact Report, most young people care about issues, but many lack the motivation to act (Thayer, Wall et al., 2016). To be inspired to take action, they need the first steps to be, and they want to see the results of their contribution (Feldmann and Yu, 2014). If Smile wants to position themselves as an ethical bank, they must inspire young people to become involved in their ethical values and guide them.
Analogous inspiration: As part of our research we looked at the energy provider Bulb. They serve as a good example of how ethics can be showcased in an accessible way, using an informative and straightforward language, and personal stories.
14
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
Next step: Our suggested next steps for Smile to integrate ethics as an experience for the user is to introduce a ‘round-up to do good’ feature. This would give users the option to roundup purchases and contribute a few pennies to a cause they choose and feel passionately about.
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
15
Opportunity Area 3
Personalised educational advice on finances Making financial education accessible and coherent for young people. Summary Primary and secondary research led us to identify the need for better education concerning banking. Only 52% of students in the UK say they have access to less than one hour of financial education a week, with many getting far less (Chevalier, 2019). All our interviewees under age 24 informed us they first ask family members when they have questions, but many would still instead get advice from their bank when making important choices. These significant decisions usually come when external factors change in the user’s life. Although, some interviewees raised concerns with education through banks as the intentions could be questioned. Therefore, the opportunity for Smile is to offer optionally personalised advice at incremental points. By analysing patterns, the sources will be personalised to the user’s needs and these would change over time as the user changes too.
Accounts
đ&#x;›’đ&#x;›’đ&#x;›’đ&#x;›’ đ&#x;‘Ťđ&#x;‘Ťđ&#x;‘Ťđ&#x;‘Ť đ&#x;‘§đ&#x;‘§đ&#x;‘§đ&#x;‘§
Britannia
"
HSBC
đ&#x;‘Şđ&#x;‘Şđ&#x;‘Şđ&#x;‘Ş
Smile
đ&#x;˜‡đ&#x;˜‡đ&#x;˜‡đ&#x;˜‡
Egg
đ&#x;?–đ&#x;?–đ&#x;?–đ&#x;?– # đ&#x;?Ąđ&#x;?Ąđ&#x;?Ąđ&#x;?Ą
đ&#x;’ˇđ&#x;’ˇđ&#x;’ˇđ&#x;’ˇ đ&#x;’”đ&#x;’”đ&#x;’”đ&#x;’” Santander
đ&#x;?Ąđ&#x;?Ąđ&#x;?Ąđ&#x;?Ą
(
Tesco Bank
đ&#x;™ˆđ&#x;™ˆđ&#x;™ˆđ&#x;™ˆ BarclayCard NatWest
Britannia
Age 15
20
25
30
35
40
Life vs. banks: This charts illustrates how changes in life meant changing banks for one of our interviewees. Smile could adapt to their customers’ needs by offering tailored advice and services.
16
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
Next step: One suggested way Smile could introduce personalised advice into their product is by adding a smart budgeting feature. For example, if the user was about to start university and receive a student maintenance loan, Smile could give optional recommendations on how to budget and make the loan last for the entire semester.
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
17
Conclusion The current scope for improvement within the Smile brand is immense. Just within the last three weeks working on the project, we found numerous opportunities Smile could explore and found it difficult to narrow these down. Initially, the fact that none of our interviewees under the age of 25 had heard of Smile seemed like a hindrance, but we believe this positions Smile more beneficially and provide it with a fresh slate to build a reputation. We hope Smile finds out research insightful and it contributes to constructing a new future.
18
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
Bibliography
Care, Cate and Howland, Lydia (2019): Talks and tutorials at Hyper Island, Manchester 4 March, 11 March and 18 March 2019. Chevalier, E. (2019): The London Institute of Banking & Finance. [online] Libf.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.libf.ac.uk/news-and-insights/news/detail/2019/02/04/teachingfinancial-education-in-schools [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019]. Design Kit: The Human-Centered Design Toolkit | ideo.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www. ideo.com/post/design-kit (Accessed on: 11th March 2019) Feldmann, D., Thayer, A., Wall, M., Dashnaw Writer, C., Lushin, H., Ponce, J., & Director, A. (n.d.): Glossary of Terms The Millennial Impact Project Methodology-Millennial Sample Demographic Trend Recap Looking Ahead. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2015/05/11/millennials-surpass-gen-xers-as-the-largest-generation-in-u-s-labor-force/ (Accessed on: 11th March 2019) Feldmann, D., & Yu, E. (n.d.): Millennials and the Social Sector: What’s Next? Retrieved from https://ssir.org/articles/entry/millennials_and_the_social_sector_whats_next# (Accessed on: 12th March 2019) Ideo. (n.d.). Design Kit : Conversation Starters. Retrieved from http://www.designkit.org// methods/44 (Accessed on: 11th March 2019). Kirk, P. (n.d.): Transforming the customer conversation in Financial Services. Retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/t00010101T000000Z__w__/gb-en/_acnmedia/PDF-78/ Accenture-2018-UK-Financial-Services-Customer-Survey.pdf (Accessed on: 10th March 2019) London Institute of Banking & Finance (n.d.). Young Persons Money Index 2018. Retrieved from https://www.libf.ac.uk/docs/default-source/research/young-persons-money-index-2018. pdf (Accessed on: 12th March 2019) Young People and Money A toolkit and resource for those working with young people. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.developingyouthpractice.co.uk (Accessed on: 8th March 2019)
DXD 2019 / Understanding People
19