UI/UX design │ 2023
Design-driven onboarding for Swedbank – Investing with Sektor
Swedbank wanted to get inspiration from students for its digital services. With the concepts we were allowed to think beyond technical limitations. Together with the team, we studied the current state of Swedbank's investment environment. We found that one of the biggest problems is actually information overload and ambiguity. With my design, I want to offer novice investors an environment where they can make mistakes and experiment without serious consequences.
Supervisors
Karolin Kaplan
Maria Vous
Team
Research:
Kristin Silm
Britmarii Kroon-Kesa
Melonia Prikker
Product:
Kristin Silm
Project input
Swedbank
Time
Research:
sept 2023 – okt 2023
Designing the product:
nov 2023 – dets 2023
Research process
We began our design process by researching people's experiences with investing in Swedbank's environment. More specifically, we studied the investment habits and most important issues of young Swedbank users aged 25-30 in relation to creating and using investment accounts on both mobile devices and computers.
What did we want to find out through the research?
- What does creating a Swedbank investment account look like?
- How exactly do users use Swedbank's investment environment on different platforms (mobile and desktop)?
- What are the potential concerns regarding usability?
- How do customers find the necessary information on Swedbank's website?
- What are the problems when setting up an investment account?
To find answers to our questions, we conducted interviews and observations, carried out independent research, and performed heuristic analysis. A total of nine people participated in the study: five users of Swedbank's investment environment and four Swedbank customers who would be interested in starting to invest.
Through interviews and observations, we wanted to find out what problems arise when creating and using an investment account and how Swedbank users find the information they need.
Personas and problem
As a result of the study, we identified three personas who had different needs and activities, but similar concerns. For all three individuals, the biggest problem was information and understanding or finding it. The available information was either too much and complexly worded, or the helpful information was not helpful.
One of the biggest challenges to starting investing was obtaining and understanding information.
Final product
During the design process solution creation stage, each team member moved on to develop their own solution individually.
When designing my solution, I decided to focus on Aidu Nno's persona, i.e. a new investor who is interested in investing but has minimal experience and knowledge. As a result, they want to be informed. That is why I focused my solution on how to make the investment process understandable to novice investors.
This is an investment-themed game where novice investors can try out their first steps without the decisions made in the game affecting real life. The game consists of two parts: tutorial and free play.
The tutorial phase helps users with investment experiments with a character named Sektor, who explains the basic concepts and guides them through the first steps. For example, what are the differences between a securities account and an investment account, and what are the advantages of each. Sektor provides step-by-step guidance on how to buy and sell securities. Between explanations, users can also try out the investment steps.
Once the user has acquired the basic skills, they move on to the free play phase.
Here, they can test different investment strategies and choose the time period in which to invest. Sektor itself remains in the background, mostly intervening only when the user asks for help.
Now, the goal of the game is to grow your investments to a certain amount, and you can speed up the process by fast-forwarding time. In the meantime, news relevant to that time period will appear, which may affect the value of the securities, in order to simulate the connection between investments and the real world for the user. When the goal is achieved, the game is over and the user is directed to create a real investment account.
Testing
Two important insights emerged during the tests:
- Information is better remembered when it's told by a character. I discovered this when I conducted tests with two different prototypes. The first one only had info boxes, and the second one had Sektor saying the exact same thing. At the end of the test, when I asked users what info they remembered from the test, I found that those who tested the prototype with Sektor were able to say more about the info shared with them in the prototype.
- Another insight gained from the tests was that learning in a playful format helps to reinforce information better, as it allows users to apply the information immediately.
Impact
When designing the game, it was important to avoid competitive elements, i.e., features commonly found in such games, such as leaderboards and the influence of other users, were deliberately left out. This was done to ensure that the motivation to learn was internal, rather than dependent on some form of competition.
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