Real-world project

Improving the usability of banking website

Bank SinoPac’s team invited us to conduct usability studies on their new official website before launch.

My Roles

Conduct usability studies as facilitator, observer and note-taker. Analyze test results, translate them into reports and edit video highlights.

The Team

Ricky Yu (PM / UX researcher), Justine Yang (UX researcher)

RESEARCH PROCESS

Research Objectives

  • Identify key usability issues with the site navigation and home page.

  • Find out the visual styles that users prefer among 4 design proposals.

Research Methods and Activities

We conducted usability studies with 7 SinoPac’s customers and 3 potential customers from age 24 to 65 in person in a week.

Questionnaire

At the beginning of each study, we asked users to fill out a short questionnaire to understand their financial habits and behaviors (e.g. when do they use banking websites, apps, go to branches, call customer service)

Usability test

We prepared 11 task scenarios on laptop and 2 on mobile. Users were instructed to follow think-aloud protocol. We recorded the screen and webcam with Camtasia.

Interview

We asked open-ended questions to understand their motivations, behaviors, needs and pain points using banking websites.

Collage

We invited users to make their own version of the website with color copies of content areas to understand how they think and what they really need from the website.

Preference test

We prepared A3 color copies of the 4 design proposals to find out which visual styles users prefer based on first impression.

RESEARCH OUTCOME

We communicated the results to all levels of management of Bank SinoPac through presentations and reports. The results mainly focused on:

  • Key usability issues and recommended design solutions on desktop and mobile websites
    We identified areas of improvement where the website didn’t follow users’ mental model, and delivered actionable recommendations for client teams, including information architecture, site navigation, content writing and interaction design.

  • Users’ preferences on the website’s visual styles
    We analyzed user feedbacks on design proposals and delivered recommendations to help client teams make decision.

After a few months, Bank SinoPac launched their official website.