Battle Bank & Savana Inc.

Savana set out to develop its first customer-facing online banking solution, having previously focused on enterprise-facing financial services. I was tasked with designing the account opening flows within the solution.

Savana partnered with Battle Bank, its first customer, to make the solution more client-focused.

Please note that certain details and information have been omitted or altered to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the organizations involved.*

ROLE
  • UX/UI DESIGN
  • UX Research
TOOLS
  • FIGMA
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PROJECT OVERVIEW

PROJECT goals

1

Reduce Application Drop-Off Rates

Simplify the flows as much as possible to minimize time commitment and boost application completion rates.

2

Compliant, Efficient, and Flexible

Design a compliant, efficient, and adaptable solution that can meet various client requirements and federal regulatory standards.

3

Responsive Solution

Design a responsive solution for both web and mobile interfaces.

DISCOVERY

My research was a combination of industry insights and market research.

Industry Insight Through daily collaboration with the product manager who specialized in digital banking, I gained valuable insights into federal compliances and common pain points. 

Market Research I analyzed online account opening flows from both traditional banks like Capital One and modern fintechs like Chime, ensuring our platform met user expectations and minimized confusion. 

DESIGN FEATURES

Based on insights from our product manager, competitive analysis, and project requirements, I began designing high-fidelity wireframes by utilizing the existing customer online banking design library to ensure consistency with the broader online banking experience.

1

Invite Others to the Application For accounts with multiple owners, we introduced a feature that allows applicants to invite others to complete their portion separately, enhancing efficiency and security.

2

Only Essential Information Upfront We simplified the account opening process by collecting only the regulatory-mandated information upfront, with additional supporting documents to be provided later via the online banking platform.

3

Online Banking Credentials We asked customers to create their online banking credentials in the application flow, allowing them to easily resume the application and eliminates the need to create credentials after the account is opened. 

4

Pre-Fill as Much Information as Possible I used checkboxes to enable customers to autofill their personal information, reducing the need for repetitive data entry. 

FLOW LOGIC

During the design process, we spent a large portion of the time planning out the flow logic by working through a multitude of possible user scenarios. The goal was to minimize user friction and maintain consistency across all account opening flows.

Why ask for personal details rather than business details first?

  1. Most customers are more familiar with their personal details than business details and can enter them quickly
  2. If a customer fails KYC (identity verification), resulting in a hard stop in the flow, they avoid wasting time searching for information that may not be as readily available.
  3. Ensure consistent flow across all account opening processes, as a primary user is required for all banking products.

Why ask to create credentials here?

We’ve collected all the required customer details to run KYC. If customers passes KYC and create their online credentials, they can resume their application at any stage at a later time if needed.

Challenges and redesigns

No journey is without challenges. Regulatory hurdles and evolving client needs presented compliance and design issues. Since both challenges required understanding the customer’s role in their business or trust, we used similar redesigns and flow logic to address them.

New Federal Mandate

A new federal mandate required reporting any business owner with 25% or more ownership for business accounts by 2024.

Additional Client Requirement

Battle Bank introduced a requirement to include at least one grantor and trustee for all trust accounts.

  1. Utilized information hierarchy principles to highlight this requirement prominently by bolding it on top.
  2. Emphasized the need to add all owners upfront at the beginning of the flows to prevent drop-offs.

Added a new screen to gather information on the user's role in the organization and ownership details.

  1. Implemented logic that required the user to invite owners later in the flow if they indicate there are other 25%+ owners
  2. Added info box to tell customers what to expect later in the flow.
Outcome

The design updates were made to match the new regulatory and client needs, and the updated designs were handed over for full development. A successful family and friends launch came with great feedback.

reflection

This project was a valuable learning experience and a large professional milestone for me. It marked my first major long-term UX endeavor, spanning two years from concept to development. 

Collaborating with clients and various teams, managing handoff processes, and overcoming developmental hurdles provided valuable learning experiences. A key lesson learned was the importance of involving a developer early in the design process to address technical complexities and set clear expectations for the development team.

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