CheckReview re-design
Consumer remote deposit capture portal
Speed, Control & Convenience in Every Deposit
Revamp real-time risk mitigation and back-office decisioning tools to streamline the check approval process.
My Role: UX design lead, brand Identity, responsive design, accessibility support
Duration: 6 months
Goal:
Redesign and launch a white-labeled portal for a financial institution’s check monitoring tool, and inspire an experienced team what an integrated, role-based experience could look like
My Contribution:
In a design team of 3 designers, I led the project cycle from the beginning to the end. I made the design decisions and prototyped rapidly to define user flow and detail UI components.
ChallengeHow might we recapture a configurable CheckReview portal tailored for various subgroup use cases that increases the number of daily checks accepted, while still catching all fraudulent checks?
Keeping track of check approval tasks and act on them in time is hard. While Urban FT has tried to address this challenge with better product architecture, there is a gap in how we can recreate the archaic design and bring value to users as a product.
Business BackgroundFill in the organizational gaps
Product integration has been a core focus for UFT recently, and the management recently put an effort to rebuild the product architecture to enable Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) service from a recent company acquisition to existing technology. When engineers focus on providing the foundation of technology, and how this can be productized and bring value to existing clients and potential clients. Thus, I was tasked to provide a facelift MVP to guide the scope and possibility of integration as a product.
Project BackgroundCollecting the pieces
At the beginning of the project, I didn’t have a clear mission or specific object to move forward. With little to no insights and information are given, I began with a project plan and an internal team identification list to build a strong base step.
Early insights from the internal stakeholders
I talked to 6 internal stakeholders including; CEO, CTO, 2 developers, 2 client service managers on the most updatable features in CheckReview. My goals were to understand a chronic problem as well as to find a happy medium between radical redesign and incremental facelift for phase 1.
Scoping for a client case
Due to limited quantitative data, I had to focus on qualitative research to derive keywords and insights. Working with 2 Client service managers, I learned about our existing client base. So, I put together a persona (LoneStar Bank) to dive deep into the project’s specific domain.
Research MethodsUncover user needs with mixed methods to build a complete picture of problem space
Striving to understand this untouched area for the past 10 years, I utilized different research methods along the process to create a complete picture of this opportunity space. I strived to be adaptable to the fluctuating nature of this project and decided on the most suitable methods at the time based on the current stage, audience, and resources.
Synthesis #1User profile to capture behaviors, goals, and challenges
We synthesized our research into user profiles to pinpoint the core goals and challenges and inform stakeholders. While we actually started out with personas (which is the bank), to align with our product vision of an integrated experience for all (consumer) RDC users, I pushed to transform the personas into a behavior-based user profile to avoid driving the design biased towards specific roles.
Synthesis #2Design principles for guiding product decisions
On top of dedicated feedback for UI and UX architecture, the research also helped us to define design principles to guide the product vision and design decisions.
Our high-level product goals were set to:
Enhance usability without fully disrupting current user patterns.
Improve traceability by removing multiple layers and breaking up long processes into screens with fewer options.
Refine overall style and visuals, in the direction of a simple approach.
Introducing FI subgroup categories in each screen to separate the rule structure per group.
Clarify confusing language by using more direct wording.
ScopeCreate a storyline based on user values and a technical roadmap
Since the core concept of the redesign is around integration and categorization, there could be hundreds of possibilities due to the breadth of the portfolio. Considering both the audience we were pitching to and the technical roadmap, we strived to create a coherent storyline that is appealing to our audience, client service team, leadership, and feasible for implementation in the near term.
The storyline is based off the “representable suggestions” by a matrix of user values and technical feasibility.
SitemapRestructure a sitemap
The old Checkreview’s sitemap is split into Home, Checks, Users, Administration, and Reports, with many scattered tabs that offer multiple layers.
The sitemap on the left is the old sitemap. Here is the new sitemap below to the right. It took a user 4 steps to get to the attention needed status while the new design only takes 2 steps.
The new portal site map restructures the exploration of the nav, particularly around two major analyses; Users and Administration. The goal here is simplicity and consistency across the view.
Design HighlightsFaster way to oversee check transactions
A new design allows bank admins skip homepage and land straight the transaction list for an optimal efficiency. Admins can also filter subgroups to reduce time and enhance performance.
2. Refine user flow with sub-navigations
Clicking on “Users”, the submenu dropdown shows two different user types. The main emphasis for this design was to specify “users” contrasting requirements precisely for the bank operators and the overall discoverability of their workflow.
3. Smart report suggestions based on user context
By grouping reports dropdown menu items, our design provides a centralized view of FI’s information from overall check insights. This provides a quick view to get rundown and allows a user to drill down further in the dedicated items.
DeliveryReorganize user roles and permissions structure
One of the aspects that I put my effort into as early as the project began, was to redefine user roles and permission structure. I created this table below to consider which features can be hidden or displayed in a different mode. Laid the foundation of user roles at the beginning and grow the complexity of permissions along the way.
UI update to empower quicker user adoption
I ran an interface audit at first to find any UI inconsistencies throughout the portal. Most of the current UI are reshaped within the original context.
New menu list vs. Old
ImpactBringing familiar consumer experience to FI enterprise product
The design received a lot of positive feedback from clients and stakeholders, and implanted client expectations for an integrated portal experience with familiar consumer patterns.
TakeawaysBringing familiar consumer experience to enterprise product
My biggest takeaway from this project is how to define the scope and manage bandwidth with different data points from research to stakeholder input. Starting out with a white canvas, I took different paths trying to collect data for convincing stakeholders and get resources with a pre-defined vision by me. However, I learned later on that probing and listening to what stakeholders want helped to set expectations early on and avoid us doing duplicated efforts.