A mobile application for managing your financial life.
Platforms: Mobile app, PC website
A major global consumer bank was looking to extend its mobile relationship with its customers beyond just balance inquiries and ATM finders. The service, to be launched later this year, is a Java app for mobile phones that lets users see their transactions, create and manage a simple budget, monitor and trade stocks, find and redeem coupons, and even send money mobile-to-mobile. They also wanted to launch the service simultaneously in two pilot markets: one in the US and one in Asia.
As the User Experience designer on the project, my challenge was to fit all this functionality into a simple interaction model that could be easily adapted for future functionality and worked on a number of displays. They also wanted a companion website which would work in coordination with the bank’s existing website to allow consumers to manage their mobile payments, stock trades, budget and other functions unique to “Mobile Money.”
In order to make sense of it all, I approached this project in true user-centered design fashion: first by visiting the target markets and observing mobile phone use, then creating storyboards based on scenarios rooted in my observations. From the storyboards I generated a series of paper prototypes, which we user tested in both markets. I also worked closely with the Creative Director to make sure that the visual look and the wireframes were in sync, and the Solutions Architect to make sure that what we were proposing was feasible.
An iPhone version using our IA and design templates was launched for the Hong Kong market in 2008, and the J2ME versions appeared early 2009.