Bank of America FSA Tool Study and Redesign
Client: Bank of America
Role: UX Analyst and UX Designer
Timeline: 4 months
Responsibilities:
Led usability research and analysis work to study 8 Bank of America tools for $150,000 project over 12 weeks
Led UX design efforts for the redesign of 2 of the tools studied
Wrote scripts, scheduled participants, moderated, and analyzed for 40 hour-long user feedback sessions
Wrote scripts and analyzed 80 unmoderated study sessions
Organized, moderated, and analyzed 2 Financial Solutions Advisor interviews
Designed, implemented, and analyzed 2 surveys completed by 770 participants to gather 19,250 data points
Created content for four presentations, presented to client after each activity in study
Created and presented redesign framework, final read-out, and gap analysis
Objective
Financial Solutions Advisors are experts that provide financial guidance in Bank of America locations with the assistance of provided iPad applications. Our team objective was to study the eight tools currently on the FSA iPad and determine the appropriate mix of content to support customer education and success through customer interviews, usability tests, and content assessment.
TOOLS STUDIED
Results
Won redesign work for two of the tools studied (Merrill Guided Investing, and Merrill Edge Self-Directed tools) with tentative plans to continue redesign of other tools into 2021
Chosen as User Experience Design Lead in continued redesign work
Nominated for company award for enthusiasm shown on engagement
Findings shared with senior leadership to shape business development work
Feedback
Maggie has a passion for truly improving the products and services she is working on, going above and beyond to research and share new ideas. Before we had even won the second part of the engagement (which was a direct result of her hard work and relationship building during the initial engagement), Maggie was already brainstorming recommendations to make the lives of associates easier, and adjust technologies to support changing customer needs.
-LesLea Carey, UX Manager
Throughout the marathon, 40 hours of moderated usability testing, Maggie never faltered as participants threw her curve ball answers, technology went down, and the client consistently requested to pivot the focus of the upcoming session based on the participants background. After almost each of the 40 sessions, the clients listening in praised Maggie, saying what an incredible job she had done. Maggie really shined during this engagement, and she truly portrayed what is meant by being a Trusted Advisor to the Bank of America Team.
-Kemis Noble, Project Manager
Process
FSA (Financial Solutions Advisor) Interviews
Our team began by interviewing three Financial Solutions Advisors to build a foundational understanding of associate experiences using customer support tools provided
on the FSA iPad and on other digital channels. Themes began to emerge around the needs of the advisors as seen below.
The insight gathered from the FSA interviews provided a guiding framework that would allow us to evaluate the usefulness of an iPad application in relation to its purpose in client appointments.
Customer Feedback
Two national, statistically significant surveys were conducted with a goal of understanding (1) consumer behavior around device and technology options in a financial setting, and (2) general investing preferences. Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on these behaviors and preferences were also collected.
The examples below represent 3 of the many insights discovered through the survey. The survey results revealed several guiding insights including investors top needs from their financial advisors, investing behaviors, and how the impact of COVID-19 may change their financial and investing habits.
Moderated and Unmoderated Testing
Through 40 moderated studies and 80 unmoderated feedback sessions, our team gathered insight on the current state of the FSA tools to inform the future state experience with a focus on preferences in content interaction, level of detail of information, and preferred delivery method of tools (iPad, desktop, mobile).
Across tests, strong themes emerged in the kinds of content, organization of information, and types of interactions that resonated most with customers.
Themes of common user requests emerged. These suggestions prompted early ideation of future tools that helped us sell redesign work.
Final Analysis and Recommendations
By combining the the insight gained across all activities our team distilled the top themes to focus on when enhancing current tools or creating new tools.
Our team also provided a matrix to help identify the tools in greatest need of enhancement that can be feasibly improved.
PHASE TWO: FSA Tool Enhancements
Based on our recommendations and identification of tools in greatest need of improvement, our team was granted redesign work of two of the tools studied: the Merrill Edge Self Directed tool and Merrill Guided Investing tool.
Our objective was to refresh and refine the MESD tool for easier use and understanding, and reimagine the MGI tool, through content strategy and overall approach to user experience based on feedback collected during the FSA Usability Study. Below the process of the MGI redesign is detailed, the MESD tool is still in the process of redesign.
Merrill Guided Investing - Gaps and Recommendations
Our research guided overall themes in the gaps identified and recommendations requested by users. Our focus was on creating an experience with a more logical content flow, to engage users using interactive features, and to use more specific copy to clarify program details.
ORIGINAL TOOL
Many of the common pieces of feedback were recorded and used for detailed refinement.
MGI redesign Wireframes
Details on how I redesigned the experience to achieved our stated goals are detailed below.
Final user interface
While the final User Interface was contributed by another team mate the full design below illustrates more fully the final vision created through my research and UX design efforts.
