Isabel Mobile: flexible, quick
and safe
The project
Isabel NV is the primary Internet banking supplier for professional users in Belgium. Obviously, Isabel wants to offer this important service on mobile. Through the mobile solution, Isabel’s customers can check their accounts from different financial institutions, 24/7 and anywhere.
Our contribution consisted of 2 parts:
! Create the registration procedure for the new mobile service. ! Offer the developers usability advice on the new mobile app.
The challenge
Offering an existing service on a new platform is a complex undertaking for any organisation. This is definitely the case when the new platform is ‘mobile’. A well deliberate approach is essential.
Just like every important project, lots of different parties were involved: Isabel’s business-experts, the mobile app developers and we, the usability experts. To avoid the design-part of the project to be overwhelmed by individual opinions and preferences, we sketched a design framework consisting of a design vision and a service blueprint. These service design techniques ensured a smooth creation process and an optimal cooperation between the different parties, based on solid design foundations.
The extremely strict security requirements were a special challenge. Isabel is renowned in security of financial transactions and this reputation has to be maintained in the future, especially in the mobile world where new threats arrive every day. This need for absolute security strongly impacted the way we could design the registration procedure and the app.
This registration procedure is necessary to work securely with the Isabel 6-service. It had to be straightforward for every type of user and being able to register for Isabel Mobile without help from others was a fundamental need. Furthermore we had to take the existing registration processes for other modules of Isabel 6 into account.
The results
The end result is a simple 3-step registration process, in spite of the complexity behind it.
It is crucial that users are prepared for the steps they have to take without lots of explanation (see figure 1 – What do I need to do?). This way, the user knows exactly what he/she is in for.
Users can easily take one step after the other while always being aware of where they are in the process. This sounds easier than it is, because performing online transactions safely is a must for Isabel and this requires precise technical measures.
The third step is the most challenging one because a QR-code is being used, a concept that most smartphone-users know but might not have used yet. Nonetheless we wanted to use this functionality for its timesaving and easy aspects. Thanks to the QR-code all data is sent through automatically. We succeeded: users are extremely positive about the quick and efficient registration:
“The flow is self explaining. It is exactly what I
expected of it. It is not complex at all and doesn’t
require any administrative fuss.”
Anonymous user Isabel 6
For the mobile app we provided support to ensure its user-friendliness and ease of use. We kept away from unnecessary complex elements in the app and ensured actions were as self-explaining as possible.
Figure 3: Isabel Mobile (Overview accounts – Overview transactions – details transactions)
What we did
After a product training the first phase of the project kicked off: Assimilate and Challenge. In this phase we questioned the demands made by Isabel and looked at them form a critical point of view. We created a dual design framework to facilitate the communication between the different parties: ! A design vision made sure all stakeholders worked with the same
demands and expectations in mind. This vision was discussed and approved by the whole group and was used as a direction indicator during the rest of the project. In discussions, the preapproved design principles from the design vision were used to base decisions on. The 3 main principles for the development of the app were ‘Always in control’, ‘Time is money’ and ‘100% secure’.
Service blueprint
The Assimilation and Challenge phase was followed by the Interaction Design
work. In close collaboration with the rest of the team, we created the optimal user-friendly registration procedure. At the same time we offered advice to the app developers, consequently using the design vision as the framework. The screens for the registration and the app were ready in no time, which permitted us to start User testing in an early stage in the project. We first showed the screens of the app to about 100 clients during an ‘Isabel Academy’, an Isabel 6 training for users. Next, we interviewed a big number of the participants by means of an interactive prototype. This offered us a very detailed insight in the first impression of the app. Not long after, we visited Isabel 6 customers, to validate the registration procedure and the app on real end users, based on a few test scenarios.
With the feedback from the users tests, we composed the UI Guidelines: a detailed description of the screens of the registration procedure. The overall layout, the design patterns and principles and the behaviour of the specific components were described. With these guidelines, Isabel could smoothly implement the screens.
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