AlliedBank

Case Study

Allied Bank Mobile Application

The complete research & strategy has been conducted & laid out in close collaboration with ABL Team and is co-created making sure business goals, and user needs are well aligned with the system devised while new opportunities have been identified to enhance the intuitive journeys, create a seamless experience within the app & help guide the user to make their tasks easier.

Problem Statement

There is a pressing need to redesign the mobile applications of Allied Bank due to several usability and functionality issues faced by customers. The current mobile applications lack a user-friendly interface, suffer from slow performance, and lack essential features, resulting in a subpar user experience. Furthermore, the applications fail to leverage modern technology and design trends, making them less competitive in the digital banking landscape.

Year

2022

Role

Senior UX Designer

Goals of Allied Bank Limited

Allied Bank is offering a range of Internet banking features & functions via myABL App to help customers use financial services on the go & at their convenience. Allied Bank wants to be a leader and pioneer in digital enablement and has a mission to streamline online banking in Pakistan, a concentrated, and high-interest rate market, by providing a digital banking ecosystem that is safe, affordable, simple, and mobile.

Who I worked with?

I worked with an experienced product team on this project including the Sr. Director of Product & Design, a Senior Product Manager, a Business System Analyst, Developers, Myself, and another Product Designer along with the stakeholders.

How long did it take?

It took us almost 4 months to complete the current scope of this project but the overall time period of completion was one year due to a large-scale product and its complex architecture.

Design Process for ABL App.

Design Process always depend on the product needs and ABL is already designed application which was already used by millions of users to redesigning it we come up with a custom design process to give the best outcome in a competitive time estimations.

Time Estimations

To completely redesign we have a very short period in which we have to complete our research as well as the High-Fidelity prototypes with Usability testing. So, without wasting a single day we come up with a plan that how we will be working on each step of our design process to make sure that the real needs of our users are 100% fulfilled and we give them a very smooth and easy experience to them.

Discover Stage

Overview of type of total users by rank

Our initial step towards understanding the users of the myABL app was to gather data on the existing user base. To achieve this, we collaborated with the myABL team to obtain the total number of users, categorized by rank and accompanied by the original figures. This allowed us to comprehensively analyze and understand the user data in terms of numerical values. By categorizing the users based on their rank, we gained insights into the distribution and composition of the user base. This quantitative approach provided us with a solid foundation for further user research and enabled us to make data-driven decisions throughout the design and development process of Abl App.

Stakeholder Discovery Workshop

Stakeholder Discovery workshops were organized and conducted in order to understand requirements from a business point of view.

Business Goals & Features (based on the priority)

Workshops outcomes were amazing as we were successfully trigger the business point of view that what are the major goals and Features prioritization according to their business.

Financial

IBFT - Raast & 1Link
Payment)Scanner from Gallery, Masterpass - QR Scanner- Raast (generation, File
Mobile Top-Up Bill Payment Within
ABL Transfer
Loans- Self Transfer Easy ticket
Tap & Pay - (for later phase)
AMC Investment
(AMC Redemption, AMC F2F Transfer)
Merchant Payment
Donation Pay anyone
Supply Chain Financing -

Non-Financial

Mini Statement Account Statement
Transaction History
Raast ID Management
E-statement
Manage Payee/Billers
Credit & Debit Card Service
Profile (Customer Address Update, Customer Address, Default Marking, Customer Address Addition)
Security Setting (Biometric, Change Password)
Account Maintenance Certificate
Withholding tax certificate
Cheque Book Request
Cheque positive pay
Cheque Status Inquiry
CNIC Expiry - myABL app updating

Onboarding (pre-login)

Registration for Accountrr- Simplified Registration - ABL
Locate Us
Offers
Open Account
Biometric verification
Complaints
Faqs
Disputes
Product Features
Forgot Username/Password

Qualitative Study

User Interviews were organized and conducted to understand the user's perspective, goals, opportunities, and mental model around the Banking mobile app experiences. The users recruited & interviewed we non-ABL users & who have not used ABL app services before.

Critical Features Based on User Interviews (non ABL users)

Main features that the interviews with users have been validated for better user experience

Explore Stage

Competitive Benchmarking

We studied the journeys of a few local and international competitors. This was done to get a sense of the best current industry practices and what the current banking landscape and competition looks like. We then compared them with the current journey of ABL & mapped out a chart that helped us compare the features, visual design, how intuitive the journeys are & takeaways from all of the apps studied.

Heuristics Analysis

Heuristic Analysis is conducted based on the rules of heuristics, popularly used in user experience and user interface design to evaluate a website, portal, or app for their confirmation of heuristic principles.

Banking Best Practices Takeaways

These are the conclusions of the competitive benchmarking that we will be following for ABL

Personas

Personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon our research in order to represent the different user types that might use your service, product, site, or brand in a similar way. Personas were created & consolidated based on the research data about the type of users & audience, will help you to understand your users' needs, experiences, behaviours and goals.

Define Stage

Empathy Maps

We used empathy maps as a tool to map our insights of the different customer segments after we conducted our research. This helped us to understand the mental model, need, user goals & the derived opportunities to enhance their delightful experience using the intuitive journeys of the ABL mobile app.

User centric analysis

Pain points, goals & opportunities based Personas study

User Motives/Goals

Easy loans
Online payments with minimal steps
Personalized budgeting
Deposit a check virtually
The intuitive user experience of the application
Rewards, discounts and offers clearly visible
Easy online account opening
Safety of money and data
Customer support
Saving money for growth in business
Manage family accounts using one app
Investment opportunities

Pain Points

Un-cooperative staff in the bank
Unaware of bank app features
Bank visit is inconvenient as it is far away and takes time
A mobile app might not be available in Urdu
Check processing difficulty due to signature matching issues
No guidance or help is available
Payment methods in apps are confusing
Personalized budgeting not available in-app

Goals & Opportunities

Awareness of the security of app and available features
Friendly and helpful customer support
Digitize most banking processes to avoid users to visit the branch
Investment opportunities such as stocks and mutual funds
Personalized budget planning for users
Effective and efficient flows of payments and important features

Information Architecture

To ensure that the architecture of myABL, our app, was both useful and accurate for our users, we conducted a collaborative decision-making process called dot voting. We engaged stakeholders and multiple users in this exercise to understand their priorities regarding the app's features. Each participant was given a predetermined number of dots, which they used to vote on the features they believed were most important. By consolidating the votes, we were able to identify the key features that resonated most with our user base. This valuable input allowed us to create an architecture that focused on addressing the highest-priority needs and expectations of our users. Ultimately, the dot voting exercise empowered us to make informed decisions and ensured that the app's architecture was optimized to deliver an exceptional user experience.

Design Stage

Design Style Guide

"Allied Bank sets itself apart with a distinct branding style, which we have skillfully incorporated into the application's design."

Primary Color

Functional Color

DM Sans

Google Fonts

Custom Components for Allied Bank

"Allied Bank sets itself apart with a distinct branding style, which we have skillfully incorporated into the application's design."

Visual Design

The Solution that we provide to Allied Bank is totally a custom design that we did after completing our extensive research on the need of our end users and the priorities depend on the business requirements. To view the Prototype of the complete Mobile Application send an email. brehan60@gmail.com

Personalise Card

At the forefront of our application, we have meticulously integrated a personalized touch with a customized card, tailored to provide a unique experience for each user. This special card encompasses essential details such as the Account Balance, empowering users with the ability to effortlessly show or hide their financial information at their discretion.

Services

After extensive research and careful consideration of both business requirements and user needs, we have curated a thoughtfully prioritized sequence of services within our application. This meticulous approach ensures that users can conveniently access the most crucial features tailored to their financial demands. Our service lineup includes: Send Money, Make Payments, Mobile Top-Up, Investment, Tickets, Loans, Carf Managment.

Upcoming Payements

To ensure a seamless and organized user experience, we have dedicated a section in our application called "Upcoming Payments." This section acts as a centralized hub, providing users with a comprehensive overview of any upcoming bills and subscriptions associated with their account.

Design Screens

The Complete end-to-end screens included 400+ Screens as we designed a complete flow from the Splash screen to each and every Service. Here presenting only few screens just to give the highlight How things work in App.