Wire Transfer
Electronic money transferring made safe and easy.
Overview
A wire transfer is an electronic money transfer between banks worldwide. According to First Tech’s member experience team, wire transfers are popular among members over 40, who make up 73% of their customers. However, they are also one of the most difficult services to complete, with a 28% incompletion rate and a 32% failure rate.
My Role
Lead product designer
User researcher
Collaborators
Product owner
Product manager
Lead researcher
Developers
Member experience team
Legal team
Timeline
Discovery, ideation, and research: 2 weeks
Design: 1 week
Testing: 2 weeks
Continued monitoring and iteration: 1 year
The Problem
First Tech’s wire transfer process has a high incompletion and failure rate, incurring costs for the company. Numerous complaints were sent to the member experience team, requiring them to address these issues. Members found the process tedious, confusing, and overwhelming. They had to fill out a long form manually, without autofill or autocomplete options, and there were no visual progress indicators.
The Solution
We found that members were unsure what to expect during the transfer process, so we separated and streamlined the form into four simplified pages and added "breadcrumbs" for easier navigation. We also optimized several fields and worked with our legal team to condense the terms of service.
What were the impacts of our solution over a year?
Increased
transfer success rate by nearly 32%
Increased number of completed transfers by 10%
Decreased ticket volume to member experience team by 6%
My Design Process
Discovery
Research
Analysis
Design
Monitor
Test
Discovery
Asking the right questions
Before diving into the user journey, we had to find the answers to these questions:
1. What?
What is the product? What are the goals for the business and the user?
Business goals
Successful wire transfers lead to increased revenue
Reduce the number of tickets submitted to the member experience team
User goals
Users want to easily send large funds safely and securely, both domestically and internationally
Users want to revisit past transfers
Users want to resend past transfers
2. Who?
Who is the user?
A snapshot of our user
Over the age of 40
24% of members have conducted a wire transfer
Transferring funds over $5,000.00
Users who are less tech-savvy and find the process challenging who may need additional support
3. Why?
Why is this flow a priority for the business and the user?
Business
24% of members perform wire transfers, but 28% of these are not completed, and 32% fail. Each transfer attempt incurs a cost to both the business and the user
User
Large funds require more security and trust
4. How?
How can we measure success? Where are the opportunities to do so?
Areas for improvement
Reduce the number of incomplete and failed wire transfers
Decrease the time our member experience team spends on wire transfer tickets
Research
Learning about our users
The original form. Yikes.
We created an interview script with ten open-ended questions aimed at gaining insights into the values, motivations, and daily routines of our members.
Over two weeks, we remotely recruited and interviewed 10 users. The consensus was clear: the wire transfer form was confusing, excessively lengthy, and intimidating.
"I don’t have any idea of how long this is going to take, or even what information I need to prepare to complete this process at a glance."
First Tech Member
Age 52
Taking a look at the competition
It was crucial for our team to understand the market dynamics, identifying strengths and weaknesses relative to competitors, and making informed strategic decisions to gain a competitive edge.
Clear instructions displayed prior to transfer flow
Outlined clear steps for progression
Minimized the number of elements displayed on the screen for users
Learnings and insights
Due to their complexity, wire transfers were typically requested in person for the first transaction, as our customer service teams are available in branches to assist.
Alternatives to wire transfers would then be used in response because they require much less information to send money.
Repeated wire transfers were frequent, accounting for nearly 20% of all transfers.
Primary use cases for wire transfers include:
Transferring large amounts of money (over $5k)
Ensuring a sense of security
Sending money that needs to be received quickly
Analysis
Pinpointing areas for design enhancement
After consolidating our insights, and with the assistance of our member experience team, we utilized heatmapping to identify areas exhibiting the highest rates of drop-offs and rage clicks in the live experience, thus pinpointing key areas for improvement.
Take, for instance, our discovery that a major drop-off point occurred when users were required to input extensive account details for transfers. In our redesign, much of this process would be automated through a straightforward search function.
Translating our findings into actionable steps
We began mapping out the complete user flow for the wire transfer process based on our foundational findings. Additionally, numerous requirements were specified by our legal team that had to be simplified, making this phase of the project the most time-consuming.
Early user flow exploration.
Design
After planning all our user flows, we dove into creating grayscale wireframes. We opted for this approach because we were also in the midst of a rebrand and wanted to test usability before unveiling our new branding. These wireframes were used to develop an interactive prototype for our lead researcher to begin usability testing.
Test
Our researcher compiled our findings into a document that was presented to the business.
Here, we discovered that several changes were needed to streamline our user experience. For instance, when multiple results appeared from the financial institution search, we realized the importance of guiding our members to contact their banks to verify the accuracy of their information. Otherwise, users might choose an option without confirmation. Additionally, many users requested additional fields for specific information rather than a generic list when selecting a reason for the wire transfer. They also wanted clear indications of which fields were required if some were optional.
Monitor
Handoff and next steps
To ensure the product's quality and performance after the development phase, our team conducted a series of QA sessions to evaluate the features and identify any potential issues.
Having a vision for the product beyond the initial scope is always important. We considered the following enhancements to offer our users in future releases:
“One-click” transfers for frequently sent transfers
Automating frequently entered information
Accessible currency and language conversion
The Detailed Solution
A brand new landing screen
Due to the various paths users would take between Domestic and International Wires, we decided to separate them at this point. Additionally, feedback indicated confusion between the sent and saved tabs; members preferred their past wires to be sorted by time. Therefore, we combined these into a single history tab. For added convenience, we also included a recent wires widget in the navigation.
Clarity and ease
The most common complaint about the previous form was its overwhelming length and the fact that it was displayed all at once. Users struggled to identify their progress within the wire transfer process. To address this, we divided the form into four distinct stages and added clear indicators to show users their current position throughout the process.
