Digital Banking: Senyumku

From research to delivery

19 min readJul 20, 2020

Background Context

As a continuation of the previous project (See “Financial Management & Digital Banking: A New Proposition”), I was tasked to help the team in delivering the first phase of the project, which is Senyumku’s Digital Banking prototype.

Due to budget and resource constraints at the time, we weren’t able to build the entire bundle (Financial Management and Digital Banking) in tandem. Because of this, management prioritised the development of the digital banking first to get the ATM and OJK license. And to achieve that realistically, we partnered with Moven so that they could provide us with their digital banking app that is already integrated with a financial wellness feature (financial management which includes spending tracking and analysis).

By using Moven’s app, all we need to do is create and integrate the account creation and activation flow. And to ensure the UI and UX are accessible to our local users, our team proceeded by doing preliminary research and user testing the flow.

User Research

From previous market research, we got a glimpse of the opportunity size and demand in Indonesia (see here), and also the market segment that has the highest readiness to adopt digital banking (read here) with the conclusion that we need to target:

The younger, urban millennials who are digitally savvy and have higher income that can be allocated for savings and other transactional purposes.

However, there are still questions that we need to dig down to define:

the persona of our early adopters,
their financial and banking appetite: what motivates them, what is the level of needs/urgency in financial management and banking -> to know which segment has the most “severe” level of needs for this product
their behaviour and preferences in financial management and banking: how do they manage money, what hinders them from improving or reach the optimum level that they expect (the gap between their current condition and their optimum/desired state)
the factors and variable that affect their success in opening and activating their bank account (barrier of entry)

Method of Research

For this research, we used two methods, quantitative research then qualitative research:

First we conducted a survey to get a broader picture of the demography and see the correlation between their psychography profiling with their level of needs, motivation as well the consistency in saving and financial management behaviour. Based on the findings, we can start defining the segmentation group with their problems and behaviours.
Then we conducted an in-depth interview (IDI) to get a deeper understanding of the root problem of each segment groups and reason for their behaviour. From here, we can identify which segment has the most demand for our product and the insight will also help us in ensuring how our product can address their unfulfilled needs and desire.

Survey Results: Segmentation and Profiling

Our survey shows different patterns of behaviour in two different group, where one group has a higher needs to track their spending and urgency to control their cashflow. We hypothesised that the group that has higher needs of control is the one who:

already has fixed/stable income,
has a plan or future life goals that they want to achieve
is more motivated in planning their savings and manage their finance to achieve their life goals
has basic understanding and awareness in financial tools and products, hence their ability in using analog or digital tools to manage their finance

And based on that hypothesis, we assumed that the group that fits that profile are mid-20s millennials who already got a job and is planning for their marriage or already starting a young family. To cross-check this assumption, we broke down our respondents into different demographic groups based on their age, education and marriage status:

As shown in the table above, the married group has slightly stronger predisposition to save and manage their finance more regularly. This was evident by:

their usage of financial products (using liquid and illiquid product to save and invest)
diverse motivation to save (they have both the short term needs and long-term goals to cater)
more frequency in evaluating their spending by comparing their account balance before vs after pay day, which they share with their spouse

Interestingly, we also found a pattern in married couples in that the wives tend to fulfil the role of family ‘CFO’ who is accountable for planning, tracking and monitoring the family finance. Usually the husband transfers a portion of their money to their wives or into a family savings account, which will be then managed and allocated further by the wives who already set the monthly budget for bills, daily needs, education tuition, etc.

That being said, we also saw potential in the single group as they already start to form the habit of spending control and have bigger allocation for savings (due to the lack of disruption in their lives as they are only responsible for their own lives, no dependencies yet). This also presents an opportunity as the younger the target, the easier it is for us to create a longer lifecycle customer relationship with them.

So in conclusion, the newly-wed millennials, especially young mothers and wives can be our low-hanging fruit or early adopters that we can target first. However, we will also not abandon the younger millennials as they present an opportunity to have longer lifecycle customers.

This is the basic persona of our early adopter:

This assumption will be validated when we release our product and see the profiles of users (based on the acquisition rate and retention, who are the largest group of users that we have and perform the most engagement — daily, weekly active use).

Digital Banking Appetite

We conducted an IDI with the early adopter segment to see the level of interest in digital banking, as well as their perception of financial management feature. Do they see it as a feature that adds value to the product?

For most of the part, the interview is aligned with the previous market research, which is to say that the majority of Indonesians only use basic banking services for their daily needs. It seems even for digitally savvy users, they still see banking as a means to get conventional financial services: to save and to transaction/transfer.

However, they show high level of interest in opening a digital bank account and some of them even already have it. The digital banking appeals in the sense it gives better convenience and access for them to do their basic banking function in their mobile phone or while on the go.

Also, it turns out that there are some traction or potential in the idea of financial management. When we asked users to create a ranking on what kind features they want, users pick transactional features (QR code, digital wallet) with financial management follows behind it.

So, even though this is not a high priority for their digital banking (not seen as an essential function), users sees it as an extra feature that adds value by improving their financial well-being. And having it integrated with their bank account improves their sense of convenience and thus increasing users’ likeliness in switching bank account.

User Behaviour in Financial Management

After defining the segmentation, we dig deeper to get more detailed information of users who already form the habit of financial management and tracking spending. This was done by two methods: a survey, followed with an in-depth interview. The purpose is to gain understanding of their financial management mechanism, what influences their habits, what are their current pains and to see the gap that we can fulfil.

It turns out that users who already have the habit of financial management and decided to use it on their own (not casual try-outs) are more likely to acquire and retain their app. Which means these users have better acquisition rate and retention / engagement level. This is the group that we need to target further.

Feature Preferences

To know user expectation of the management app, we ask the respondents who are currently using or used to have some form of management tools, to get deeper understanding:

What are the most essential / basic functions they look for when they search for financial management tools
What are the considerations when they compare a tool (what factors in their purchase / decision making process)
For both users: what works or makes them happy when using their tools
For currently using users: is there anything that they are unsatisfied with their current tool?
For ex-users: what makes them leave?

This is to ensure that the financial management feature that we use (either Moven or our internally developed app) will at least meet the basic expectation of early adopter users and avoid or resolve the pain points.

Based on these findings, we cross-check with the features and the UI-UX in Moven’s app to see their app at the very least:

Meets the expected requirement from users (in terms of essential functions and features)
Avoid the pitfalls or pain points that users mention (the reason why they leave their apps)
Can be easily understand and used by users (does their UI-UX match with local users’ level of financial and digital literacy)

Due to the time and budget constraints, we couldn’t validate all those check-points. Ideally, we would like to create a usability testing to test and answer all those questions. However, at the time all we could do was to cross-check the app manually by ourselves and compared the points and requirements based on our users interview.

While expectation #1 was met, some of the points in expectation #2 and #3 were a bit hit and miss. There were some parts of Moven app that we deemed too confusing in terms of the information architecture, content, navigation and features, which we think too advanced for casual local users.

However, we console ourselves by reminding ourselves that this product would be a beta-version prototype that will be release in limited condition. Meaning, it will be released as part of submission to OJK for license, and as part of initial concept testing. So, what we could do was to keep all the research insights and takeaways as feedback that we will use when we develop the whole banking and financial management apps internally.

Competitor Research

Unfortunately, due to budget and time constraint, we couldn’t do further research on the comparison between the UI-UX (flow, interactions) and product analysis on our competitors.

Feature Mapping

As mentioned before, because we are using Moven’s app for our initial release, we couldn’t really redesign the whole feature architecture to meet our users’ goals and needs.

So for this part, all I could do was negotiating with Moven to improve some parts of their UI UX to make it more accessible and easier for our local users.

Design Principles

To ensure the whole experience and interaction make sense and can be easily done by our users, I created a set of guidelines that become the anchor / direction when we make the decision in design and engineering:

Do all the heavy lifting for the customers by making the experience more efficient and easy for customers to go through

Creating a flow that is efficient in both the engineering and user effort

Utilizing Dukcapil and KTP checking mechanism in the beginning of registration to check the validity of their identity as well as cross-checking with our customer database to see if they are already registered as either a Tunaiku or Amar Bank customer. If they are, users can jump straight into the “Debit Card Delivery Address” flow.

Create a logic where a choice made by users can affect the length of flow that they need to fill. For example, in the “Occupation Data”, we let users choose their occupation first to determine the field they need to fill in. For people who don’t work (pensioners and housewives), they will not be presented with other additional fields and can proceed to next section.

Delivery Address is set to user’s KTP address

Setting the card delivery address to user’s KTP address as the default choice. This was done based on Tunaiku user’s insight where we found out that 80% of Tunaiku users chose their KTP address as their contract delivery address. By choosing this as the default address, we help users in reducing their effort in filling their delivery address. However, we also give them the choice in changing the location and manually typing their address as well.

UI mechanism that can speed up their interaction

Implement an autocomplete to help users to quickly fill their address by typing few letters on the field box. This helps user by reducing the effort and steps needed to finish their task.
Implement an autosuggestion on the search feature of Senyumku’s Help Center. The autosuggestion serves as an short cut that enables user to get to their question they are looking for with minimal effort.

Don’t make me think

Create a flow that empathise with user’s mental model

UI when user opens their camera to capture their KTP

Provide an instructional UI that guides user in doing the right kind of behaviour and action. Here, user know immediately how the distance between their handphone and the position of their KTP to get the right picture.
Create a flow that contextualises and frames user mindset. During our usability test, we found out that user mistook the purpose of the delivery address as to send their contract, instead of delivering their debit card. After iterating it multiple times by changing the content, illustration of that page (which failed because users don’t notice it), we finally got it right by adding a page before the delivery address that inform users about our debit card. The page puts a large photo of Senyumku debit cards with an explanation about the card that will be delivered within a week to their preferred location. This effectively sets the frame of our users that the next section will be focused on the debit card.

Avoid dead-ends

Error messages that user receives when they can’t upload their photo

Create content that inform users of their current status and enable them to take further action. For example, when users can not submit their photo because of technical issue, we provide instruction steps to inform users of what they can do to resolve the problem. Basically, we should always inform users of what causes the current issue they are facing and what they can do about it so that user don’t feel powerless. Instead, enable them to do something and this will give them a sense of control and trust.
Create an understandable feedback loop. Whenever there is an error, inform users of the state in a clear, simple explanation and tells them what they can do about it. If possible, provide information that helps them prevent the error in the first place.

Banking is a sensitive product because of the nature of the transaction and goods involved (money, data privacy and security). So to win customers, we have to create an easy and clear process that makes the whole thing a breeze.
Help and guide them, but do not use a ‘preachy’ or complicated method that intimidates users. Instead, build their trust by making users feel like they are in charge and fully in control.

User Flow & Interface

Account Creation — Registration

In the login registration, we ensure that users input the right phone number by sending an OTP code that they need to fill in order to proceed. This is done for two purposes:

to ensure the phone number user enters are active
to minimise fraud risk, in case users use other people’s phone number to create an account (prevent identity theft)

Eligibility Form

Here, we check and determine the eligibility of users based on their KTP data. By doing this in the front, we can tell users from the beginning if they are not eligible or outside of our service area. Therefore, preventing them of wasting their time and effort should they are ineligible.

Card Delivery Address

As stated before, we added an ‘onboarding’ page that gives context of what this section is for: to fill the delivery address of user’s debit card. We also tried to make this flow more efficient by having the domicile address as the default choice (this is from the pattern and user insight we gained from Tunaiku customer behavior). However, users can change and fill their address manually, should they choose to use a different address.

KYC (Know Your Customer)

Here, we enable users to perform their KYC verification process through digital means — by video calling the CSR and showing their KTP card. Once the officer validates the identity on their CRM, users will receive a notification that tells them to login and requesting the delivery of their debit card. As soon as the card arrives, users can activate their account by filling and updating their PIN number (the default code will be stated in their onboarding letter).

Help Center

The Help Center is designed as a FAQ page that users can access to get the information needed, without the assistance of CSR.

We increase the navigability by categorising the content to different sections based on their topic category. This is to the information architecture is more clear and avoid information overload. We also added a search feature with autosuggestion function. This will help user in finding the topic/question faster.

User can send their request to activate their frozen account

Moreover, the Help Center is also used to facilitates users who wants to request to block their account/card. Because the emergency nature of these requests, these topics are provided in the front page of Help Center (to give quick access when users need them urgently).

Branding

Branding Strategy

For the branding strategy, we partnered with brand consultants who created the brand story, persona and general design guidelines. We gave them the overview of our market and user research to help them create an identity concept that can encapsulate the essence of our product, but at the same time create a brand story that will be appealing to our target market.

Ideation + Competitor Review

Our partner began by doing brainstorming and competitor review to see the market positioning and to see how we can differentiate ourselves from other existing products.

They came up with the persona of a friend who is ready to help their friends (which in this case, our target audience) to achieve their dreams and life goals. The idea is to position Senyumku (the name our CEO came up with) as a financial advisory + digital banking that will not only help users in taking care their basic (financial) needs, but it enables them to improve their lives by giving insightful yet friendly direction that helps them in managing or changing their behaviour.

By helping them change or forming good financial habit, we, as a friend, had nudged them in the right direction towards a fulfilling life. Hence, Senyumku becomes a friend who’s reliable, trustworthy and helps to bring more happiness and smiles to their friends.

Here, I contributed by giving directions and feedback based on my own self-initiated competitor review. I saw other competitor products that has very similar approach, and thought to myself:

How do we make our brand memorable, stands out from other competitors?
How to ensure our the logo and our branding captures the essence of our product and goals, without getting too gimmicky or too ‘out there’?
How do we ensure the logo, graphic elements, and communication tone/strategy can be applied to our mobile apps, store, collaterals and campaigns?

So I gave them an overview of what other competitors’ branding look like, and some feedback on how we can refine further our definition of “friend that brings smiles and happiness”.

Finally, after discussing back and forth, the team refined the “friend” concept into this:

Brand Persona

And this is the brand persona that became the foundation of our design, communication and marketing strategy:

Visual Guideline (UI)

This was made in very short amount of time (about 5 days), so the design is very temporary and done for the practical purpose of making the design consistent and easily scalable. By creating a simple guideline, the designers have a set of ‘rules’ and UI kit that can be conveniently used and replicated, making our rapid prototyping much more efficient.

To ensure the system is functional, these are the foundational principles that I follow. Basically, the system should have:

Clear hierarchy (visual and typographical)
Consistency through simplified standards and convention
Color coding to provide visual categorisation and grouping for features
Color as a visualisation and visibility of system status

Corporate Website

All in all, the development is still ongoing as there is new changes in the direction of the product strategy and development, which affects the architecture of the products in funding tribe. As much as I want to be involved and continue the work, I have to let go from this project because I have to focus on my fulfilling my managerial role as the lead of UI UX Design.

Hopefully we can do some concept testing to ensure what we design solves user problem (product-solution fit) and we can gain some user feedback or test some of assumptions. The more testings and feedback we can get, the less ambiguity and risk that we need to take.

Thank you for reading this!