Currencies Direct

Money transfer experience (B2C). Company project, London.
Business context: Redesign of the money transfer experience process in the financial services industry / Client: Currencies Direct / My role: I helped the company implement E2E design as a UX design lead / Target audience: Those interested in large-amount currency transfers with trust and security in mind

This is an E2E approach from UX research through to the implementation of UX/UI best practices. The goal was to detect pain points in the money transfer experience to redesign the iOS app. An MVP strategy allowed to develop a working product that would provide immediate value while minimising costs.

1 Research

The design process started with a gap analysis about the account creation, paying attention to what customers were saying via qualitative research, and what customers were doing via quantitative data. This information provided real insight into users, their experiences and motivations.

1.1 Gap Analysis

I compared key features of 20 competitors’ mobile apps, specifically for the registration process, including challenger banks (mobile digital-only and mobile-first): TransferWise, Revolut, Bó –no longer available–, Monzo, Starling Bank, N26, Mettle, and Tide.

Below, some key findings highlighting the onboarding experience (quickstart or top benefits), documentation requested after creating the account, user identity verification (selfie photo + passport as extra proof of identity), community as add service, etc.

📋 Recommendations for Improvement

• Avoid requesting to upload identity documents during the registration process to do it fast to complete.
• Humanise each step of the customer service experience to make customers feel connected to your brand.
• Allow users to get an active account entirely via the app.
• Request digital identity verification just before making the first transfer.
• Only ask what’s really necessary: Minimal data collection helps keep a frictionless journey.

1.2 Remote Usability Testing

I tested the existing app when making a transfer from both non-customers and existing customers: Based in the UK, similar percentage between male and female participants, with an age range from 18 to over 55 years old (20 users per test). I also run regular questionnaires and unmoderated interviews to get useful insights as well as start validating initial assumptions.

⏯ Audio and Video Screen Recording

Participants provided insights regarding payment tracking, transfer cost, and transfer confirmation. They spoked out loud while interacting with their mobile devices by using the UserTesting platform.

⚠️ Main concerns

• There was a perception of quite a lot information to process.
• The layout looked “simplistic” and “quite basic”.
• Get a free quote now wasn’t immediately recognised, and some needed to spend extra time to figure out what the next step was.

👥 Patterns

In addition, Hotjar recordings to detect patterns of repeat behaviour through the desktop website was very useful to analyse the registration process (01 Account > 02 Details > 03 Identity > 04 Confirm). The participant segment integrated Hotjar users ID from different countries ranging from UK to Spain, Thailand, New Zealand, and United States.

📋 Recommendations for Improvement

• Turn ‘Confirm’ into green when the process has been completed.
• Show what to do next after getting an error message on the screen via a text link / button.
• Rating the registration experience should be available for customers of any country.
• Request the same type of information regardless the country to keep consistency.

1.3 Quantitative Data

This task included the usage of Google Analytics along with the digital analytics & insights team, according to six goals: Create login, Your details, Enter mobile number, Enter pin, Transfer terms, and Verification timer (all web, devices, app). Some correlations linked to the qualitative research done earlier were found.

⚠️ Main concerns

• Both the number of steps to complete the registration process and the amount of details requested could have a negative impact on the user experience.
• Requesting some information such as the date of birth as well as identity documents wasn’t really necessary at a very early stage.

2 Strategy

This stage was about exploration and discovery, so I compared seven case studies, fully covering the analysis of the mobile app experience. I even created the presentation below to better explain the assumptions that would be validated later.

This task was focused on transferring pounds via a bank transfer to euros to new recipient, opening an account with TorFX, Moneycorp, WorldFirst, OFX, Wise, and Revolut to document the user flow step by step. I finally highlighted the strongest competitor through a comparison table along with some UX tips.

🔎 Analysis

• There wasn’t a huge variance in the time taken to send a payment from any of the FX companies.
• Most of the companies were ‘fee free transfer’, but the extra cost is in their exchange rate.
• Weakness: low max transaction limit.

✅ UX Tips

So how do we achieve best-in-class-status? The new mobile app needed to incorporate at least the following improvements:

💳   More payment options.
⬇️   £1 min transaction limit.
⬆️   Higher max transaction limit.
⏱   Delivery time before review.
📱   Fewer clicks.
💸   Digital wallet.
🛂   Fewer details.
✅   Screen confirmation.

3 Design

This project aimed to launch a native mobile app on the App Store, and the strategy stage earlier provided a wider perspective about the matter. So it was time to create the solution.

3.1 Wireframes

Wireframes help understand space allocation and prioritisation of content, functionalities available, and intended behaviours. As a critical part of the design process, I also used them to get project team approval.

3.2 Mockups

Mockups represent a more realistic impression, providing a language that all can communicate with and understand. A scalable design system, in collaboration with the creative lead, integrated predefined elements including the asset library with grids and styles to keep consistency across screens.

In addition, Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) was key to launch this iOS app.

3.3 Prototypes

Prototypes provided a better view of how real users would behave, think and feel when they interact with the product. Those prototypes helped us test the assumptions interactively in the real context through unmoderated interviews with stakeholders and existing customers.

3.4 iOS App

Among other improvements mentioned earlier, the new CD app included better transfer speed and more payment options such as a digital wallet. That created a meaningful impact on the user’s overall experience.

Evaluation

I helped launch a minimum viable product (MVP), an iOS app with enough features to satisfy early customers and get feedback for future product development, aligned with business strategy. And here it is! Finally on both the App Store (4.8 out of 5 ★★★★★) and the Google Play store (4.8 out of 5 ★★★★★).