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Uncovering Union Bank’s Transfers Experience

Disclaimer: For information security purposes, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this work sample. All information contained herein is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of MUFG Union Bank.

Summary

“It takes 3 days to complete a transfer, which, from a consumer and small business owner perspective, is too long.”

Jodie, Early 40s, Current Union Bank Customer

Transfers is a critical online and mobile banking feature that facilitates the movement of money. It’s a popular feature used by Union Bank (UB) customers that helps deepen primacy with checking accounts, which are the bank’s primary source of consumer deposits.

Current UB Transfers page as of November 2021. Click image to open expanded view.

Customer feedback data from UB call centers suggests an antiquated and confusing user experience, with the most common complaints being those related to set up, posting delays, usability, and system/policy limitations. To resolve these issues, UB leaders launched a research and design initiative and focused their efforts on the following key areas:

  • Simplifying the Add Account process
  • Enabling faster transfers

Situation

Prior to my involvement, UB did not have a defined journey map of its Transfers experience for existing consumers and small business customers. My role was to visualize the current experience and identify all interaction points to inform journey owners, designers, and leadership on where the major pain points are located and possible solutions to address them.

Early Insights

Known major pain points of UB consumers and small business customers. Click each image to open expanded view.

Tasks

The research and design initiative was divided into the following four work phases:

  • Phase 1: Journey Mapping (Completed)
  • Phase 2: Competitive Analysis (In Progress)
  • Phase 3: Concept Testing (Not Started)
  • Phase 4: Usability Testing (Not Started)

Note: The purpose of phase 1 was to better understand the positive, neutral, and negative touchpoints of the experience since this was not well defined previously.

My Actions

I created current state journey maps of UB’s Transfers experience for the following market segment-specific personas:

  • Shane the Loyal Supporter (mass market)
  • Emily the Executive (high net worth)
UB market segment-specific personas shown above. Click each image to open expanded view.

The journey maps were created by leveraging qualitative research methods, existing market research data provided by journey owners, and customer feedback data from UB call centers. The following scenarios were visualized:

  • Transferring money from an internal UB account to a non-owned external account
  • Transferring money from an internal UB account to another internal UB account

I worked collaboratively with a journey owner, experience director, and project manager to ensure key business objectives and milestones were met.

Results

Current state journey maps of UB’s Transfers experience from a consumer and small business owner perspective shown above. Click each image to open expanded view.

Key Insights Uncovered

“Instant Verification method is unreliable to authenticate and link external bank account; therefore, consumers are forced to select the other longer option, leading to frustration and disappointment.”

Source: First-hand research data while making and completing a transfer on UB’s Transfers page.

“It takes 3 days to complete a transfer, which, from a consumer and SMB perspective, is too long.”

Source: User interview feedback from technical banking SMEs.

“Current notifications do not provide the latest status information on where the transfer is in the overall process.”

Source: User interview feedback from technical banking SMEs.

“Alerts are only sent when transactions are high-risk. Transfers are not considered high-risk, so confirmation emails are not sent.”

Source: First-hand research data while making and completing a transfer on UB’s Transfers page.

Other Results

See below for major milestones achieved during phase 1 of this project:

  • Documented the end-user’s experience when going through the various phases of UB’s current Transfers journey on the UB website
  • Identified positive, neutral, and negative touchpoints during the experience
  • Identified opportunities for improvement during the experience
  • Shared key insights internally with journey owners, project stakeholders, and Digital Banking Experience team

Next Steps

The following next steps will need to be completed in order to close out this project and satisfy key business goals:

  • Complete remaining phases
  • Partner with journey owners and designers to prototype potential solutions and enhancements based on research findings
  • Collect user feedback on prototypes via concept and usability testing
  • Develop final report containing high-level findings from research work
  • Distribute final report to leadership, Digital Banking Experience team, and project stakeholders

About MUFG Union Bank:

MUFG Union Bank is a full-service bank with branches in CA, WA, and OR, and a wholly owned subsidiary of MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group). Visit their website here.

My Role – UX Research:

Leverage user research methods to visualize the current state of UB’s Transfers experience through journey mapping from the perspective of an existing consumer and small business owner with a UB checking account.

Research Objectives:

  • Identify customer pain points and improvement opportunities in current Union Bank Transfers experience
  • Prototype potential solutions and enhancements based on research findings
  • Collect feedback via user interviews and moderated usability and concept testing to validate solutions and enhancements

Project Duration:

2 months (Phase 1)

Results:

Current state journey maps of UB’s Transfers experience for consumers and small business customers with checking accounts.