Ant Bank - Improving the Account Opening Flow
Background
UX Research Methods
In light of Ant Bank’s Mini App launch on AlipayHK, Ant Bank’s User Experience Design (UED) team decided to improve the account opening process. The goal was to identify potential pain points and optimize the UX for improved customer conversion and retention.
1. Usability Test
2. User Analytics / Data Tracking
3. Call Center Customer Feedback
Opening an Account at a Virtual Bank vs Traditional Bank
As a virtual bank, there are several key differences in the account opening process compared to traditional banking.
Usability Test
User Recruitment
Due to the sandbox period’s time constraints, we recruited 4 users, who were invited to Ant Bank’s office in Hong Kong. Our eligibility criteria were as follows: local Hong Kong residents who had yet to open an Ant Bank account.
We chose customers between 23-55 years old since 75% of AlipayHK users fall within this age range. To reduce bias, we did not recruit customers who worked in UX, fintech or finance.
Test Format
We had a brief pre-test interview to understand users’ experiences with other eBanking services. For the usability test, we set up two video cameras, one to record the customers’ facial expressions, and another to record the users’ hand movements while they opened an account.
Post-test Interview
After each test, we asked follow-up questions to understand users’ thoughts and feelings during each part of the account opening process. Sample questions are as follows:
“Was the account opening process what you expected? Can you tell me more? ”
“If you could add or remove something from the registration process, what would that be?”
“How did you feel about the HKID photo taking process? Was there enough guidance?”
“How did the part on inputting your personal information go? ”
User Data Analytics & Call Center Feedback
To make up for the small number of participants, we also reviewed the Mini App’s data analytics to identify the average time spent per section, the user churn rate, as well as the average account opening duration, which turned out to be less than 5 minutes.
We also reviewed customer feedback collected from our call center to understand the most frequently encountered issues, and the reasons which caused the account opening to fail.
Findings & Next Steps
Findings and recommendations were summarized into a presentation, which were presented the Hong Kong product & business team, as well as the Hangzhou design team during a meeting. Recommendations were passed over to Hangzhou UED team to create an improved version of account opening flow 2.0, scheduled to be implemented next year.
An extract of the usability test findings is included below.
