eSign: Contextual inquiry

Project description:

Replace an existing system that facilitates the process of electronically signing of 'deposit account', loan, and 'account maintenance' documents in the branch.

Project impact:

Provided insights to the design team about the individual steps bankers take to obtain signatures for specific types of documents and the problems with the technology that can happen during the signing process. With this knowledge Designers we able to create an intuitive experiences for the replacement system that addressed the issues bankers had with the old system.

Define the problem

Held stakeholder workshop to define the problem space and identify key goals for the site visits

Problem Statement:

Bankers need a new way to electronically obtain signatures from clients during the 'deposit account opening', 'loan closing' and 'account maintenance' processes. Identify the current system's challenges and successes so they can be accounted for in the new system. Additionally, obtain insights regarding the banker's daily experience with signing to inform design decisions.

Key Goals:

Uncover pain points in the current signing process
Understand what works well in the current signing process
Discover how singing 'deposit account opening' and loan documents fit into the overall context of a banker's day
Understand how the physical environment impacts the signing process

Create study plan

Created research plan with:

Project background
Business objectives
Research objectives
Timeline

Outlined key activities to gather the data:

Observe signing sessions
Observe daily routine of bankers
Interview bankers during their downtime

Work with design, product, and development stakeholders to validate the test plan to ensure the stakeholder's key questions are addressed.

Study type:

Field observation

Scheduled site visits

Worked with an internal team to setup site visits with specific branches in a different state. Included a mix of branches with with different types of clients.

Site Visits

Traveled to 3 branches for two half day and one full day observations. Met with branch manager at each branch to understand when I could interact with the bankers vs just observe them.

Observed bankers during the signing process to learn about the positive and negative aspects of the current electronic signing experience.

Followed up with questions about the singing interaction after they finished working with the client. To confirm positive aspects or learn more about issues that came up during the process.

Observed bankers working on non-signing related tasks to understand the overall context of how the signing application would fit within their day and the various system they need to use to do their jobs.

Analyze data

Used online white boarding tool (Mural) to consolidate and organize information learned during the site visits. Grouped information into various categories that were relevant to the stakeholders that were involved.

Create presentation

Created slide deck and Confluence page to convey key learnings from the research to the stakeholders and decision makers. Multiple versions of the slide deck were created to convey information to different levels of stakeholders, e.g. Platform leaders vs immediate project team.

Present findings

Presented findings to stakeholders while allowing room for discussion of each key finding. Utilizing this method enables stakeholders to build a shared understanding of the finding and if it is an issue commit to a specific owner and timeframe to address the issue.

Follow-up

Met with design team to see how research findings were incorporated into design decisions.

Met with product team to validate that issues found through research were currently being addressed or incorporated into the team's backlog.