Discovery
As with every project and journey, we need to understand the problem before we can actually solve it. For this we needed to understand how our current User Search was being used by our clients and why they are perhaps not using it in some situations. Our clients pointed out several things such as: "How do I know who I'm talking to?" or "It slows me down having to open each profile to confirm the customer details".
Once we had these details, we were able to start forming a plan for what we could do. The first stop was Miro, where we documented everything and began exploring some options. Key among this will be explored further down this page.
Once we had these details, we were able to start forming a plan for what we could do. The first stop was Miro, where we documented everything and began exploring some options. Key among this will be explored further down this page.
Adding some colour
Once we had established some clear ideas, it was again time to move into Figma and start applying our branding and styling.
Here we were able to pull existing components that we could reuse in a slightly different way. Primarily how can an employee confirm who they are talking to quickly and easily. Thus the User Preview was born, a snapshot of the customers profile, it allows a employee to confirm the details of the customer they are actively helping.
But this was not the end of improvements we wanted to make and the next step was tackling the search form itself, perhaps the more complicated and difficult part of this journey.
Here we were able to pull existing components that we could reuse in a slightly different way. Primarily how can an employee confirm who they are talking to quickly and easily. Thus the User Preview was born, a snapshot of the customers profile, it allows a employee to confirm the details of the customer they are actively helping.
But this was not the end of improvements we wanted to make and the next step was tackling the search form itself, perhaps the more complicated and difficult part of this journey.
How do you search for a customer?
Google have set a precedent of how many people expect a search to work, a single field that can handle any question. But when you are dealing with someones finances, you can't rely on a single search term. This is why we have 6 fields, one for each possible important data point that an employee might need to look for a customer on.
While we knew we'd need this to be adjustable for different markets, there we several fields we could apply that would be consistent across most. Username, name, email and phone number are the most commonly used fields. Legal entity (LE) search is one that probably doesn't have much meaning to most people, but in the banking world, a legal entity is as important as the full name. Put simply, if you have an account with a bank or credit union, you will have a legal entity applied to you! For the most part that entity will just be your name, but if you have a business account or joint account then it could be different. This is especially important when you have multiple instances of users with the same name or similar usernames.
While we knew we'd need this to be adjustable for different markets, there we several fields we could apply that would be consistent across most. Username, name, email and phone number are the most commonly used fields. Legal entity (LE) search is one that probably doesn't have much meaning to most people, but in the banking world, a legal entity is as important as the full name. Put simply, if you have an account with a bank or credit union, you will have a legal entity applied to you! For the most part that entity will just be your name, but if you have a business account or joint account then it could be different. This is especially important when you have multiple instances of users with the same name or similar usernames.
