Leading Bank in Singapore increases its App engagement by 160%

About the client

A Singapore-headquartered banking corporation with 500 offices across 19 countries in Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Europe. The Bank is the third largest bank in Southeast Asia by total assets.

A majority of their operations are located in Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. It is one of the three "big local banks" in Singapore employing more than 25,000 people worldwide.

Problem

Our Client had launched a digital bank app to cater to millennials and younger consumers in Indonesia via a mobile app. Our Client's primary goal was to foster stronger, more meaningful relationships with their newly onboarded customers via Digital Banking app.

The product team at the Bank in-charge of creating the app wanted to simplify the app menu. For the English version of the app we had already run a Card Sort on the UXArmy platform. So everyone at the team was confident about the content hierarchy of the app menu.

The menu items were intuitive for English speakers. However the people in Indonesia prefer Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) language over English in all their interactions. To assess and refine the menu labeling and findability in Indonesian language the UXArmy research team recommended using the UXArmy Tree testing tool on our research platform.

The expected insights from the test were as follows:

• The most optimal path of some real-life scenarios in app sub-menus
• Users expectation about the items in sub-section for the Services section
• Users understanding about labeling the sections based on the available subsections for specific service, as well as the gaining insights to understand the reasons behind the selection.

As the findability of various financial products and offerings in the app is of utmost importance, the intuitive labeling of top level menu items was a challenge because the target audience had prior experience using user interfaces offered by other popular banks in Indonesia like BCA, Mandiri, BRI, BNI, etc.

Target Audience

• Indonesian native resident
• Aged between 21 to 45 year
• Earning at least Indonesian Rp 4 million monthly
• Active banking app user (logs in or performs transactions at least once a week)
• Prioritize existing Bank users

The Solution

This improvement required the knowledge of terminology and grouping of items in the digital interface, irrespective of which bank they were using prior to using the app from this bank.

The product team studied the user interface of other popular bank apps in Indonesia and came up with a refined list of items under which other sub- menu items can fit in. The sub-menu items were the utilities and use cases which Bank customers need, for instance:

• Redeeming rewards
• Purchasing unit trust bonds
• Changing residential address
• Applying for a New Credit Card
• Updating daily transfer limit
• Changing amount for a recurring payment
• Checking status of investments

The team conducted a Tree test to accurately assess users understanding of the proposed information architecture. The test, comprising over 35 items and eight task scenarios, was followed by survey questions embedded within the Tree Test.

Within four days, the UXArmy platform collected around 200 qualified responses from over 1,000 interested participants using an integrated Screener feature. Participants were part of the UXArmy User Panel, also known as the UserAdvocate community.

The UXArmy research team, with some UX researchers hailing from Indonesia, leveraged their local expertise to fine-tune translations of top menu labels, aligning them with the bank's brand voice. For example, instead of the literal translations "Akun, Hadiah, Kekayaan, Mengelola, Ikhtisar Akun," we refined them to "Rekening, Rewards, Wealth, Kelola, Tinjauan Akun," which better resonated with local users.

Here are examples of the tasks used in both English and Indonesian. All task translations were performed by UXArmy researchers of Indonesian origin, thereby saving time and costs for our client in externally sourcing the translations.

English: It's near dinner time and you're looking for dining deals offered by the bank. Where would you find them? Indonesian: Sekarang ini adalah waktu untuk makan malam dan Anda mencari penawaran menarik dari Bank. Pada bagian mana, Anda menemukan penawaran tersebut?

English: You’ve recently moved to a new residence. Where would you go to change your address? Indonesian: Anda baru saja pindah ke tempat tinggal baru. Kemana Anda akan memperbaharui alamat Anda?