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CLIENT

EbonFX, formerly Compass Global Markets

ROLE

UX Designer and Project Manager for a team of 25 in a design sprint, redesigning a refreshed sign-up journey, user portal, and website.

INDUSTRY

Foreign Exchange, Fintech

PROJECT DURATION

6 weeks design sprint with Academy Xi

BACKGROUND

EbonFX was formed in Sydney Australia by a group of financial market specialists who wanted to create a business model that would revolutionise the way individuals and companies make foreign currency payments and allow them to better manage the risks associated with foreign exchange transactions. 

PLANNING AND RESEARCH

Understanding the problem space

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Project Scope

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Problem statement

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Research Approach

My role on this project was a UX Designer and Project Manager. I organised a meeting with the client to run through the project brief and questions we had prepared as a team earlier. After the first client meeting, our team consolidated the information on a Miro board and created a project scope that included the project goals, target audience, assumptions, constraints, and deliverables. We presented this back to the client in week two to ensure everyone was on the same page. 

PROJECT GOALS

1. To create an intuitive platform that inspires trust and confidence, through secure payments and competitive rates.

2. To develop an efficient sign-up user flow with a focus on Electronic Know Your Customer (EKYC), to increase new customer conversion rates.

3. To refine the current EbonFX user dashboard, so users can easily organise current and future International Money Transfers (IMTs).

ASSUMPTIONS AND HYPOTHESES

As a team, we listed out all our assumptions and came up with some hypotheses before starting our research and analysis. This helped us focus on key areas to start our research. We chose a few assumptions to test and determine if we can correctly draw conclusions from the results of our research and analysis later on. 


Key assumptions:

"The current website does not instill confidence or security in users" (e.g. no reviews/endorsements)

"New users are finding the sign-up process time-consuming and confusing when creating an online account"

"Users want quick and easy access to information about the product offering"

"Setting up an account will result in transactions"

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PROBLEM STATEMENT

Small and medium-sized enterprises' (SME's) who need to send money overseas, want a safe and trusted solution to transfer funds to overseas beneficiaries, that can satisfy their need for cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and security.

RESEARCH APPROACH

We were split into five smaller teams to conduct different types of research. The research approaches we chose included: 

  • Secondary Research

  • Competitor Analysis

  • Online Surveys

  • 1:1 Interviews

  • User Testing
     

I was responsible for leading the interview team. We had a session to discuss our goals and brainstorm interview questions. I worked with another team member to consolidate the questions and write the interview script.

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RESEARCH INSIGHTS

Synthesise our research to generate insights to uncover what problem we are trying to solve

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Competitor Analysis

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1:1 Interviews

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Online Surveys

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Affinity Map

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24 responses

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46%

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54%

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63% Personal

21% Business Owners

8% Wholesaler

Expectations

MARKET SNAPSHOT

  • More than two thirds of Australian SME's plan to be operating outside of Australia by 2027

  • The ACCC found that consumers could save up to AUD500 on a USD7000 transfer if they shopped around for a cheaper service

  • Over 3/4 of Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z value personalisation and consider it when choosing a new bank or financial service

  • A Mastercard survey of 8000 people found that 57% of people who do cross-border payments said they do it to support family and friends

COMPETITOR INSIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Personal / Business Focus

Direct and indirect competitors segmented websites to personal and business with distinct branding and functionality.
 

App

Most competitors have an app for "on the go" OFX. Most are targeted at personal users - the opportunity to specialise in SME needs for quick and mobile OFX.


​Rewards & Offers

In a competitive market with product lead managers sign on offers, referral & rewards programs are effective for attraction retention and engagement

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Currency & Fees Calculator

The majority of competitors featured a quick and easy calculator on the home page

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Help and Customer Support

Opportunity to underpin and prove Ebon FXs personalised customer service and USP, which highlights their

exceptional help and online support – live chatbots and live chat.

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People Power

Point of difference can be marketed through the use of real people with real images, real stories (testimonials), and real reviews. Stand out by being relatable, authentic, and trust worthy.

1:1 INTERVIEWS

My role was to synthesise the data from the 1:1 interviews and identify key insights. 
 

Setting up an account is challenging

  • "Sign up is tedious and pointless. They want all the financial info on me, but I'm the one taking financial risk. You've got to ask relevant questions - but it's got to be cognisant to the risk."

  • "With Wise, I was disappointed at first. I don't want to say difficult, but it was not easy. Lots of steps to transfer and for the business account, they have to verify so many things. It takes a while."
     

Users want to speak to someone when there are issues

  • "It took me three business days for them to respond. Wise is very hard to be contacted."

  • "I know if there's an issue, there's someone I can call to discuss who will sort it out."
     

Users want transparency

  • "Banks are full of hidden costs and I like everything to be transparent and upfront."

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ONLINE SURVEYS

SUMMARY OF INSIGHTS

Here's what we found:

  • Users want a simple, time-efficient sign-up process

  • It's important for users to understand where their money is (transaction status, timeframes)

  • Users feel positive and have trust when they have a personal account manager/agent.

  • It's important for users to be able to ‘self-help’ when transferring money overseas.

  • Users need to know they can trust the FX platform.

  • It's important for users to know all costs when transferring money overseas.

User Behaviour

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71% of users use mobile devices to complete their international transaction

88% of users think it's important to see a detailed breakdown of service provided

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The frequency of transferring money overseas:

  • Monthly - 42%

  • One-Off Transfer - 21%

  • Yearly - 17%

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The average amount of overseas transactions:

  • Less than AUD $499 - 38%

  • AUD $1,000 - $9,900 - 50%

  • AUD $500 - $999 - 50%

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How users discover their current provider:

  • Word of mouth

  • Social media

  • Google search

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FX providers users have considered of using:

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33% of users don't save their personal information (login/banking) during their international banking session because:

  • Don't feel secured

  • Security concerns

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The type of information users like to know before choosing a provider (multichoice):

  • Currency conversion rate - 67%

  • Security measures - 54%

  • Protection of your funds - 50%

  • Business background - 46%

The type of contact methods users prefer to use to reach out to the customer support team (multichoice):

  • Email/Phone - 67%

  • Live chat - 54%

  • WhatsUp - 25%

  • 24/7 Chatbot - 17%

DEFINE AND IDEATE

Explore effective solutions using an iterative approach

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Personas

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Customer Journey Map

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Ideation

PERSONAS & CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP

Based on our research we defined two personas for EbonFX. We have one personal user named Zara and a SME called Jonathan. From these exercises, we were able to understand who our personas were, what motivates them, and their key pain points and goals. I was responsible for creating the personal persona, Zara. 
 

Take a look at the artifacts below.

IDEATION SESSION

During our ideation session, we worked as a team to brainstorm solutions based on our research insights. Then we created a minimum viable product (MVP) to identify solutions to prioritise. 

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The team came together and completed an activity called crazy 8's. It is a fast sketching exercise that challenges people to sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes. We also came up with a storyboard to present some of our key ideas.
 

From our ideation session, we then crafted a 'How might we?' statement to refine the problem statement. 

 

How might we design a streamlined platform that builds trust, and empowers users to make safe and secure international money transfers?

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DELIVER

We build and test our solutions

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Card Sorting

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Information architecture

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Lo to Hi-fi prototypes

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Usability testing

Our wider team was split into two groups -  the mobile app & the desktop, and each platform aimed to serve a separate page for SMEs and personal users. ​I was working on the desktop team from here. 

CARD SORTING

We started with card sorting to determine which content/information went with a specific category. This helped structure the information architecture and user flow. The card sorting was conducted virtually via 'Optimal Workshop' and was completed with personal and business users. The results showed that there was no major difference between personal & business in terms of allocating the contents.​

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INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

I worked on the information architecture with another team member. We looked through the card sorting results for both personal and business to assist us in structuring the information to match user needs. We also worked with the user flow team to clarify touchpoints and ensure all contents and functions were aligned. 

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WIREFRAMES

Using the information architecture, we created a low-fidelity wireframe of the website and customer portal for personal and business. 

USER TESTING

My role was to also complete user testing on personal and business participants. I worked with another team member to write the user testing guide and a copy can be found here.
 

Tasks and goals

  1. Locating FX rate without an account.

  2. Understands the Global Navigation Menu.

  3. Transferring money overseas with an Ebon FX account.

  4. Locating FAQ help/support section.

  5. Updating personal details.

  6. Keeping tabs on the status of money transfers.
     

Desktop

  • 7 SME Participants

  • 5 Personal Participants 

  • 17% Female and 83% Male​​

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Testing insights

  • The rates & fees should be championed on the home page.

  • Users would like to compare rates with competitors / have a benchmark

  • Need more compliance/verification fields/processes built into the Business sign-up

  • The live chat function is something users are excited about. The inclusion of pictures (LT, Agents, CSRs) makes the user experience more personable

  • The opportunity lies in integrating internet banking.

  • Users had to click on each menu item on the Fx portal to understand what they were about. Many still seemed a bit confused about what they could do in New Deal vs. Beneficiaries vs. and Invoicing after some exploration.
     

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Major changes we made

  • The order of pages in the navigation menu was rearranged so that the flow made more sense

  • Changed the acronym 'FAQ' to 'Support' to make it easier to understand

  • Added live chat icon to all pages for the Personal website

  • The referral code was updated with more information and clearer for users to understand

  • Updated the digital onboarding to better reflect the current KYC process with regards to verification/compliance protocols

 

Mobile app

  • 1 SME Participant

  • 5 Personal Participants

  • 50% Female and 50% Male

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Testing insights

  • Communication of rates needs improvement in the following areas

    • Baseline currency needs to be displayed as AUD and communicated appropriate on screens

    • May be worthwhile to include the market rate to compare with the Ebon FX rates

  • Transaction history may need refinement

    • Significance of dates

    • Logos and Symbols to indicate type of transaction Transactions can be clickable to display further details

  • Explore the concept of a floating chat button, to ensure that the dealers are always within reach

  • More security features are needed

    • 2 Factor Authentication & Biometric Login

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Desktop user testing synthesis completed as a team on Miro

DESKTOP PROTOTYPE

As a team, we refined the design concept and my role was to design the mid-hi fidelity prototype for the 'About Us' page on the website. A design system was created so that everyone was consistent with fonts, colours, and styles. After the user testing and feedback, our team made changes and finalised the prototype for presentation to the client.

MOBILE APP PROTOTYPE

Future recommendations

Sign-on bonuses and customer rewards

Consider the usage of referral codes and rewards as an acquisition and retention strategy

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Integration and Analytics

Integration with accounting software such as Xero and insights from Google Analytics

 

User Generated Content

Blog and community - user-generated content - become a destination for help, advice and up to date information for SMEs managing global currency exchange.

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Social Media

Grow social media presence to drive users to website.

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Security

Add more information about how EbonFX takes cyber security seriously due to the recent data breaches in other businesses across Australia. Customers want to be able to trust the brand.

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Multi-user capabilities

Allow for multiple users of a single account (e.g. admin sets-up transaction & someone senior approves with the ability to track the activity of each user)

Feedback from our client

"The entire team were exceptionally professional in all working sessions and provided a very thorough summary of results. Working with the team was effortless, and best of all, the team really did listen to our challenges as a business and trying to infiltrate the Foreign Exchange market against other existing giants in the space. The research and summary of the findings from the team was outstanding, from data analysis to design and presentation. If you are looking for quality individuals or a collaborate group, I highly recommend them."

Johnny Phan, Chief Innovation Officer 

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