Global Money is a new cross border account being developed by HSBC for release in 2020. It enables HSBC customers to spend and send money in up to 36 different currencies, fee-free. You can currently sign up to Global Money in the US here.
I was tasked with user experience, UI design and interaction design. I was expected to translate business and user requirements into a fully functional product that would comply with varying financial regulatory frameworks across different nations.
Project Length
2018-2020
Team
Mobile X / Smart Channels
Platform
Native iOS & Android
After the business had conducted competitor research, myself and the team decided to undertake some user research in order to better understand how our customers would interact with our product.
We ran a card sort to help us build our accounts screen for Cosmos, we wanted to understand how users would group and associate actions in their minds, so we can ensure that we build an accounts screen that provides them with relevant and understandable actions. We also ran qualitative surveys.
Initially we ran an unmoderated card sort, however the results were too a to define any kind of information architecture, with no winner for the group placement of most items. It was challenging to ask testers questions about a product they had never heard about before. As a result we decided to run a moderated card sort, giving more context to testers.
After running a moderated card sort, we saw that there was a strong association of the transfers and payments actions to the move money screen, however people saw 'Convert' as a separate entity (with 50% of testers not placing it within the move money group).
After conducting our upfront user research, I began to product optimal journeys alongside business stakeholders within the business. We ran workshops with product and development teams to product an optimal journey that would allow our users to onboard as quickly as possible, while also complying with banking regulations.
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User journeys were created in collaboration with architecture, API, and product teams across the business. Global money links deeply to HSBC's vast payment infrastructure, which meant that we were required to work with several areas of the business across multiple continents. Understanding API error states, unhappy paths and happy paths was crucial to ensuring that we deliver a product that is both secure and user friendly.
I ran multiple stakeholder workshops with individuals from different areas of the business. Below is an image of us attempting to translate our card sorting results into a potential home screen layout.
Information architecture was created after creating optimum user journeys and stories. As the product is due to roll out in different countries, I had to account for varying regulatory differences that would affect payment and onboarding journeys.
Before designing anything, I initially began to put wireframes together. These wireframes would display key user decision points and clearly illustrate happy paths vs unhappy paths as well as potential API errors.
The UI was created using Sketch and using as much of the existing design system components that were in place. I worked closely with digital governance, brand and developers to ensure that we deliver an accessible experience to our users. Our designs were subject to strict quality control checks to ensure that they passed accessibility & worked well with screen reader for individuals with eyesight disabilities.
I wanted to provide an engaging and visual onboarding experience, while also ensuring that the user was educated about the product on their way through their journey, and why we required certain permissions.
Ordering a card is optional for our users, again, I wanted to ensure that I provided a visual and engaging user experience, this was achieved by animating a slight reflection effect on top of the card, adding slight motion can often make dull pages appear more exciting.
As the new product had access to enhanced APIs, this allowed me to add transaction enrichment to our product. There were several complexities with enrichment, and this prompted a new research piece to be created.
As the product was designed to be used cross borders, we were required to provide powerful searching tools to our users, which would allow them to search across different locations, currencies, and dates.
