Swiss Bank
11 months
Netguru
Project Summary
Netguru has clients like UBS.
Project under NDA. There will be no UI here.
The project was divided into 3 phases based on functionality. Its purpose was to automate and digitalize the experience for users. The project was targeted at investors from APAC, and its role was to automate Lombard loans.
Context
6 designers over 3 years
The project was challenging for many reasons, and that's why so many designers went through it. It also caused a massive mess in files, client expectations, and designer's expectations. For that reason, stakeholders didn't trust designers and were very skeptical.
No access to the application I designed
I couldn't check the current state of the app and what the rest of the app looks, acts, and feels like. I could only check something by asking stakeholders for a screenshot. Taking inspiration from the app as a whole was impossible.
Difficult onboarding
Short onboarding without full access meant I didn't get all the necessary information and even a tip on the most common software problems. The problems, as it was to turn out, were many.
Second and Third phase
I joined the project during the implementation of 2nd phase to production and after the definition and preliminary design of phase three. I had to jump between two phases.
No research
No research has been done beyond that which initiated the development of this part of the application.
Research
I decided to interview each stakeholder to understand the project's challenges better and create a better basis for stakeholder cooperation.
Adopted strategy
I decided to play the long game since stakeholders didn't have good experience with previous designers and mostly treated them as pixel movers. I decided to gain trust with those actions:
Ask questions!
Arrange files in cooperation with stakeholders.
Arrange files and create new ones if needed so that upload doesn't take up to 10 minutes.
Educate stakeholders on UX and used tools.
Ensure stakeholders that I'm staying in the project for a while.
Learn style guide and design system + find someone easy to reach from Design System.
Keep asking for feedback.
Learn the project and its current status.
Propose your solutions.
Push for any research.
Catch up with UX design tasks (as I joined, it was behind schedule).
Early feedback
State of the project after my presence in it for 11 months
We have very good communication with stakeholders.
We test our ideas with people outside of the working group. It is not the best solution, but it is better than no tests. We don't have adequate access to conduct the tests ourselves, and access to UX researchers is limited.
All stakeholders want to test solutions.
Files are organized, and no one has any problem navigating them.
Files take a few seconds to upload.
Service blueprint - in progress
UX is way ahead of the schedule, so we have time to test.
Reduced amount of tools. Now, we primarily use Teams and Frontify.
Evaluation and summary
Two significant things could help improve the project faster.
Service blueprint earlier in the project
Interviews, gathering feedback more often. Although I stressed that I am open to feedback, I will gladly accept feedback if they see room for improvement. I received it occasionally; only surveys and interviews showed what stakeholders think.
Testing should've been done way faster and more often.
Unable to see the rest of the app made design decisions and ownership difficult, but it wasn't impossible.
The project was designed to achieve artificial perfection, perfection among stakeholders, not users. It should be released within a year, not three, and design decisions should be based on data and user feedback.
In the end, I have to admit that I'm happy with bringing research to the project from the position I was in.
