App Banco Sicoob - Making the user's daily life easier

Leif Bessa
1 de abr.
7 min de leitura

Atualizado: 31 de jul.

First of all, it is important to make it clear that this is a case study from my UX & Design Thinking: User Experience in Business course, from Udemy, therefore it was not a demand from Banco Sicoob and therefore I do not have access to privileged information, such as the app's operating context, development teams, etc.

The challenge

Despite having a high rating on the Play Store (4.8), in practice, the Banco Sicoob app leaves a lot to be desired in terms of usability and practicality in operations that are normally not complicated in other bank apps, hence the challenge:

How might we make the most frequently used operations in the daily lives of Banco Sicoob app users easier?

The current scenario

Banco Sicoob is the largest partner of cooperatives, and is primarily responsible for the viability of financial transactions for large and small entrepreneurs spread throughout Brazil.

In 2022, it launched a bold campaign, inviting citizens from all social classes to open an account at this bank, regardless of their purchasing power. The result was a success, attracting customers from the most varied profiles (including myself) to use this account for the most common banking activities of the day. When I talk about my profile, I believe I describe a significant portion of customers: those who need to make simple transfers and payments, without the need for in-depth knowledge of technology.

I started using the app, but I found it more difficult than usual to manage my account, which left me feeling frustrated. So I accessed apps from other banks and realized that there was nothing wrong with me (phew, I started to feel outdated!) and I had no problems completing my goals.

I went to the Play Store, looked for the bank's app and, to my surprise, it had a good rating and acceptance, but what made me even more curious was when I started reading the comments from other users. Many stories were similar to mine and others with more serious difficulties, below are some of them:

“I updated the app to the new version. It looks great. Too bad it doesn’t work anymore. It’s much slower and some functions are IMPOSSIBLE to use. Transfers are one of them. Each click I made to select an option took 2 minutes for the app to “understand” it (I’m not exaggerating), which then froze. I had to perform the operation on my computer (thank goodness I was at home, because it was urgent). It’s unacceptable for a banking app to not work. The ombudsman service doesn’t work.”

“The bank is good, but the app is from 1980. The interface is ugly, it looks like it was designed for the last century, the side menu is horrible, not practical, messy, and difficult to use. Finding something you want is not at all intuitive. They could change the look of the app, categorize the options better, make it easier to navigate between sections and icons, and make the user's life better.”

Project Objective

Given the scenario analyzed, I defined the following objectives for the project:

Production Process

Personas

After understanding the identified need, I sought to get to know some people through research and interviews and then defined the profile that best represents these users, through Persona Characterization, Storytelling and Storyboard:

“Once upon a time, there was a person who received an invitation to open an account at Banco Sicoob and accepted. Every day, he accessed his account, but he was unable to use it, because he was unfamiliar with the tools and resources available. Consequently, he became frustrated and continued to use his old account at another bank, because he was already familiar with them. One day, he received a message offering help using the application. Still in disbelief, he clicked to see what would happen. Because of this, he discovered that the application had been updated and was much more responsive and user-friendly. Because of this, he was able to learn about and use the resources much more easily. Until finally, he discovered several options that were more advantageous than other banks and began to use only the Banco Sicoob account for all his issues.”

Based on this definition of persona, I raised some hypotheses about what the possible problems would be:

Researches

Benchmarking

But as we know that there are other applications that provide the same service, I tried to analyze other banks to better understand the difficulties that Banco Sicoob users are having compared to these other similar apps:

User Journey

By analyzing competitor apps and user reviews, I was able to begin to understand their real needs and the most critical points of the current app, and then I created the user journey in order to see possible opportunities for improvement.

Solution ideas

It was very important to conduct this research, because as shown above, some difficult points became clear and, consequently, the proposed solutions:

Amount of information on the screen — Too much information makes the user lose focus, easily get irritated by not finding what they are looking for and, ultimately, abandon the app.

Possible solutions:
- Leave the most basic options on the screen;
- Allow customization of the main menu, leaving available only the 5 options most accessed by the user;
- Presentation of the step-by-step process as the operation progresses.
Clean layout — in addition to less information, larger buttons, more visible letters and better defined spaces between sections can help you find the desired operations better.

Possible solutions:
- Increase the spaces between buttons and sections;
- Choose a more objective font (or fonts, if applicable), sans serifs help to achieve this result more easily.
Simple vs. complex — When using banking services, the simpler and faster, the better. Less is more.

Possible solutions:
- Reduce the number of steps involved in carrying out transactions.

Scribbleframes

Once the solutions were defined, I drew the first ideas for changes to the app. I used the Crazy 8 technique to test the suggestions listed above.

This moment made me realize that being simple in a banking app is a big challenge due to the nature of the services, which need to offer complete options and also receive commands made by the user (such as the amount to transfer or receive, payment date, payment type, etc.). That's why I chose a service to develop, and that service was PIX.

Then I made the sketches that covered the path of this function.

Wireframes

After better visualizing the steps of the chosen action, it's time to create the skeleton of the application with a little more fidelity in its path.

User testing — low-quality prototype

With the low-fidelity designs, I made the first prototype and tested it with some users. This was a very important moment, because just like in the User Journey, I began to better understand the users' pain points. The tests showed me the real difficulties and different ways in which each person uses the same application, even making me see improvements at this stage. Below are the testimonials of some who did the test:

“I found it intuitive, but I was a little confused at first. I clicked on the Pix button again and it took me to the beginning. Then I saw where it was going and I had no problems. I didn't like the colors of the buttons.” (Hanna Beatriz)

“When sending the receipt, I thought it was unnecessary to enter the field for WhatsApp or email, usually the app or cell phone already has this information. But I found it easy to use, with a very informal font, all similar to Nubank.” (Fábio)

“I was confused at first with the Transfer button, because when I make a Pix, I either want to PAY or RECEIVE. But once I understood, everything was easy, I had no problems operating it.” (Sabrina)

High-fidelity prototype

After the first tests were done, feedback was collected and improvements were implemented, it was time to build a high-fidelity prototype, still focusing on the PIX function as the main test feature, but this time enabling a few other functions so that the user can get a more realistic idea of how the buttons work.

Finally, I built the prototype in the Marvel app and made it available for further testing.

Want to see the prototype in action? Click here.

Usability Testing

The first usability test with the low-fidelity prototype was essential, as it showed me how much the user experience in contact with your product can improve the final result.

It was so enriching that I tested the high-fidelity prototype with more than 5 people and they all had insights that contributed greatly to the final development of the application.

In general, there was no difficulty in completing the task, but at first there was a slight delay in understanding the available options because they were used to the way their bank offers the service. At that moment, I realized a phrase I heard from Leandro Rezende during the course: “your user spends more time on other apps than on yours”. So I adjusted what was different and used terms more frequently found in the other apps.

After getting used to it, some people found unnecessary information and steps, for example, the option to enter data when sending the receipt.

Final considerations

As Leandro Rezende says: “You don’t learn to drive just by watching someone else drive”, and this truth was very relevant in all stages of this process.

With this in mind, I forced myself to put myself in the user’s shoes, look from their perspective and try to think of what could improve their lives when using the chosen product. Without a doubt, trying it out is a transformative experience.

More than just better quality products, UX Design made me learn how important it is to connect with people, because when we understand their challenges, we can propose solutions that make a difference in their daily lives, and how powerful it is to give someone the feeling that they are capable, or the satisfaction of successfully completing a task, simply because UX Design made me deliver a product that understands users and therefore serves them.

Next steps

But obviously I didn't revolutionize the banking app market through my work. I see that I managed to improve one feature of the Banco Sicoob app, but I still think that the solution I proposed can continue to evolve. Therefore, my next steps would be to test the high-fidelity prototype on a larger group of people, observing not only the completion of the task, but also the time spent executing it. This new parameter would change the way of measuring the scope of success.

In addition, I would use the positive points of the experience acquired to improve the other functions of the app, which would probably work in some that follow the same pattern, but would be a starting point for other functions that don't fit the reasoning followed.

This case was developed during the study of the UX & Design Thinking: User Experience in Business course, a Udemy course developed by UX Designer Leandro Rezende. This experience led me to seek to deepen my studies and knowledge of UX and for this I found the UX Unicorn course.

LEIF BESSA