Business Capture
Business Capture is a back-end portal marketed to banks and their merchants to manage check deposits, users, permissions, and more.
Overview
Project type: Feature improvements and product redesign
Role: Junior designer, user and stakeholder interviews, UX workshop, information architecture, visual design, usability testing
Industry: Financial Tech
Duration: 8-10 Weeks
Introduction
• Business Capture is a solution acquired by Urban FT, enabling banks to efficiently manage mobile check deposits, streamlining the process for both institutions and their customers.
• For example, a property manager can submit checks through the portal, allowing banks to review the submitted checks.
• On the other side, a banks can then verify the validity of the checks or flag any discrepancies or errors for further investigation.
• Property managers and banks also have access to manage users and their permissions.
Initially a collaborative project with another junior designer, I unexpectedly took full ownership halfway through, independently completing all responsibilities.
Problem
The inefficient check validation process significantly impacts the company's productivity, requiring workers to manually review and validate each flagged check. This time-consuming approach not only delays operations but also increases the risk of errors, hindering overall efficiency and effectiveness in daily workflows.
Project overview
There was minimal guidance provided at the start of this project, giving me the opportunity to take a hands-on approach. I independently conducted user research, identified key challenges, and proposed solutions that aligned with user goals while addressing their pain points. This autonomy allowed me to create a design strategy that delivered meaningful value to the users and the project
User and stakeholder interviews
After getting multiple product demos, I provided the portal's functionalities and interviewed the users and stakeholders. The interview objectives included:
To understand the purpose of the product and what problem it is solving.
To understand who will be using the product and how it benefits the user.
To learn how users feel about the product and their motivations.
To visualize what an ideal experience is for the users.
To create a list of current pain points and analyze how to solve those problems.
To learn what the definition of success is for stakeholders.
To gain a better understanding of the tech requirements and limitations.
Main takeaways
After conducting user interviews, I facilitated an affinity mapping exercise to organize and synthesize key insights, which helped streamline the ideas and guide the start of the process.
The previous UI is considered obsolete
We sought a more effiecient technique to manage deposits, users, and permissions.
One of the essential parts of the portal had major discoverability issues.
The deposits page was unorganized and embedded irrelevant details.
Users had to manually identify errors on each check.
Aligning goals
After generating a variety of ideas to address the identified problems, I began developing a clear strategy to determine which solutions to prioritize. To guide this process, I first defined the project goals, ensuring I had a solid understanding of what we aimed to achieve. This step helped me identify where business objectives and user needs aligned, providing a strong foundation for prioritizing impactful solutions.
John, 57 years old (Bank manager)
Responsibilities
• Overseeing daily operations
• Monitoring sales
• Leading business development
• Managing staff
About
John, a 57-year-old professional, works at FiDi Bank, a reputable financial institution located in the heart of Manhattan, New York. Trusted by thousands of individuals and businesses, FiDi Bank serves as a reliable financial partner in the community.
Pain points
• Currently, the company does not have a check deposit solution.
• Fund Organization - John strives to systemize the company’s finances by allocating various accounts for each specific reason.
• The company employs an inefficient method of managing payments.
Site map
During user interviews, we discovered that some of the site's most commonly used features were buried several layers deep, reducing efficiency. To address this, we prioritized surfacing the top functionalities to enhance user experience and streamline navigation.
Navigation wireframes
After wireframing I tested 2 distinct navigation concepts with clickable prototypes to understand their workflows and evaluate how changes in the navigation structure could enhance efficiency.
Usability test
Overview
• Method: Remote, moderated usability testing (Think Aloud)
• Participants: 4
• Age range: Gen X - Boomers
Takeaways
• 3 out of 4 users expressed frustration in having to either hover or click to expose child level items.
• 4 out of 4 users expressed efficiency concerns with navigation.
• 2 out of 4 selected concept 1, while the other 2 selected concept 2. However all would like to have considered other options.
Revisions
• To address the user feedback by prioritizing a concept that offered the smoothest navigation experience, with minimal friction when moving between pages.
• Users favored having the child-level navigation open by default, as it provided quicker access and better context.
• In Concept 3, we introduced the ability for users to customize their experience by selecting which child sections to display and which to hide. This feature enhanced personalization, allowing users to tailor the interface to better suit their individual needs and preferences.
• In contrast, Concepts 1 and 2 required users to hover or click on the parent level to reveal the child-level navigation, which added unnecessary steps to their process.
Problem 1
"I can never find the admin page to view all of the locations I need to manage"
-Spencer Toley, Bank manager
Observing user behavior
• One method I used to better understand how a user went about their tasks was asking them to perform their everyday tasks from the beginning.
• I observed that each of the 4 users went straight to pull up the Financial Institution Overview page to start their day.
• However to access this screen, they had to navigate to Manage -> Users -> Name of user associated with the Financial Institution -> Financial Institution.
• We questioned the excessive steps to this pivotal information, ultimately deemed challenging to find.
original financial institution page
More information, less back and forth
Given that users could be managing dozens, if not hundreds, of locations simultaneously, we needed to find ways to reduce clicks and make key details more accessible. To achieve this, we designed expandable line items, allowing users to view more information with a single click. Additionally, we introduced a slide-out menu with filters, enabling users to quickly access important information without leaving the main screen.
Usability test
Overview
• Method: Remote, moderated usability testing (Think Aloud)
• Participants: 4
• Age range: Gen X - Boomers
Takeaways
• 4 out of 4 users were successfully able to find the locations, accounts, and users slide out menu associated with Bill’s Food Hut
• 3 out of 4 users were successfully able to locate the new expandable list item breakdown of deposits by sub location
• 2 out of 4 were confused with the chips used to display the users and accounts on the slide out menu stating they thought they were clickable
Revisions
• Based on user feedback, I redesigned the slide-out menu by reusing the tabs pattern to better organize information. This approach broke the content into separate tabs, improving readability and providing more space to display detailed information within each tab.
• Additionally, I replaced the chip-based navigation with a list-style layout. Clicking on a list item now navigates the user directly to the relevant location, account, or user. This change introduced more intuitive navigation options, enabling users to move through the site more efficiently.
Problem 2
"The deposits page is unorganized and takes forever to address errors."
-Nick Valera, Bank manager
Managing deposits
Manually reviewing each check for errors and identifying issues was a time-consuming process.
There was irrelevant or repetitive information on the page.
Users were expected to click into a specific deposit in order to manage deposits, opening a different window, creating a laborious work flow.
Viewing both pending and submitted deposits at the same time as not ideal as pending deposits were hardly every reviewed by the operator.
original deposits page
original checks page
How might we increase a user's efficiency when managing deposits?
Users frequently expressed frustration with the slow process of managing deposits, as the current system required them to open each individual deposit to view its checks, making the task time-consuming. To solve this, we conceptualized a design inspired by an email inbox layout, enabling users to view all deposits at a glance. This new approach reduced the number of clicks needed to complete regular tasks.
Usability test
• Due to the absence of quantitative data and tracking within the product, we were unable to analyze time-on-task metrics or identify underutilized features. To better understand the effort required for check management, we conducted usability testing with four users.
• Each participant was tasked with checking, validating, and/or fixing errors on eight deposits/checks, using both the current design and the new design. Both tasks were timed to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of the updated design against the existing one.
Overview
• Method: Remote, moderated usability testing (Think Aloud)
• Participants: 4
• Age range: Gen X - Boomers
Takeaways
• All 4 users successfully completed the task of fixing and validating deposits/checks faster using the new layout compared to the old design.
Task completion avg time (current version): 4min 47 sec
Task completion avg time (new version): 3min 23 sec
Approximately 30% faster on average
• 3 out of 4 users did not realize that the sub-location chips functioned as a filter, indicating a need for improved clarity in their design or functionality.
• All 4 users expressed that the new concept was significantly easier and more efficient to use than the previous version.
Revisions
• Introduced status badges and sorting tabs to help users prioritize deposits with errors, streamlining issue resolution.
• Added a dropdown to sort deposits by sub-locations, enabling faster navigation across multiple sites.
• Designed a quick-view, scrollable left column to display essential deposit details, improving scanning and task efficiency.
• Streamlined error detection by displaying issues upfront, reducing the time required to address problems. Working with the engineers we identified each of the possible errors that could occur. Working with the content designer on the team we formulated a different error message for each scenario.
• Created expandable deposit cards with action buttons revealed upon selection, offering a cleaner, more intuitive interface.
Impact
The redesign led to a 20% increase in customer satisfaction ratings, demonstrating improved user experience and alignment with customer needs. Additionally, the enhanced functionality and usability of the product contributed to an 18% growth in sales over the following year, highlighting its positive influence on customer retention and acquisition. These data points underscore the value of the project in driving both customer loyalty and business revenue.
Lessons
In the future, I would focus on integrating more detailed tracking and data analysis to better understand user behavior and validate design decisions more effectively. Even though this product did lack data tracking, moving forward I would like to incorporate more quantitative data earlier in the process and being able to validate my work across both qualitative and quantitative data.
Conclusion
This project was the most challenging when familiarizing myself with all the capabilities and functionalities, including creating users, locations, permissions, etc. The many calls and QA sessions made it worthwhile to comprehend the whole scope of this portal. It was incredibly gratifying to transform an old product into something fruitful with a new UI, practical features, and an improved site structure despite the challenges. This project allowed me to understand more about user interface design, communication, and core functionalities. As this project leads to further development, I am thrilled to see the advancements and the betterment of the product.