Introduction
A year after I started employment with RHBT, the organization was looking to revive the mobile app platform and increase user engagement. When executive leadership selected the organization that would develop the new mobile banking app, I had thoughts of designing a refreshed logo. I pitched my idea to the operations manager and she had said it had been a challenge getting the CEO to agree to change in the past. I accepted the challenge and created roughly 42 iterations of a new logo design.
The next step was to schedule my presentation for the executive leadership team. Impressed with the different iterations of the logo, the team decided RHBT needed a new look and selected one of my designs.
Understanding the Challenge
Joining the RHBT team to begin my journey in Information Technology, I expressed not only my desire to learn everything for my position but also my desire to always improve customer service.
By showing my creativity skills, I was brought onto the marketing team and helped with the mobile app redesign. The challenge was to find a way to increase user engagement. The layout of the old mobile app was not visually stimulating, the flow was not user friendly and the UI was well dated. We brought in fresh colors, new UI elements and a new logo.
Working with the Team
During the testing phase, a dedicated group of us from RHBT, including myself, teamed up with the Product Owner, Account Manager and the development team. For the next few weeks, we had gone through rigorous usability testing to ensure our product was going to deliver the best experience for our customers.
Progress was tracked using Smart Sheets that kept a backlog of all of the issues and what their statuses were. Test Flight was an application used to push out versions of our application to run tests on. During the beginning of the test phase, we had bi-weekly meeting with stakeholders and all teams to make sure fair process was being made along with status updates. As bugs diminished, the bi-weekly meetings reduced down to weekly meetings and then finally pushed to used the ticketing system.
Marketing
To help increase the engagement with the mobile app, we created flyers, postcards, ads and used word of mouth as our marketing tools. I created a user guide booklet for Android and Apple products to lower incoming calls and give users a way to understand all functions of the banking app.
Making the Difference
During the months post launch, we worked with users to identify pain points and iron out defects and minor UI issues. Because I was part of the community around town, I received the best feedback while out and about to help refine the product. A farmer I spoke with really enjoyed the look and functionality of the new mobile app. Getting that positive feedback from live users validated the changes we made provided users with an improved experience.
Between the refreshed logo and new platform, our registered user count more than doubled from roughly 2100 to over 5200 registered users.
Final Thoughts
I found the experience of creating a new mobile app most enjoyable! Working with the digital banking solutions team, the executive team and my department, IT, made the entire collaboration experience a memorable one. The icing on the cake was hearing firsthand the feedback from our customers and their satisfaction.
