Ideation

Our first wireframes started as rough sketches on paper templates to get some of our ideas across roughly before working on more high fidelity wireframes. We then each iterated on these before uploading our sketches to Miro to review them.

Miro allowed us to ask questions and add comments to various screens so we could dot vote to decide which screens and wireframes we wanted to continue working on in our low fidelity prototype.

While I created my first round of sketches using pen and printed phone templates, for my second round I opted to create them in Adobe Illustrator Draw as I was travelling and found it more convenient to draw using iPad and Apple Pencil.

High Fidelity Prototype

We decided to design for iOS, specifically an iPhone X. We decided to use iOS as the patterns and components are well defined and common across many apps meaning that they are familiar to most users which satisfied Nielsen’s fourth heuristic, consistency and standards, “Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.” (Nielsen Norman Group & Nielsen, 1994). They are also well documented, meaning we were able to consult the Apple iOS human interface guidelines when we had questions around components. I had previously worked on iOS apps so it was easier for us to use the platform with which the team had more experience.

While we aimed to use as many native iOS components as we could, Revolut already had quite a well defined UI style and brand tone so we wanted to reuse a lot of their existing components. Doing so helped our changes blend into the app and lead to positive comments during the final tests about it feeling like Revolut. Reusing current Revolut components also tied into Nielsen’s fourth heuristic as current Revolut customers would recognise the patterns being used from other parts of the app.

Usability Testing

When testing final prototype we iterated on the script from our initial tests. We picked six tasks which we wanted users to carry out and asked questions and asked them questions afterwards. By allowing the users to work through the tasks at their own pace we got a realistic view of how they would use the app in a non test environment.

Among the issues discovered during these tests were that the onboarding was too long, there were issues around reviewing the price of stock, and some issues funding the account and buying stock.

Final Solution

One of the main issues prohibiting our demographic from becoming involved with trading was a lack of knowledge in the subject. While Revolut made it easy to sign up and begin trading, users were unsure where to start, and what to invest in. Some of the labels in the app were too technical and as a result users felt out of their depth and didn’t want to use this part of the app.

To improve the user experience we simplified labels and made them more relatable. We simplified the funding experience which users were confused by and allowed them to fund from a vault, an easier way of investing spare change rather than taking it straight from their account. We also made it easier to find stocks to invest in, adding categories and allowing them to set their interests to see those industries first. Adding news and information about each stock allowed users to discover new companies which may be of interest to them.

All of these changes were made while keeping within Revolut’s brand to keep the trust that our users said they had in the company.