An Experience Based Study of Allied Bank’s Digital Account Opening Process
By Fatima Nooraen
Introduction
ABOUT
This study highlights some major pain points that users face when opening a Digital Bank Account with Allied Bank. The insights are presented through a fictional character's, Laiba, journey as she navigates through Allied Bank’s website to open her Bank Account.
How it all began
One fine day, Team Designist decided to conduct a detailed research on the Online Account Opening processes of six banks and E-wallets. After gathering insights from usability tests, and heuristic analysis, we decided to convey these insights to the world. We hope that our research becomes an inspiration for Designers to engage in Research as a learning practice.
our LIMITATIONS
This research was conducted with limited users, is observational and analytical in nature, and is based on the data gathered from usability tests and heuristic analysis. It focuses only on the user experience of potential customers and does not take business limitations and restrictions into account. This is why some pain points, may not be the responsibility of the bank but a result of other factors that banks may have to comply with, such as State Bank requirements, business restrictions etc.
Meet Laiba,
a 24 year old fresh graduate and ready to start her new job. On her first day, she gets informed by HR, that she has to get an account opened in Allied Bank for salary disbursement.
Laiba gets worried for a minute about taking out time since the Allied Bank branch is far from her office but then remembered that her dad mentioned the possibility of getting bank accounts opened online. Laiba decides to open her account digitally in Allied Bank.
1. Getting Started with ABL
To find out if Allied Bank lets people make an online account and to get an idea about the process, she decides to call the customer support for help.
2. Signing up to ABL Wallet
Customer Support guides Laiba to download the myABL Wallet app and sign up with just her CNIC.
Laiba happily downloads themyABL Wallet app on her phone, and signs up successfully.
3. Actually Getting Started with ABL
Laiba remembers her friend, Areesha, also wanted to get an Allied Bank account opened. She calls to tell her that she doesn’t need to go to the bank to get her account opened. After calling Areesha, Laiba finds out that she already made an account.
Their roles have now been swapped and Areesha is the one telling Laiba that she was supposed to get the account opened from the website and not the app. The app is just a mobile wallet.
Laiba feels misled, and is now more nervous about the digital account opening process.
4. Signing up
Eager to get the task out of her way, Laiba gets the link from Areesha and starts to open her digital bank account, on Allied Bank’s Digital Account Opening Website.
The sign up screen looks clean, and clear instructions are provided which gives surety to Laiba to go ahead and start the process.
Starting with the phone number, the first thing the system does is ask for her to prove that she is not a robot, then for her CNIC for further verification.
5. Selecting Account Type
When selecting the account type, the information provided is cramped and not easily readable - which makes Laiba feel confused and unsure, especially because she’s opening a bank account for the first time.
Decluttering
useful information makes it more digestible for the users.
6. Debit Card Delivery Option
Laiba gets asked how she wants the debit card to be delivered, only to see a cramped single option in the drop down menu - “To be collected from Branch”
Resisting the urge to bang her head in the wall, she moves forward to complete the process.
Dropdown menus
automatically indicate that users have multiple options to select from
7. Filling in Details
Cautious about her expectations from the process after feeling misled, Laiba notices that the writing used in the
help text of the input fields is misleading in various places. Where text has to be typed, the help text asks the user to select an option and where the field was to be autofilled, the system lets the user fill the field.
Thoughtful UX writing can prevent users from being misled
8. Uploading Live Photo
Woohoo! It's now time to take a live photo. Laiba sets her hair etc. and begins taking the picture. The screen indicates that it's capturing the photo but confused Laiba by simultaneously also showing the “Retry” button.
After the success popup appears, Laiba expects to see her face in the picture but what she sees is (literally) not even half of what she expected. After 3 tries, a few frustrated clicks, she is finally able to upload a decent photo
9. Uploading Documents
While uploading her documents, ABL’s website crashed 3-4 times, and Laiba resumed the application from the start each time.
After many tries, she’s able to upload the documents but somehow is still confused if the documents are uploaded or not, due to the lack of any indication from the website.
Lack of Systems Visibility confuses users about their current status and overall progress, which results in an increased chance of errors .
10. Finishing Up
After completing all the steps, when Laiba finally reaches the end of the process, she is asked to check three checkboxes to agree to the Terms of Use.
After a lot of scrolling, Laiba finally gets to the end of the page where she encounters her worst nightmare. The “I agree” button is covered by another button, the live chat button.
She goes in shock for 2 mins, thinking that that she is about to lose her entire application. After lots of tries to tap the I agree button, Laiba miraculously manages to find a loophole.
11. Process Completed
The loophole: Tapping on the chat button and then closing the chat, makes the chat button disappear from the screen for a second.
This way Laiba creates the opportunity to press the “I agree” button
and IT WORKS.
Happy for herself , she still feels sorry for people who probably wouldn’t be able to find the loophole and will have their time wasted 🙁
12. Providing Feedback
After Laiba is done with the application process, ABL gives her a chance to provide feedback. Laiba decides to provide feedback so ABL can make the process better.
She gives a two star rating but as soon as she presses the submit button, the rating goes down to one because the “Submit” button is literally…unclickable…
At this point, Laiba actually gives up, closes the website and prays to god that her bank account gets opened soon.
(PS: It’s been 32 days and it’s still not opened)
I'm subtitle
Final Thoughts
Though Laiba is a fictional character, her journey with ABL’s digital account opening process is based on a cumulative experience of real users.
Overall, we noted that the most consistent issue in Allied Bank’s digital account opening process is that it is unable to communicate properly to the user. We think this problem arises due to a consistent lack of Systems Visibility and misleading UX Writing in multiple places.
Many instances of confusion, and doubt about their actions in an already intimidating process of Bank Account Opening, leads to users feeling frustrated.
We believe that catering to these two main problem areas can lead to a significant improvement in the digital account opening process of Allied Bank.
