BT SMSF
BT SMSF is an app that makes the complex and daunting self-manager super fund (SMSF) space easier to understand for users looking to make the switch. The app helps users approach SMSF research in a practical, educational way by offering easy to understand lessons and advice all in one place.
project duration
3 - 4 months
team members
Dustin Myo (UX/UI Design)
Mark Boehm (UX Lead)
my role
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Prototyping
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Usability testing
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UI design
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Client management
For this project I worked within a cross-functional agile team. The stages that I was responsible for were:
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User flows
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User stories
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Ideation
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Wireframing
THE PROBLEM
People found it difficult to gather valuable and credible information about how to start and successfully manage a self-managed super fund. The information they found was often scattered, unstructured and lacking in quality.
THE discovery phase
ANALYSING THE RESEARCH
We were approached by BT to help design, validate and launch an MVP to help serious and prospective customers learn about and open an SMSF. I was able to analyse existing research conducted by BT including user interviews, user archetypes and journey maps. I also looked at SMSF information documents to gain a better understanding of the SMSF industry. Through this research, I was able to understand the pain points and needs of people who wanted to make the switch to an SMSF. BT wanted to help solve these pain points and in turn meet their business goal of having more people open up SMSF accounts with BT.
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Some of the common themes that came out of the research were:
The user archetypes were:
• Serious Prospective SMSF Customer
• New SMSF Customer
• First year SMSF Customer
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IDEATION STARTERS
Using the insights from this research, we were responsible for the design, testing and development of BT's SMSF app. Leveraging the research and to understand and define what the user was trying to achieve in the app, user stories and user flows were created based on the archetypes and journey maps. A comparative analysis was also conducted to compare and analyse what other similar educational apps were doing and if some of those features could be relevant for BT's app. The user flows and comparative analysis gave us a solid starting point to start sketching some concepts for the app.​
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Our user flows, comparative analysis and concepts were presented back to BT and after some feedback and discussion, we moved forward with the chosen concepts.
TO MEET THE NEEDS OF USERS THE APP WOULD:
THE dESIGN phase
DIVING INTO DESIGN
After alignment on the design concepts, I began designing medium fidelity wireframes and met regularly with BT's stakeholders during this stage to keep them informed and gather their feedback on the designs. Constant collaboration with the development team also amped up at this stage to ensure that the solution I was designing was technically feasible. In parallel, I also started to develop the visual and illustration style for the app, based around BT's brand guidelines. After a few iterations, the wireframes were turned in to a clickable prototype ready for usability testing.
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Below are some of the initial wireframes and illustration concepts
USABILITY TESTING & VALIDATION
There were two different designs that were favoured by BT, and to validate which one users preferred and found easier to use it was decided to test the two prototype versions against each other. The display and organisation of the lessons and the format and interaction of the lesson content were the key differences between the two prototypes.
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The top 3 images are the first prototype, the bottom 3 images are the second prototype:
The first round of usability testing was conducted with 6 participants who met the criteria of the user archetypes. Through the testing I aimed to validate our designs and gain insights into users' behaviour and impressions around the app.
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I tested 4 key tasks that I felt was most important in the app for users and the business:
• Onboarding and app setup to get tailored lessons
• Completing a lesson
• Notifications for new lesson content
• Learning more about BT's products to open an SMSF
THE REFINEMENT
WHAT I FOUND OUT
Through the usability testing I validated which prototype design to move forward with. I also validated that users are excited about the app's potential to help them with their SMSF research and that the lessons were generally easy to understand. I also discovered that users didn't want to do lessons in a linear order and would prefer to do the lesson that offered them the information they were most interested in finding out. Notifications for new lesson content was also not clear enough for users as users were missing which ones the new lessons were. Some improvements were also made to the onboarding and BT products section for the next iteration.
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Below are some of the usability testing insights:
I did another round of usability testing to validate the changes with 5 more participants, presented these findings back to BT and iterated based on the insights. One of the key insights learned from this round of usability testing was that users would also like to learn about market insights to help them make more informed choices about setting up an SMSF. Once these iterations were made and I had developed it in to a high fidelity UI design, the development team could confidently release the MVP of the app.
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Below are some of the final designs of the app we released:
outcomes
• Smooth release of MVP to App Store and Google Play
• Successfully validated MVP concept
• Positive customer feedback, notably around the simple & easy to understand content giving them more clarity around starting an SMSF
• Successful MVP launch led to additional project engagement from BT to add more features like Market Insights