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Wall.y Bank - RMIT University
My main project when undertaking a Future Skills Short Course at RMIT University was to develop the UX and UI of a fictitious banking app. I was given a short brief with the name of the brand and some example screens detailing what information to include, such as savings buckets, but the rest was left up to me.
I was eager to get stuck into this project as I was already tasked with improving the UI for Workfacta at the time, so UI design thinking was already fresh in my mind. The course taught me much in the way of best practices and applying logical thinking to my creative and visual skillset. |
The brief:
– Create the visual identity and UI for a new banking app; Wall.y. – Map out the UI flow and identify error states. – Lead a user testing session and adjust your design according to feedback and user needs. – Provide a high-fidelity interactive prototype. Final grade: 7/7 |
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My identity for Wall.y took a lot of inspiration from "neobanks" such as Ubank and Up Money, as well as investing apps and other software start-up companies. I wanted the app to target a young audience and for the brand to feel innovative, secure and fun.
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When it came time for me to develop the components of the app, I started off by making them individually but I had a hard time visualising how they would look together. To help with this, I mocked up multiple different versions of the Home screen in order to see how everything was working together. I found it was important to see how different elements would sit on both light and dark backgrounds.
At this time I also mapped the UX flow and began wireframing. It was important to note all possible paths the user could take in the app, how the different screens connected to each other, and if everything seemed like it was user-friendly and made sense. Despite being a simple prototype, there was much more to the user journey than I first thought. I made a list of any concerns I had regarding the app's usability and saved it for when we would undertake user testing later on.
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I chose what I believed to be the strongest option and applied that visual style across other screens, and the app was beginning to take shape.
At this stage, it was time to conduct some user testing. I had a list of prepared questions which centred around whether the users' first impressions of the app aligned with what I was trying to achieve, and they were also designed to lead them across different screens without directly instructing them on where to go.
The testing was great as it allowed me to observe someone who had no experience with the app to fully explore it for the first time. It was also important to note that I was not looking to categorise the user's comments as parts of my app that were "good" or "bad". Instead, I looked at it as feedback that either confirmed that the user journey was working as intended, or that there were parts of the user journey that could be improved. Overall, the comments largely aligned with what I was hoping the user experience to be. Their first impressions were that the app felt "new" and "high-tech", and that many of the user pathways through different screens felt logical and easy. However, there were still a few areas where the user became confused, or places where the experience could have been made easier. For example, on multiple occasions the user tapped the logo in the top left side of the screen expecting it to go back to the Home screen. This is something that completely slipped my mind when creating the prototype, but of course it makes sense! Some other details shown below were changed for the final version of the app prototype. I found the user testing extremely useful for uncovering better design choices both from a usability and aesthetic point of view. |
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