Case study still in progress

PROBLEM/ CURRENT EXPERIENCE

Escrowed mortgage customers can only receive their escrow overage refund as a mailed check. The refund check is sent within the escrow statement envelope often resulting in customers missing it and/or requiring U.S. Bank to have to reissue the check.

POTENTIAL SOLUTION

Provide a digital and efficient way to customers their refunds in lieu of paper checks.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Mortgage customers with a escrow overage refund.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

Cost Savings: Reduction in printed escrow overage checks and expenses, escrow-related inbound calls, reduction in escrow overage replacement checks, manual processing.
Digital Engagement: Increases DIY features for customers. Provide digital options to receive escrow refund (currently only available via mailed check).
Speed of service: customers will receive their escrow overage refund faster. Upto 3 business days for ACH deposit vs. 30 calendar days for mailed check.
Reusable design: Created a mostly reusable framework for digitizing other refund check processes (paid in full, loss draft, etc.).

UX SCENARIOS

Inform eligible mortgage escrow overage customers of their refund via email and OLB/Mobile dashboards.
Provide customers with a new digital experience in which they can select the method (ACH deposit or check) in which they prefer to receive their escrow overage refund.

MY RESPONSIBILITIES

As a UX Designer, I led the design process from the discovery to the assessment phase:

Discovery Phase:

Mapped user journeys and created story maps.
Explored similar experiences and collaborated with cross-functional teams.
Held regular quad squad meetings and stakeholder discussions to understand requirements.
Facilitated design thinking workshops and developed user personas.

Define Phase:

Translated insights into actionable requirements and developed user stories to align stakeholders.
Created low-fidelity wireframes consistent with the product strategy.
Conducted prototype testing to validate design concepts.

Design Phase:

Developed high-fidelity designs following the bank’s guidelines.
Presented designs to stakeholders for feedback and alignment.
Worked on design annotations and secured A11y consultant approval for accessibility.

Assess Phase:

Presented designs in experience reviews to gather feedback and refine them as needed.
Conducted usability testing using the UserZoom tool and analyzed findings to inform further improvements.

DISCOVER PHASE

Engaged in regular discussions with the quad squad to clarify requirements, scope, and dependencies on other teams.
Planned sprints ahead of time to ensure smooth progress and meet deadlines.
Analyzed similar experiences both within and outside the bank to gather insights on how other products perform.
Sketched initial designs, worked on journey mapping, and presented to stakeholders for alignment on requirements.
Developed personas to guide design decisions.
Worked on user journey diagram.

DEFINE PHASE

Developed low-fidelity wireframes to outline the structure and functionality of the design, which were shared with stakeholders for feedback and alignment.
Created an interactive, workable prototype to help stakeholders and team members better understand the user journey and flow through the product.
Incorporated stakeholder feedback into iterative design improvements to ensure that the design met both user and business requirements.
Collaborated closely with developers and product managers to ensure feasibility and clarity on design intent before moving into high-fidelity stages.

DESIGN PHASE

Launched an all-inclusive DIY fast refunds experience for mortgage customers within the online banking platform.
Ensured the design for the authenticated space aligned with the experience of other bank products.
Created a clear, informative entry point using a NIV (notification) style to capture customer attention.
Provided two refund options with helper text for clarity, making the process smooth and easy to follow.

KEY RESULTS

Expectations: Met the goals

Reduction in escrow replacement check inquiry calls by 50%.
Reduction in re-issued refund checks by 50%.
Reduction in mortgage servicing incoming calls by 5+%.
Overall cost savings of $425k per year from operational efficiency improvements (print/mail savings, reduced calls volume and reduced cost to serve).

Key takeaways

Customers prefer to see less and pertinent information on the screen at a time.
Multiple action buttons on one screen can be misleading for customers.
The OTP authentication process for multiple RCDs (registered current devices) can be somewhat challenging for first-time customers.

ASSESS PHASE

Goals:

To see if customers click on the tooltip next to “Choose or add an account”.
To see if customers understand that the account will not be saved and its for one time use only.

Qualitative Research

Developed a test plan (questionnaire) in an unmoderated mode, desktop version.
Questionnaire (e.g. Likert scales, rating scales, and both open and close-ended).
Conducted with 50 participants (to see how seamless or confusing is the experience.)

Quantitative Research

I learned that:

Task: Choose or add an account.

48 out of 50 participants found the designs were easy to use and self explanatory.
Many clicked on the drop-down menu first, but the recordings indicate that this was a lack of reading the instructions rather than a misunderstanding of how to add an account.
None of the participants clicked on the tooltip next to “Choose or add an account”.

Task 2: Add an account to deposit your refund into.

Participants did not face any confusion on the “Add new account” page.
All of the participants seemed to read the disclaimer that their new account would not be saved. The disclaimer therefore didn’t cause any confusion or roadblocks for participants completing this flow.

Recommendations: Since no participants clicked the tooltip, the recommendation is to either:

Keep both tooltip and disclaimer, or
Remove the tooltip and keep the disclaimer within the “Add a new account” page.