Karine Tonson La Tour . Digital Designer

THE DIGITAL BRANCH OF BARCLAYS

Envision the future of banking by tailoring a smart in-branch experience that would uplift the way we bank and, consequently, add more value to banking with Barclays from customers and staff perspectives.

I initially joined Barclays as a UI Designer but due to my experience as a Conceptual and Interactive Designer for the Universal exhibition of Shangai on the Swedish pavilion, I was brought to this project instead.

The Digital Branch was a spatial project involving multiple teams, each focusing on one side of the project. As an Experiential Designer, my role was to ensure that all parts connected with one another accordingly to provide a meaningful experience for customers and staff members and I did so by conducting UX research and design.

With the rise of Digital, Barclays branch experience had room for improvements, both from customer and staff member’s perspectives. Everyday, Barclays branches face ongoing issues that impact the service they deliver. These have to be addressed in relation to the revisited concept of the branch in our day and age and the loss of trust due to the dreadful financial climate.

Establishing the current in-branch landscape and state of mind from numerous customers as well as staff members was the first step. I met with Branch Managers, observed people’s whereabouts in the branch, interviewed customers and staff members. Running this preliminary user research helped me identify where the pain points were and raise significant issues.

Discussing the results of the research in detail with stakeholders brought forward major highlights on what our strategy should be to solve existing problems.

• Enhance digital interactivity within Barclays branches.
• Assist branch members and help them be more agile.
• Add more value to banking with Barclays by exceeding expectations of existing customers and captivate new ones.
• Engage with visitors in a human way encouraging loyalty.

From a vast range of issues, we identified key problems branches face in relation to stakeholder’s goals. We highlighted recommendations brought up from marketing research and common self-service related questions.

Move from formal brief discussions behind counters to more relaxed and friendly chats around a coffee. Staff members would circulate freely within the branch and greet incoming customers.

This would enhance the idea of bespoke and care inherent to Barclays historic background. The branch would act as a communal informative area with regular highlights on products and healthy banking with possibly introductory workshops (mortgage, debt…).

To make it happen customers need to stay updated on Barclays news and recurrent time-consuming activities weighing on staff members need to be alleviated.

Based on the requirements from stakeholders, I wrote different user stories to better identify customer journeys between modules. Thanks to personas, storyboarding, mapping and storytelling I highlighted that all branches had different audiences and blueprints. I hence recommended moving from a set layout to a more modular approach.

Part of the vision, online onboarding was the main challenge and a major goal. From my research, numerous requests brought in-branch could be easily dealt with online wherever and whenever customers desire. By moving customers online, we could also create more time for staff members to provide a more exclusive, personalised and dedicated service to customers, thus giving staff members a chance to exceed expectations and provide value to banking with Barclays.

To address the wide spectrum of customers stepping in branches we first had to acknowledge the different levels of interest people have toward online banking. The solution should hence be versatile and properly adapted to meet customers various views on the matter.

The idea of using online banking needed to be raised at the most appropriate moment in their journey, in an organic manner to best achieve adoption.