Nationwide — DAVE MULLEN

As a building society serving the needs of 15 million members throughout the UK, Nationwide is always looking for new ways to expand its digital offering. For me, the opportunity to design a totally new in-branch experience in six weeks presented an exciting challenge.

THE CHALLENGE

Following the success of a website redesign project Nationwide briefed my team at HeathWallace to create a prototype for a ‘Digital Wall’ experience to engage customers in branch. As part of the branch transformation programme the brief was to explore new ways to engage with customers to better understand their financial needs. With Mircrosoft as a technical partner the Kinect platform was identified as the most suitable input method. It was also important that the solution considered how customers would react to an interactive screen in the public space of a high street branch.

THE OUTCOME

For this project I worked with a UX Consultant and a Motion Designer, and with just six weeks to deliver a prototype we had to work fast. We started by visiting a branch and speaking with staff to understand the environment and how customers used the space. As queuing can be an issue it was clear that a Digital Wall experience could offer a fun interactive solution while customers waited. We also conducted research into the Kinect technology solution to understand the opportunities it offered and limitations in the context of a public space.

We generated over 30 ideas which we evaluated against key criteria (Sales leads, Efficiency, Repeat visits, Buzz, Experience, Community and Satisfaction). The selected idea was based around popular money topics discussed in everyday conversation. This concept would engage customers and allow Nationwide to build a picture of its branch community. The final prototype deliverable was a short video showing a customer deciding what they would do if they were given £10,000. Along the way our customer was able to explore the property buying process and understand how Nationwide could help them achieve their financial goals.

MY PROJECT ROLE

Design direction
Strategy and planning
Requirements capture
User flows
Storyboarding
Idea generation
Wireframes
Prototyping
UI Design