02
research
Current State Insight
In redesigning the CD account opening flow, I identified a significant pain point related to rate transparency. Unlike competitors who prominently display rates on their landing pages, KeyBank requires users to navigate to a separate "Rates and Fees" tab to view this crucial information.
This extra step forces users to make several clicks and switch between tabs, often not seeing the exact rates until the confirmation page.
This approach disrupts the user journey, adding unnecessary complexity and friction. Users may become frustrated with the extra effort required to find rate information, potentially leading to confusion and a less satisfying experience.
By addressing this issue, we aim to streamline the process and enhance transparency, aligning with best practices observed in competitor designs.
One of the largest takeaways I had from the discovery portion of our work was that the unique aspect of our CD design would be the CD selection page. This was the largest part of the experience that would require new UI.
To learn how other competitors were handling their CD selection methods, I conducted a competitive analysis.
The Finding:
Many different institutions front load CD selection to their landing page on their website.
In this example, and in many more I found, BMO Alto employs a sort of calculator widget that allows the user to see the rates they will receive and they have a call to action to directly open that specific account.
This widget enbles users to shop around for the best rate.
How This Applies to Us:
This method would give the system I work on, AOX, the benefit of already knowing the specifics of the product before they even enter the account opening flow.
This method makes sense on the surface and allows flexibility to the user but would be extremely hard for us to adopt at Key. At the time the marketing team, which controls our website design, did not have funding to take on a project like this. Front-loading product selection onto Key.com would be an enormous undertaking. Maybe the juice of this method is not worth the squeeze.
The Finding:
The method Capital One uses here is within their account opening experience, not on their home page.
What they have, and others such as Wells Fargo, is a preset list of certain frequencies of CDs all with the various rates a user would receive displayed. This allows a user to easily see all their options in one place.
How This Applies to Us:
While being able to view all the different options, with rates displayed, all in one place is great, it may not work for our use case.
Key's CD product frequencies are already set. The certain products we offer have much more variability than what is offered here. For example we have Short Term CDs that offer a lot of variability. A user could select any number of days for their CD to be in length anywhere between 7 days and 179.
Displaying this many options in one place would be cumbersome to any user.
Competitive Analysis Main Insights
While being able to view all the different options, with rates displayed, all in one place is great, it may not work for our use case.
Key's CD product frequencies are already set. The certain products we offer have much more variability than what is offered with competitors. For example, we have Short Term CDs that offer a lot of variability. A user could select any number of days for their CD to be in length anywhere between 7 days and 179 or 6 to 11 months.
Displaying this many options in one place would be cumbersome to any user.
A/B Testing
Inisghts
The results revealed several notable effects:
Increased Interaction: Users clicked on the screen an average of 1.7 more times when using the shorter dropdown. This suggests that while the interaction frequency increased, the improved design led to other significant benefits.
Faster Term Selection: The streamlined dropdown reduced the time needed for users to select their CD term by 32% compared to the traditional dropdown. This indicates a more efficient selection process, enhancing overall user satisfaction.
Quicker Changes: When users needed to adjust their CD length, the time required dropped by 25% with the shorter dropdown. This improvement reflects a more intuitive and responsive design that accommodates user adjustments more effectively.
These findings underscore the impact of design choices on user efficiency and interaction, highlighting the advantages of a more focused and user-centric approach in the selection process.
Testers consistently reported a favorable overall experience with this design approach, highlighting its effectiveness in improving the selection process.
The words most used to describe the experience using this method of CD selection.
Key Insight
In our recent A/B test, we discovered that while a consolidated dropdown menu is generally effective, its utility diminishes when the item count exceeds 80. Beyond this threshold, user progress slows, making it more efficient to split the dropdown into smaller sections.
This finding challenges Nielsen Norman's guideline of limiting dropdowns to 15 items. Our test results show that, despite this recommendation, a dropdown with up to 80 items can still be functional because users are familiar with the list format and can navigate it efficiently. Similar to alphabetical lists like country selectors, users can quickly locate their desired option by scrolling, validating the need for flexibility in applying UX guidelines based on context.
