dmcgroup
s IT Solutions
Year
2018-2020
Deliverables
- Concept
- Design
- Frontend Development
User interface for ATMs of Erste Bank and Sparkassen
Together with the Sparkassen, Erste Bank represents one of the largest banking groups in Austria. It comprises over 1,100 branches in Austria and serves more than 3.6 million customers.
s IT Solutions AT Spardat GmbH is the IT provider for Erste Group and the savings banks in Austria. In addition to many other high-quality IT solutions, the software for almost 4,000 self-service devices of the banking group is developed and supported here.
dmcgroup was commissioned by s IT Solutions to rethink and redesign the graphical user interface for self-service devices with touchscreens in a joint process and to support the technical implementation by providing front-end templates.
Simply intuitive – the new face of ATMs
The bank’s self-service machines make it easy to carry out banking transactions around the clock: printing account statements, making transfers, and – among a number of other functions – withdrawing and depositing cash.
The focus is on maximum accessibility and intuitive use with as little learning curve as possible: After all, the devices are used by almost all age and population groups.
People standing at a self-service machine usually have little time but plenty of distractions around them – from sunbeams falling on the machine’s display to a line of people waiting behind them.
This difficult context of use is reflected in the requirements for the interface.
- Self-explanatory & intuitive to use
- “Design for all” with a focus on target groups over 50
- Special consideration for target groups with special needs
- Optimized for touch operation
- Adoption of the current design language of Erste Bank
Window to state-of-the-art Internet banking – part of the omnichannel strategy
Erste Bank and Sparkassen are among the most modern and innovative banks in Europe.
One of our key concerns was to ensure that the new interface would be an attractive window into the world of the bank. The experience of other channels, such as Internet banking “George”, should find its way onto ATMs.
But we were concerned with more than just cosmetics: George customers will find their familiar surroundings from George again on self-service devices:
- Your personal account designations
- Individually set account colors from George
- Personal salutation and profile picture from George, if available
The basic interface between self-service and George is the foundation for further synergies between the touchpoints.
Microinteractions for positive user experience
The new self-service devices should be fun to use: through the use of fresh colors, simple and clear screens, and targeted animation that supports interaction with the device.
Positive user experience is in the details: small animations and transitions from one view to the next ensure, thanks to proven dramaturgy principles, that the interface feels organic and alive – without being overwhelming or annoying.
The most effective personalization happens automatically
Interaction with a self-service device must be as fast and efficient as possible. Our research showed: the majority of transactions carried out by customers follow recurring patterns.
Together with s IT Solutions, we succeeded in developing a “self-learning system” that offers individual suggestions for customers’ “most frequent actions” through real-time evaluation of customer behavior – drastically reducing transaction time for these recurring tasks. And all this without the need to make personal settings.
User-centric, iterative implementation in a multidisciplinary team
The collaboration began with an extensive ideation and prototyping phase. Here, the basic conceptual and creative principles for the redesign of the interface were developed together with s IT Solutions.
After the prototype developed in this phase achieved excellent results in a market research study, implementation started at the beginning of 2018.
A multidisciplinary team from dmcgroup, s IT Solutions and Erste Bank developed feature by feature in close, agile collaboration:
- Storymapping workshops to formulate requirements and consider functional scope
- Co-location and co-creation for effective collaboration
- Regular coordination with the technical experts of Erste Bank and Sparkassen as well as the bank’s steering committee
- User testing for every new feature and at every crucial stage of the project: with concept sketches, design prototypes and finally with the “finished” application on real devices
- Rollout of each newly developed function in a pilot phase in selected stores
- New knowledge gained in this way could be iteratively used to improve the surface
At every point in the project, the excellent teamwork between the employees of dmcgroup, s IT Solutions and Erste Bank and Sparkassen was exceptional.
Design principles for self-service interface
