The new face of mobile banking.

BNZ: Mobile App

Mobile Banking Interface

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Read about the challenge, solution and result

The Challenge

In short – to deliver BNZ’s most heavily used Personal Internet Banking services in an iPhone app, so that customers can bank on the move. DNA were asked to join the BNZ team to define and deliver the best possible user experience for a mobile banking app.

DNA have been working with the BNZ digital, IB and technology teams over the last 4+ years to bring the BNZ Banking experience and interfaces to life. We have delivered a total overhaul of Internet banking, Forex and core website experiences. We also work to deliver all integrated digital marketing and screen based content in to BNZ stores – including the community banking screens.

When BNZ were developing their mobile banking offer they sought our expertise to assist in the refinement of the ‘core’ offer, customer insight in to just how to deliver a killer experience and interface design to ensure the leanest and yet most intuitive design be deployed. Our core insight was that anything that doesn’t help you do the banking bare essentials and basics in the shortest possible time and simplest possible way was not going to get released.

The Solution

We prototyped early and often, producing a series of javascript based 'fake' interfaces as a means of testing flows and user interface elements. This scientific, iterative approach helped us to craft an experience that felt right, as well as looked good. Our goal - surprise users with simplicity. Make it unexpectedly easy, even fun, to bank with your Smartphone.

Ironically, we expended a fair bit of design effort just getting rid of things. Anything that doesn’t help you do your banking in the shortest possible time got the chop, and the result is a distilled, minimal interface that allows users to transfer funds, make payments and check their balances in moments quickly and without any fuss — even with one hand on their phone and the other holding on to a bus seat.

The initial release includes the features that BNZ’s research indicated customers wanted most: account balances and transactions, funds transfer, and bill payments. This is an ongoing, agile project; more features are currently being developed and will be rolled out over time.

The Result

The iPhone app and a smartphone web app from BNZ hit the streets in July 2011 and within the first 4 days had processed over NZ$1m in transactions. Launched via BNZ Twitter, the release quickly raced to the number one spot for financial apps in Apple's iTunes store.

Feedback from customers about the user interface has been overwhelmingly positive, with a huge buzz on Twitter and high App Store ratings. One of the highlights of the app — and one of the most popular features with customers — is the mechanism used to transfer funds and make payments. Two gesture-controlled tumblers allow the user to choose an account to pay from, and an account or payee to pay to. Once they’ve done that, you enter an amount, tap ‘pay’, and you’re done. This reduced the amount of time to transfer or pay, from minutes in Internet Banking, to seconds in Mobile Banking.

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The Numbers

In under two months the BNZ have released both apple and android Smartphone app’s, the user uptake has been rapid. Current numbers show a massive increase in mobile transactions (which now includes the BNZ’s android app):
> 23,000 + app downloads
> NZ$30+ million in transactions
> App. accessed 145,000 + times.