Securities Account Opening
Increase AUM by 64.4 million NTD in 4 months by designing a securities account opening portal
Intro
This project introduces an online account opening portal for Good Finance Securities Co Ltd, a securities company with a history of over 200,000 counter account openings and managing 150 billion NTD. Facing a decline in traditional openings due to online competition, this initiative aims to attract younger investors, marking a first in the company's 35-year history.
My Role
UX Designer
Project Type
App Design (iOS & Android)
Timeline
Mar 2023 - Feb 2024
Team
UX Researcher - Peng Yin, Hannah, Lian Bao; Product Manager - Nelly; Scrum Master - Lindsey; Mobile (iOS & Android) - Lionel, Claire, Yu Xiáng, Yuta, Josie; Backend - Powen, Roger, Andrew, Andy; Frontend - Muzo, Penny; Architect - Max; QA - Chris, Ming-Tsou, Peggy, Pei-Ying, Cindy; Data - Amy, Tim; Security - Serina; Legal Team; Operations Team; Marketing Team.
Responsibilities
Mapped user flows, designed initial wireframes, and created prototypes.
Communicated with cross-functional teams to implement designs.
Conduct user research with UX researcher to improve usability.
Created illustrations and animations to guide users.
Performed quality checks with Mobile, Backend, and QA engineers.
Reorganized design documentation for efficient handoff.
Impact of Project
4 months after the project’s release...
The Stock Account Opening project increased the company’s Assets Under Management (AUM) by 64.4 million NTD. Comparing the same period (March to June) before and after implementing the online stock account opening, total account openings increased by 96.6% from 2023 to 2024. Additionally, it improved operational efficiency, reducing the average account opening time to 13.6 minutes, 2 minutes faster than the market.
Legal Compliances
One of the primary constraints faced during the project was balancing the need for compliance with relevant legal requirements, such as Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Password Protection regulations with a frictionless user experience.
Two Apps, One Journey
The presence of two distinct apps—one for Stock Investing, outsourced to Mitake Information Corp. without customization options, and another for Asset Management, developed in-house for account openings—posed a challenge. This setup disrupted the user journey, forcing users to open accounts in one app and switch to another for investing.
Addressing Conflicting Logics
Decisional logic flows had to be carefully designed to avoid potential conflicts, such as when users of asset management accounts wish to open stock investing accounts, it would require certain data inputs to auto-fill to prevent data conflicts.
Our tech-savvy, next-gen investors struggled to sign up due to the absence of an online portal, limiting our AUM growth. We evaluated our offline process and the impact of lacking an online option, studied competitors' online journeys, and consulted legal experts for compliance to deepen our understanding of user needs and behaviors.
Company Merger History
Our company's 35-year history of mergers has created different partnerships between various bank branches, thus requiring users to visit specific branches and limiting account opening flexibility. Additionally, frontline staff face an unintegrated and redundant process due to this history.
Lengthy Manual Process
The offline application required over 2 hours to complete, more than 40 pages of paperwork, at least 5 repetitive signature requirements, and necessitates walking between another company's bank and our company's service counter.
Stolen Customers
In the past, customers had to go to the cooperating bank branches to open a Trade Settlement bank account, which resulted in the bank's staff diverting them to open their own securities accounts at the bank.
1. 🤝 Help Users
Design an online portal that enables next-generation investors to open a securities account within the market average time of 15 minutes, allowing users to easily open an account from anywhere.
2. 🏗️ Bridge the Journey
Based on the challenge of "Two Apps, One Journey," design a seamless experience that smoothly transitioned users between the two apps, overcoming the existing unsolvable breakpoint and providing a frictionless account opening process.
3. 📈 Help the Company
Drive user acquisition by targeting the opening of 10,000 accounts through the company's online portal for stock exchange activities within a year, aiming to increase Assets Under Management (AUM) by 1 billion NTD.
I researched the securities account opening processes of major competitors in the average time to open an account was 15-30 minutes. To streamline and simplify the process, we consulted with our legal and operations teams to ensure compliance with Financial Supervisory Commission regulations. By eliminating 10% of the jargon-heavy and repetitive questions, we reduced the average account opening time by 1 minute.
Review and Revise the User Flow
I mapped the user flow to ensure consistency and avoid conflicts with data from previous account openings in our new online stock investment process. I also refined the UI and implemented decision logic to streamline the experience and prevent any issues.
Designing Time Saving Features
I next prioritized key features that streamlined the account setup process, understanding that faster and easier registration leads to higher satisfaction and more successful account openings. These features include Auto-Populate Data, Efficient Email Entry, and the innovative Embedding 'Magic Link' approach, each contributing to a more streamlined and user-friendly experience.
Key Features 1: Auto-Populate Data
We implemented CyberLink Corp.'s FaceMe AI Facial Recognition and Changing Information Technology Inc.'s OCR Technology SDK for KYC compliance, automating the population of input fields and enhancing data accuracy. This integration streamlined the verification process, minimized manual errors, and boosted operational efficiency, offering a more secure and reliable service.
Key Features 2: Minimizing Errors Through Micro-Interactions
To reduce typing and errors, I implemented auto-fill in the right places. For instance, when users start typing '@' in their email, the system automatically completes the address, saving time and minimizing mistakes when entering contact information and OTPs (One-Time Passwords). Furthermore, I positioned the OTP code at the top of the email, allowing users to view it directly in the notification without leaving the app.
Key Features 3: Redefining Market Standards - The "Magic Link" Solution
Enhancing user experience while ensuring regulatory compliance is a challenge in fintech. Traditionally, the industry uses randomized passwords sent via email or printed letters, requiring users to input these in the app and then reset them.
Recognizing the inefficiency, I explored four approaches to simplify and secure account setup. During the exploration, our backend engineers diagrammed the technical feasibility of these methods. Eventually, we developed the 'magic link' solution with our backend and legal teams. This method sends a tokenized link to users, eliminating the need for randomized passwords and reducing input errors. The result is a streamlined, secure, and user-friendly account setup process, significantly improving upon traditional methods.
After refining the designs with stakeholders, I collaborated with our user researchers to conduct 7 rounds of usability tests. We analyzed user behaviors and their comprehension of financial terms in our account opening process, then presented our findings and design ideas to the team, showing them how we identify gaps in the user experience.
Findings
The usability study identified several issues in the account opening process that effected the user experience:
Key information was obscured due to poor interactions, making it difficult for users to find.
Complex financial terminology caused confusion, indicating a need to simplify UX writing.
Users experienced confusion during the transition between apps during the final stage (as noted in the challenge 'Two Apps, One Journey'), highlighting the need for clearer guidance.
Overall, the account opening flow was smooth. To implement improvements, I collaborated with the user researcher to finalize the design and worked with the marketing team to discuss changes in the usage of financial terminology. Despite the constraints of the timeline, I prioritized crucial improvements and set aside lower-priority design changes.
Improve Interactions
We identified issues with users switching between the info icon and the dropdown to select a service branch, and some exiting the app to check Google Maps for branch locations. I redesigned the dropdown to display information directly and collaborated with backend engineers for enhancements.
Clarify Financial Terminologies
We identified several areas that caused confusion due to complex financial terminology. We then worked with marketing and legal team to make the UX writing more understandable.
Clear Guidance with UX Writing
To meet regulatory standards and improve user clarity across Gmail, Good Finance, and Stock Investment apps, I refined the password-setting process. Each step now clearly labels the password being set and features clearer UX writing to guide app transitions, ensuring users understand necessary actions and expectations.
During the final phase of the project, I conducted multiple round of design reviews with the QA Team and Mobile developers on various iOS and Android devices. This process involved identifying any inconsistencies or functional issues that might have arisen during the development process.
First Major Project: A Cross-Disciplinary Journey
I learned a lot from working with a diverse, multi-disciplinary team on a large project for the first time. This experience expanded my knowledge of the project lifecycle, complex design documentation, and improved my ability to work effectively across different departments. I am grateful for the team's support, collaboration, and teachings.
Understand The Code Behind The Design:
I've learned that focusing not only on design but also on understanding the underlying code is essential. Grasping the technical aspects enables me to collaborate more effectively with developers and ensures that my design decisions are implementable.
Rethink How To Implement Good User Experience:
This project made me rethink what a good user experience is. It’s not only about designing beautiful frames on Figma or and curating intuitive user flows, but also about implementing behind-the-scenes technologies that solves the users problem and enhances the user experience. For example, using a tokenized system for password setup and employing face scanning AI and OCR for secure, streamlined account opening.
Careful Documentation Helps With Cross-Collaboration:
During the design process, I recognized the importance of thoroughly documenting specifications and legal documents. This enhances team communication, ensures stakeholder alignment, and reduces uncertainty during the Quality Assurance phase.
Next Project
Rethink The Way We Invest
Empower Investors to Invest With Confidence
In response to the growing disconnect between traditional investment platforms and the evolving needs of next-generation investors, our company initiated a project to redesign our trading app's investment order page. Moving beyond our 20-year reliance on Mitake Information's trading technology, which holds over 90% market share in stock trading, our aim was to develop a more intuitive and modern platform, aligning our technology with the expectations of today's dynamic investment landscape.
