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FIRST REPUBLIC BANK

Messaging System 

Messaging System

Trust is a core building block of the First Republic Brand. One of the best ways to establish trust is through communication. So my team and I took it upon ourselves to evaluate, design, validate and build a scaling messaging system throughout their mobile platform.

Trust is the one of the core building blocks of the First Republic Brand. One of the best ways to establish trust is through communication. So my team and I took it upon ourselves to evaluate, design, validate and build a scaling messaging system throughout their mobile platform.

My Role

My team was comprised of a PM, Engineer, Product Owner, UX Researcher and co-designer. I was responsible for leading a Design Sprint, Ideating Concepts, Creating Prototypes, Help Craft User tests and help maintain solid communication with key stakeholders across the product. 

My team was comprised of a PM, Engineer, Product Owner, UX Researcher and co-designer. I was responsible for leading a Design Sprint, Ideating Concepts, Creating Prototypes, Help Craft User tests and help maintain solid communication with key stakeholders across the product. 

The Challenge vs. The Problem

After the new app was launched, users were forced to migrate. They quickly began writing reviews and asked their bankers why. 

Concerned, the product team asked us to augment an existing pattern to educate users of new features and promotions. I knew the answer desired could not be contained in a single one size fits all solution. So I lead a team to break down the problem, explore concepts and validate them as quick as possible.

New Loading State

(Existing interstitial messaging pattern) 

(Existing interstitial messaging pattern) 

 ... the product team asked us to augment an existing pattern to educate users of new features and promotions. 

 ... the product asked us to augment an existing pattern to educate users of new features and promotions. 

(Concepts from our first design sprint)

Discovery

Time was limited, the product team wanted progress and we wanted to illustrate the value of a more holistic design process. So we began running a google design sprint.

The first step in defining our key objective was to get insight from key stakeholders across First Republic. We interviewed 9 key stakeholder strategically chosen by their role in the overall product, and identified three needs:

1. Make users aware of new features.
2. Have users re-engage with existing features. 
3. Promote services within the bank. 

Establishing a Framework

Using divergent and convergent design exercises, we prototyped, tested and validated three concepts. Each concept targeted different messaging problems, however that made for mixed results. 

Each test was incredibly successful in their own right, however, they served far too little use cases and/or were technically too expensive to implement.  So we pulled back, gathered user, business, and technical goals and crafted a messaging framework.

framework

(Framework document crafted to manage messaging throughout the application.)

Prototype, Test, Repeat

The product team grey impatient, so I prototyped and tested their concept of an interstitial alongside two other existing messaging patterns. As a result, we found that every pattern we tested failed in its task. 

So before going back to the product team with the data, I decided to prototype and test fifteen different solutions. Finally one stuck.

Tools tips and Contextual Banners

During testing, I found that passive contextual messaging was the most effective way to engage users. A tooltip was the most affordable and impactful pattern that achieved that goal. Better yet, nearly 82% of our users remembered the information minutes after seeing it.

We still hadn’t solved their desire to promote, however, so we revisited our first sprints prototypes. After some adjustments and testing, I was able to tweak an existing concept to fit the immediate need of promotion. 

Tool_Tips
release_notes_mov_Comp_1
tip_banner_mov_Comp_1
help_card_mov_Comp_1

(Initial concepts built on existing patterns.)

tt_1
tt_3
tt_4

( Final messaging based on context, scalability and impact. )

 ... passive contextual messaging was the most effective way to engage users.

 ... passive contextual messaging was the most effective way to engage users.

Multiple Wins

The product team was ecstatic. In one week I was able to create and validate powerful solutions that allowed First Republic to promote financial services, and to engage and educate our users. Not only that, all the concepts were reusable and easily implemented.

Impact

With testing, we were able to see a 38% rise in feature engagement. Qualitative feedback also showed that 86% of users felt the new promotions held financial benefits. A radical change from our existing solution. 

From success came trust. Working with the product team became drastically easier, and in return led to a higher productivity and better user experience. 

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Messaging SystemFirst Republic Bank