Overview
BDO Online Banking is an application catering to the bank’s customers. It claims to allow its users to enjoy hassle-free banking wherein one can monitor their deposit accounts, credit cards, and loans, pay their utility bills, transfer funds, reload their prepaid mobile, and locate the nearest BDO branch or ATM while they are on the go. One of the primary and popular service pages the app has is its funds transferring page, available to use for same and outside banks.
As a user of this app, one of the primary issues I find unsatisfactory with the app is the frequent errors one encounters before fulfilling a transfer successfully. The app often shows an error problem that occurs right before you fulfill the transfer after all details have been included. This occurs on the most usual days (meaning when there is no apparent user surge), at any time of the day, and during its most busy times and days. I believe this issue is often the app’s complaint (you may refer to the app’s reviews on the app store/playstore as well), which causes unnecessary delays to the user’s experience, especially when the transfer is supposed to be urgent.
Listed below are the names of people who have agreed to have an interview with me.
1. Mika
2. Mae
Abridged Report
After conducting semi-structured interviews and observations with two participants, I have arrived at two main issues the scope and its problem tackle:
A) "Features Are Fixed and Not Flexible, But Users Have Different Needs"
B) "Feedbacks Are Not Very Clear Despite “The Easy and Hassle-Free Transactions”
To expound on the issues at hand, the problem mainly tackles identifying the existing efficient functions and limitations the transferring fund's page has towards its users. The issues were identified from gathered testimonies of long-time users, with differences in frequency of use and the types of transactions performed. The issues were procured by its users by continuously exposing themselves to the app, unbiased to their own limited abilities but considering a comparison between transferring funds online and in real life (by going directly to the bank).
Features Are Fixed and Not Flexible, But Users Have Different Needs
Three sub-issues were found on this key issue:
1. The risks of using the page despite its convenience
2. Some of its features are limiting users to do more
3. Transfers can go wrong and displease their users
In summary, users’ testimonies said that the transferring page is very convenient but there are fixed features that make them wary and do not fulfill their needs. This includes insufficient ways of confirming transactions, delayed arrival of funds, unavailability of past transactions, and transactions that ask for more details than needed.
A great way to solve these issues is to develop a better design that is more transparent and reflective of the users’ actions. User accounts should be more centralized like how e-wallets are to ease the user's fears of having their money sent to the wrong accounts. The page should be able to allow its users to confirm the name and account number of the recipient saved on the database right before transferring funds.
A real-time update or prompt where the funds are moving should be a better way to handle the issue of delayed funds transfers and missing transaction histories. Through this, it will be easier to identify whether the funds are going to the right place and raise concerns if they are not.
"Feedbacks Are Not Very Clear Despite “The Easy and Hassle-Free Transactions”
Five findings present on this key issue:
1. People really like hassle-free transactions
2. People like to use the transferring page at their most convenient time
3. People tend to use a feature that they are comfortable with repeatedly
4. The page can be a little too complicated for some users and lacks essentials steps or description
5. People like a good and clean interface
While the funds transferring page serves a great purpose overall, the lack of immediate feedback and prompts, and clear error messages make it difficult for users to use the page to its full extent.
Users like to use features that they are most comfortable with repeatedly and sometimes they forget to do the basic safety measures such as logging out of the app. As well, there are often unidentifiable error messages that pop up while fulfilling a transaction which leads the users to cancel it or try again at a different time. These little nuances make the “hassle-free” characteristic disregarded creating not only bad experiences for its users but also fears of reusing the same features again.
Following Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics, the best way to clear these issues is to provide easy-to-understand error messages, precise indications of the problems, and clear suggestions to solve them.
In conclusion, the funds transferring page of BDO Online Banking is a great feature to use but lacks in identifying its user's problems while using it and fails to respond efficiently to them. These seemingly minor Heuristic issues create unnecessary worries and panic in the users making them uncomfortable with situations that are supposedly easy and hassle-free and hinder them to use the page to its full extent.
