Project Goals and Objectives

USAA wanted members to opt-in for more of the financial services and features that the company had to offer. The idea was to Bundle these services by life events and milestones, such as Marriage or Moving. Phase 2 and 3 were further iterations of Phase 1. We wanted to help our members and simplify their lives, and instill more confidence in the milestones they experience, as drive more conversion for these products and services for USAA.

Phase 1 and 2

I briefly started on this project at the end of Phase 1, where I was asked to build a prototype for Usability Testing using visual designs from Phase 1. I was not involved in the actual test sessions. I, again, was asked to build a prototype for Phase 2, but still was not involved in the testing sessions. Note, you'll want to toggle the "Show Hotspots" switch to help guide you through the prototype, as there are a few different interactions on each page. Also, you may want to use the navigator at times to switch to a different page, if ever stuck. A key difference between these two prototypes is the key-entry to the Bundles and Merging Finances pages. Phase 1 has a "Member Advantages" on the dashboard, while Phase 2 has an added tab within Products Menu in the Global Nav.

Phase 3 Kickoff

I was placed on the Bundling project as the official Experience Architect for Phase 3. I was provided with overall feedback from the Phase 2 Usability Test:

• The Bundling concept resonates – The majority of participants continued to engage with bundling pages and were receptive to the overall concept
• Lead with products – We should support products with educational content and member benefits that support the USAA brand.
• Avoid the hard sell – Participants viewed Bundling as a holistic USAA awareness piece and found lots of value in product descriptions and the ability to save for later.
• Solution out the details – Solutions are needed for small interactions (e.g. save for later), representing multiple products within a category (e.g. credit cards) and finalizing nomenclature around key terms.

I created User Flows to reflect the new experience.

I also worked with a Content Strategist who provided Page Template Layouts with Content to place in those sections. These would help me with my wireframe design solutions. Below is a snapshot of what these templates looked like.

Wireframes

Concept 1: Starting Out

This was a tabbed approach taken from Phase 1, but with some changes to the interactions on the page.

Concept 2: Sticky Nav Hybrid Approach

This was a hybrid experience with Concept 1, where the tabs were now placed as page-section navigation menu items on a sticky nav bar. I played around with placing it on top of the page and on the bottom. The bottom worked much better.

Creative Design and Prototypes

The creatives (Visual Designers) on the team brought the wireframes to life with visual design. We eliminated Concept 1, which was a tabbed approach because it felt like it was taken away from the flow and the main task(s) at-hand.

Concept 1: Sticky Nav

Concept 2: Expand Panel

I also had a last minute idea for a different concept that I quickly sketched out prototyped, and my peers weren't too sure about it. But I really felt it would be a great solution to the problem we were trying to solve, so we went ahead with designing it and testing it. The idea would be that the Bundles Packaging Tool would be placed as an interactive side panel that would expand and collapse upon an interactive tab. The Member Benefits and Advice & Guidance would be static on the page, while the tab would "scroll" with the page scroll.

These are links to the next two prototypes that reflect these concepts: Prototype 1 is focused on Starting Out, while the second prototype is focused on Auto. With each of these, the key entry is in the newly designed Global Nav Menu, under Our Products, and inside Product Packages. For Prototype 2, you'll also notice there are two concepts for "Starting Out," where the sticky nav sticks to the top in one and on bottom in the other. Again, it's advised to toggle on the "Show Hotspots" switch to help guide you through the interactions.

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Research and Usability Testing

I was tasked with helping write out the test plan for Phase 3. We conducted Usability Testing and Focus Group testing at Schlesinger Group. We tested for three days and while testing, I would take feedback, and even made edits to the prototypes between sessions and included an additional concept with completely added interactions and flows.

Research Findings

I wrote raw notes, then put them in an excel spreadsheet I created, and submitted them to the team as a deck.

The feedback was mostly pleasant and insightful. I am not recalling on which concept was chosen, but I do believe the Expand Panel concept resonated the most with the test participants.