• Temenos / CWB Banking

Client

CWB Banking via Temenos Group

Role

UX Lead Designer

Industry

Banking

Date

2020-2021

Project Overview

CWB Financial Group, a diversified financial services organization established in 1984, is embarking on a transformative digital banking initiative.
This project aimed to launch a revamped digital platform, including a responsive web application and mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. The new digital banking solution was set to offer a wide range of features, from basic account management and fund transfers to advanced trust and wealth management tools, reflecting CWB's specialized services. Success is expected to be measured through user adoption rates, customer satisfaction scores, and the platform's impact on digital product sales.

This initiative represents a significant step in CWB's evolution, translating its 40-year commitment to personalized financial services into the digital realm and catering to its diverse client base across Canada, with a particular focus on its strong presence in the western provinces.

Design Methodology

I approached this project based on User-centered Design methodology within Scrum, by focusing on the users and their needs in each phase of the design process for the project. At the same time, company demands where to be met, developing an application that would cater to the canadian population, therefore business insights and market fit was integrated inside the design process.

Research and Conceptualization

Extensive research was conducted to understand user behaviors, preferences, and expectations. This included analyzing market trends, competitor analysis, user interviews, and surveys to gather insights into the banking preferences and digital experiences of Canadian customers.

Unfortunately, as this was done within a specific database of bank users from CWB the information and process cannot be disclosed in picture. 🤫

Business Requirements

As part of the modernization, CWB decided to refresh its technology strategy.

Rather than piecing together core solutions from multiple vendors, the bank looked for a single platform with comprehensive functionality. Furthermore, CWB aimed to eliminate the complexity of managing upgrades and development work by working with a partner that could deliver continuous enhancements which is why they decided to work with Temenos Banking Technologies(my team yay!).

Design Sprints

As a UX Lead Designer, I conducted design sprints to ideate and prototype solutions that would meet the identified user needs. This involved sketching, wireframing, and prototyping different design concepts, which were then validated through user testing and feedback sessions with the Product Owner from CWB and their main UX Lead in-house Designer from the Bank.


Following the Scrum framework, development work was organized into sprints, typically two to three weeks long. Each sprint began with sprint planning, where the team selected user stories from the backlog to work on during the sprint. The development team then implemented the agreed-upon features, while me as a UX Designer, provided design support and guidance as needed.

Testing - Debugging

Throughout the development process, the product was continuously tested to identify any usability issues or bugs. User feedback was collected through usability testing sessions with beta releases, and analytics data, allowing the team to make data-driven decisions and iterate on the product.

As features were completed and tested, they were integrated into the Temenos Infinity technology and deployed to CWB's digital platforms. Continuous integration and deployment practices were followed to ensure a smooth and seamless release process.

Final Solution

Overall, the usability evaluation conducted with Power Maintenance employees presented high ratings for ‘Usefulness’, ‘Ease of use’, ‘Ease of Learning’, indicating a high range of ‘Satisfaction’ among all participants with the mobile learning platform. These results suggest a perceived likelihood of continued use of the tool by the employees. The platform was uploaded to Volvo's Power App's Application centre, where all PM Employees will have access to it starting August 2024.


Mobile Application

A cohesive design was implemented across both web and mobile to maintain brand identity from CWB.

Web Platform
Additional requirements such as business transactions and foreign exchange calculator were added for the web platform only as that would be streamlined for business only accounts.

Results

The final product was released to all users in January 2021 accelerating payment and banking processes for thousands of users amongst CWB banking channels, allowing the users to a increased access to CWB’s highly-competitive suite of online deposit and cash management products from anywhere and anytime, which was highly crucial as the release was made Post-Covid 19, and users needed to increase their digital accesibility now more than ever.

The partnership with Temenos proved a major success for CWB, bringing greater agility to their digital product channels. For example, adopting the streamlined, functionality-rich core platform from Temenos has accelerated product development and shortened time-to-market for new services. Furthermore, CWB has reduced the costs of development cycles and processing client transactions

Want to read more about it?
Read it here in the press release: https://www.temenos.com/community/success-stories/canadian-western-bank-success-story/