This document summarizes the user-centered design process undertaken to redesign the customer portal experience for a debt recovery company. The design team conducted stakeholder interviews, user research including personas and analytics, cross-channel responsive design, testing, and iterative prototyping. The result was a 72.5% increase in online transactions, 66% increase in revenue, and 40 hours of agent time saved per month in the first 7 months since launch. The document emphasizes the importance of understanding user needs through research in order to create positive experiences.

1. HELLO.I’m Matt
@duckymatt

2. @cyberduck_uk cyber-duck.co.uk

3. DESIGNING
BETTER
EXPERIENCES

4. USER CENTRED DESIGN?
SO, WHAT IS

5. The best designed products and
services result from understanding
the needs of the people who will use
them.

6. Credit: http://xkcd.com/773/

7. CREATING MYDLC,
A CROSS-CHANNEL
END-TO-END
CUSTOMER PORTAL
EXPERIENCE

8. DESIGNING A POSITIVE
USER EXPERIENCE FOR
A DEBT RECOVERY COMPANY.
THE CHALLENGE

9. OUR OBJECTIVES
INCREASE USER-FRIENDLINESS
EMPOWER CUSTOMERS
STREAMLINE BUSINESS PROCESS

10. OUR
PROCESS

11. RESEARCH

12. STAKEHOLDER
INTERVIEWS
ONE ON ONE
ANONYMOUS
BROAD CROSS-SECTION
LEARNT A LOT ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS
AND HOW THEY COMMUNICATE

13. The turning point in
many interviews is when
the interviewee gets up
and closes the office door
and lowers their voice.
PAUL BOAG
Photo credit: Andreas Øverland: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreasoverland/4954194732/ Source: http://boagworld.com/business-strategy/how-to-improve-your-site-using-stakeholder-interviews/

14. USER RESEARCH

15. CLIENT
EXPOSURE TO
USER RESEARCH

16. There is a direct
correlation between
this exposure and the
improvements we see
in the designs that
team produces.
JARED SPOOL
Photo credit: Jeffrey Zeldman: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeldman/8614173005/
http://www.uie.com/articles/user_exposure_hours/

17. PERSONAS
BASED ON RESEARCH
CREATE A PICTURE OF WHO WE’RE
DESIGNING FOR
USED THROUGHOUT DESIGN
ENCOURAGE EMPATHY!

18. SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS
THE STUDY OF SIGNS AND SYMBOLS AND
SOCIETY’S INTERPRETATION OF THEM
WE LOOKED AT MEANING CODED INTO
DLC’S EXISTING DESIGNS

19. ANALYTICS
ON DLC, GOOGLE ANALYTICS
WAS LARGELY UNHELPFUL
AND CREATED A FALSE
PICTURE OF OUR USERS
INSTEAD WE USED BUSINESS
DATA TO HELP INFORM OUR
PERSONA RESEARCH

20. CROSS CHANNEL
RESPONSIVE DESIGN

21. ACTIVELY AVOIDING
MISINTERPRETATION
FORK HANDLES
OR FOUR CANDLES?
Image credit: BBC. (The Two Ronnies, 1976)

22. PRESENTING DESIGNS
RATHER THAN EMAILING THEM
Image credit: Dreamworks SKG, Universal Pictures, Scott Free Productions, Mill Film, C&L, Dawliz and Red Wagon Entertainment (Gladiator, 2000)

23. DESIGNS WON’T
SELL THEMSELVES
Image credit: Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television (The Simpsons, 1997)

24. “WHAT DO YOU THINK?”
IS THE ENEMY OF
CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK
Image credit: Warner Bros, Hawk Films, Peregrine and The Producer Circle Company (The Shining, 1980)

25. The client didn’t hire
you to make something
they liked, and
something they like may
not be the thing that
leads to their success.
MIKE MONTEIRO
Photo credit: Amber Gregory: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fontshop/7091584773/ RECOMMENDED READING: http://www.abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job
Source: https://medium.com/@monteiro/13-ways-designers-screw-up-client-presentations-51aaee11e28c

26. DEFINE A NARRATIVE
USER STORIES TO DEFINE
A NATURAL FLOW TO THE UX.
KEEPING POSSIBLE DECISIONS
PER STEP TO A MINIMUM.

27. HICK’S LAW
TIME
TAKEN TO
RESPOND
NUMBER OF OPTIONS

28. MOBILE FIRST
WE STARTED ALL PROTOTYPES
LOOKING AT THE SMALL SCREEN
FIRST.
IT’S EASIER TO SCALE UP A DESIGN
THAN TO SQUEEZE A DESKTOP SITE
ON MOBILE.

29. FORM OPTIMISATION

30. SKETCH

33. TONE OF VOICE
90% OF INTERFACE DESIGN IS
TONE OF VOICE.
GETTING THIS RIGHT ON MYDLC
WAS CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF
THE DESIGN.

34. TONE OF VOICE
It was actually really nicely put. I’ve obviously had
letters like this before. I’ve never seen anywhere, you
know ‘please call us and we will take your circumstances
into account’. I really liked that on that letter. You are
more willing to actually deal with it, than shoving it in
the bin and saying you never received the letter.

35. TEST, TEST, AND TEST SOME MORE
Image credit: The Ladd Company, Shaw Brothers and Warner Bros. (Blade Runner, 1982)

37. ▲
72.5%
TRANSACTIONS
INCREASE IN ONLINE
TRANSACTIONS IN FIRST
7 MONTHS SINCE
LAUNCH
▲
66%
REVENUE
INCREASE IN REVENUE
IN FIRST 7 MONTHS
SINCE LAUNCH
40
HOURS
SAVED
AGENT TIME
SAVED A HUGE AMOUNT
OF AGENT TIME PER
MONTH

38. Businesses cannot treat their
customers as passive “consumers”
any longer; every company is in the
user experience business.
KAREN MCGRANE
Source: http://alistapart.com/column/explaining-water-to-fish
Photo credit: Eirik Helland Urke: http://www.flickr.com/photos/webdagene/6149954950/

39. THANK YOU
@duckymatt @cyberduck_uk