Transforming the mobile banking experience

Historical customers can count on a vast network of branches spread all over the kingdom where they are used to do their banking operations with a human interlocutor. The challenge lies in the capacity to serve demanding users already convinced of Mobile Banking and at the same time to convert a whole population to digital which needs to be guided and reassured to use this channel.

For more than 4 years of continuous collaboration with the bank, we have been confronted with many distinct situations. Thanks to a user-centered approach we have been able to deliver relevant solutions and make Attijariwafa Bank the mobile banking reference in Morocco. We learned to innovate with the human we serve at the center of product design, technologies and business model.

The first notable and most visible innovation was to rethink the user experience. The existing Attijari Mobile application’s user interface (UI) was outdated and its navigation was not designed to support many features. Following a Mobile Banking application benchmark at local and international level, BABEL’s UX designer interviewed the product team to understand the types of target users and define the Personas. Subsequently the information architecture and the customer path have been optimized to provide quick navigation and facilitate interaction between the different services: e.g. when checking one's account, a contextual menu appears to make a transfer from this account. This shortcut eliminates valuable clicks and improves the user experience.

In order to accelerate innovation and leverage collective intelligence, Attijari has switched to agile platforms - a flatter organization where digital teams and business representatives cooperate in a new open workspace.

Babel accompanied this evolution by certifying its consultants and proposing the creation of mobile squads composed of a Scrum Master, an UX/UI designer and 2 to 4 mobile developers adopting the latest technologies (Swift 4 on iOS and kotlin on Android).

Interestingly, this operation mode of 10 day Sprints has given the team more freedom as well as the right to make mistakes. Rapidly, the design of products and services could be accelerated and the team was more responsive to customer needs.

At a more technical level, we enhanced our development workflow with the adoption of several practices and processes such as continuous integration with GitLab CI and test-driven development: this contributed to improving the quality of code and deliverables and therefore customer satisfaction.

Thanks to feature flipping, Attijari can activate/deactivate features on a per-user basis. Typically we use it to beta test new features on a sample of the bank’s employees and gather their feedback before deciding to go live. 

In our data-driven approach, we start by defining for each user story the objectives to be reached, then we establish the tagging plan to be implemented in the application and finally we configure the goals to be tracked. Conversion funnels give an accurate picture of the steps taken by the user to reach the objectives. Monitoring these metrics allows to identify pain points in the customer journey and review the user experience where appropriate. Babel can thus ensure that the product is in line with customer expectations, which is particularly useful to generate more sales.

One of the app’s key business features is the payment of services/products directly from the application: electricity bill, mobile phone bill, internet bill, toll recharging, vehicle fines, ... UX is greatly improved and more secure: the client can be notified before the due date of an invoice and does not need to enter his credit card code on a web form that is not always adapted for mobile.

As of today, the bet is won. Thanks to “Attijari Mobile” application for individuals and “Attijari Entreprise” for businesses, it is no longer necessary to go to a branch for daily operations. With the rise of artificial intelligence and big data, we will go further in the dematerialization and personalization of banking services.