When Scotiabank was redesigning its mobile app, the Product Design team had set their sights on a version of a homepage that they were convinced would work seamlessly. Upon login, customers would get quick access to various tools to manage their account, and then a separate tab would show them the latest transactions.

But when the bank asked their customers and employees to try it out in the beta version of the app, “We certainly heard about it,” said Pamela Hilborn, who is the SVP, Global Head of Design for digital banking. One of the main concerns testers expressed was about the additional clicks required to get transaction data.

The frank feedback prompted more changes in what had already been an intensive design process. “I would not have felt comfortable going out to a huge public launch with that kind of magnitude of a design issue,” she said. “And those kinds of issues you can't predict. You have to get people to use them.”

This feedback from the beta testing group is just one element of the “design thinking” concept in practice. The new Scotia app was launched in May and is currently enjoying 4+ star ratings on both the Google Play and Apple app stores.

Design thinking uses what Hilborn calls a “clean slate” approach, free of expectations of what the issue or problem is that needs to be solved. She likens it to conducting a scientific experiment, where one observes and gathers information before forming a hypothesis.

“I try not to go in with expectations on what we're designing,” Hilborn says. “I've been designing for a long time, over 20 years in technology, and what I think is going to work sometimes doesn't. I've been proven wrong enough times to not make that mistake.”

'Objective eyes'

Her group’s work is ultimately about solving problems – problems that people (in their case, bank customers) may not even know they have. Correctly defining a problem is a crucial early step, and to do that effectively, Hilborn says she first needs to identify and eliminate a design thinker’s worst enemy – bias.

“You cannot come in to a project with a preconceived notion of what the solution is,” she says. “It is a process of observing, thinking, working creatively and innovatively, to find the solution.”

The design thinking approach is used in many industries, from mobile phone design to airports to food. But in banking, an industry where customer experience and retention are directly tied to revenue, design thinking is critical.

“It can be applied to any number of different problems.” says Hilborn. “Basically, within financial services, where we're looking at a digital user experience, we want something that's well-designed, that's seamless, that's transparent, that engages you.”

Hilborn and her team rely on a “beta” group, actual bank customers who volunteer to test new digital products, such as the new mobile app, before they’re released to the public. This is another way of avoiding the biases that develop among those who’ve spent long hours working on a project. “I’ve learned I need objective eyes,” she said.

Local designers help understand culture, context

A fresh perspective can also help reveal customer needs that differ between geographic areas ­– a key factor for Scotiabank with its presence in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Latin America, each of which come with unique cultures, regulations and security challenges. To tackle that issue, Scotiabank launched digital factories and established dedicated design teams in Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.  

“We rely on those local designers who are part of that culture to understand the context, to understand the lived and breathed reality of living in those countries,” Hilborn explains.

Currency is one example where bias can come into play. For example, in Mexico, even routine transactions can involve many thousands of pesos, so the user interface needs enough real estate to display very large numbers. That requirement is not going to be front-of-mind for a designer working in Canada.

“You can’t create a cookie-cutter customer experience; people are very unique in each country,” says Hilborn. “As much as design thinking is about keeping bias out, it’s also about keeping humans and culture at the centre of everything we do.”

Usability and design are particularly important when it comes to apps, given the fierce competition and high bar set by the world’s most popular apps for social media, navigation and games.

Because technology is constantly evolving, Hilborn’s work is never really done – and when it is done well, the customer won’t notice the hand of the designer at all.

“Truthfully, our definition of success is a customer saying: ‘That was super easy, I didn’t have to think about it at all, the transfer went through and my phone’s back in my pocket'.”

Scotiabank’s chief digital officer Shawn Rose describes digital as the best “front door” to the customer.

“The applications disappear with the phone and become part of the customer’s everyday experience,” he says. “That’s when the magic happens. The digital part of this – counterintuitively – is a very human way to be able to meet the customer.”