Deals Plus
Bank of America’s cash back rewards program
Reimagine a new deals platform that introduces new and relevant deals while providing a simplified and easy-to-use experience.
PLATFORM
iOS, Android, Web
MY ROLE
Principal designer
Wireframing, visuals, research, design direction
THE TEAM
PL, 2 Designers, Content Strategist, Researcher
Overview
BankAmeriDeals is Bank of America’s cash back rewards program where customers can gain cash back on deals they choose when they use their eligible Bank of America credit or debit card. The experience has not been touched for a long time – it currently does not use the bank’s enterprise design system, functionality is antiquated, and the deals aren’t as enticing anymore. This project was critical, with key stakeholders wanting to introduce 300+ new deals, provide customization capabilities, and reimagine the way customers interact with deals.
My role
As a Principal designer, I helped a lot during the discovery phase. I co-led stakeholder interviews, created executive presentations outlining business strategy with the VOC, designed and directed overall visual direction, and helped carve out the studies for usability.
Problem statement
The current BankAmeriDeals program lacks relevancy and personalization and was unable to inherit new offerings due to the large volume and complexities. It also fails to build and deepen relationships across our financial customer segments.
How might we be able to reimagine and redesign a deals experience into a scalable platform that: aligns with our brand, includes robust functionality, and enhances usability all while serving more customer segments and drives re-engagement through brand loyalty?
What we discovered
We assessed insights and findings from both the VOC of key stakeholders and direct feedback from the customer.
It’s not individualized or relevant
Users want offers from businesses they know and frequent. Offers should be based on customer data and behaviors while displaying at the right moment.
Customers are unaware of offers
Customers directly reacted to having to find BankAmeriDeals, stating they were simply unaware these offers existed.
Customers want cash-back deals
Customers want more cash-back deals and deals that have a valuable incentive.
Too cumbersome
Customers want to opt out of BankAmeriDeals due to visual clutter and difficulty navigating.
Process
Deep-dived during the discovery phase. As a team we looked into past and current research, pulling out key insights, and finding gaps.
Stakeholder interviews – build relationships with partners and understand what defines success with 20 key stakeholders
External research – competitive & comparative analysis
Internal research – Auditing of current experience
Flow diagram of existing experience
Design Sprints
Collaboration & ideation
The team used 2-week sprints to hold open working sessions where they would ideate and sketch out features and big-picture concepts. Partners were also invited to participate for sharing understanding and inclusivity. As a Principal my role was to start early in their ideation work and provide helpful IA, frameworks, and potential strategic and design direction through my wireframes. As I notice designers getting deeper into the concepts I normally jump ahead and start evaluating what I see, and loosely design hi-fi concepts.
What tested
We then conducted several usability test cycles, focusing on current experience and a lot of test and learn. We had a researcher help support our overarching research goals, questions, and design stimuli, but the team was extremely hands-on. We needed to understand the current baseline and what existing behaviors are when shopping for deals. From there, we evaluated what features made sense to enhance the next study, looking into new functionality as well. This helps us see how users react when given a more customized shopping experience and understand what matters most through their shopping journey.
Key takeaways
Tools and customization are important
By pairing robust search and filtering with informed recommendations, we demonstrate the value of Deals and motivate users to interact with the platform
Create clear and discrete categories
Many more deals are coming to the Deals platform, therefore we must make sure they are categorized and tagged robustly and accurately for ease of findability.
Contextual education is key
To minimize confusion over new deal types that are coming to the platform, we need to educate users for easier navigation to this transition.
Final designs
Unfortunately, when the team went to deliver designs for tech grooming, it was discovered that our offers management storage would not be able to hold as many deals as our product partners had envisioned. Due to this, the project was descoped by about 90% to allow funding to be supported for storage.
Here is a brief overview of the main screen designs.
Onboarding
New onboarding screens were created to help orient the user on the new revamped BankAmeriDeals experience that would be known as Deals Plus. 3 quick splash screens help set expectations. I helped the team of designers feel inspired by creating initial illustrations for each screen. All 3 encompass my overall direction, but I always allow designers to have their take and add their own characteristics to it.
Landing screen
The main landing screen for Deals Plus was completely redesigned with new and updated functionality and alignment to the Bank of America design system. Many user and business concerns were addressed, by including personalized and relevant deals and clarity with the types of deals and ways to save.
Deal descriptions
The description pages for the merchants became a far more robust design. Better information hierarchy, focus on merchant logo, and imagery helped with easier scanning and comprehension of the deal itself. We provided how-to instructions, ways to save a deal, important callouts, and relevant deals below the instructions to ensure they get the best deal within their category.
Contextual education
Below is an example of one of a few ways we wanted to include contextual education. Our current design system does not support coachmarking, so we had to find alternative ways to introduce education. This scenario below show: 1. A user adds a deal to be used with their debit or credit card 2. Deal gets added to their offers page 3. A sheet opens from the bottom on their first deal added, and informs users on where they can access that added deal.