Inclusive Banking
Designing an inclusive digital banking proposition for Barclays that empowers neurodiverse individuals to take control of their credit scores. The project introduces a unique design language and a digital credit scoring product, aimed at promoting financial understanding, improving customer experience, and endorsing neurodiverse inclusivity within banking services.
Project Overview
Sept - Dec 2022 | 3 Months
Barclays, one of UK’s largest banks, tasked us with designing a digital proposition that would cater to the unique needs of their neurodiverse customer base. This engagement was set against the backdrop of UK’s evolving inclusivity norms in banking and business practices. By taking an empathetic design approach, we conceptualised two propositions that not only better serve the needs of Barclays’ existing neurodiverse customers, but also open avenues for cross-selling and also expanding their customer base across the broader UK neurodiverse audience.
The Team & My Role
As a Service Designer, I was a part of a four student team from the Royal College of Art, collaborating with Barclays’ business, compliance, design, data, and technology teams. We presented our final solutions to Barclays’ Chief Design Officer.
Service Design, UX Design, Design Strategy, Ethnographic Research, Workshop Facilitation, Insight-Opportunity Mapping, Prototyping, Client Management, Project Management.
Skillsets I Leveraged
Research & Insight Generation
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We delved into an extensive secondary research to grasp the nuances of neurodiversity and current inclusive banking practices. Our sources ranged from books and medical journal studies to comprehensive PESTLE Analysis and Competitor Landscaping. This was critical to understand the spectrum of neurodiversity and to assess the exiting market offerings, thereby identifying gaps and white spaces for Barclays.
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To align with Barclays’ strategic vision, we held discussions with key stakeholders, including their Chief Design Officer and VP of External Regulatory Engagement. These dialogues revealed the bank’s goals and the legislative environment shaping inclusive customer experiences, laying groundwork that complies with regulations and aligns with Barclays’ objectives.
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We gained a first-hand understanding of pain points and needs of neurodiverse individuals through research sessions with 15 individuals. The insights gained from these dialogues were distilled into detailed personas and empathy maps. This empathetic approach allowed us to design a solution tailored to their unique challenges and preferences, focusing on enhancing their financial wellbeing.
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To validate our findings and strategic direction, we formed a panel of six experts across neurodiversity and inclusive design. Their valuable feedback allowed us to align our project direction, ensuring we were on a path that would have a meaningful impact on neurodiverse individuals
Key Problems
The research helped us isolate three pivotal obstacles uniquely shaping the financial experiences of neurodiverse individuals:
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Frequently, neurodiverse individuals grapple with sensory overstimulation and information processing difficulties, leading to challenges in digesting and comprehending complex financial information.
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A common challenge amongst neurodiverse individuals was an internal cognitive distrust in their own abilities to handle credit. This distrust, often resulting from sensory overload, information processing difficulties, and inability to act on tasks in a timely manner, led to delayed actions. Consequently, this negatively impacted their credit history and scores, further fuelling the distrust.
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A significant knowledge gap was discerned among neurodiverse individuals about understanding their credit scores, including uncertainty about the factors influencing these scores and the strategies to sustain or improve them.
Opportunity
How might we assist neurodiverse individuals in managing their credit score in a way that is sensitive to and cares for their sensory and information processing needs
Setting Strategic Directions
Our intent was to redefine how neurodiverse individuals interact with their banking experience, making it not just accessible but also empowering, fostering financial autonomy and confidence in this underserved demographic. The goal was to set Barclays apart as a supportive and empathetic financial partner for all its customers.
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We envisaged a strategic goal to build an environment that fosters communication tailored to each customer’s unique needs. By innovating the standard models of information delivery and interaction, we wanted to create a paradigm shift that dismantles barriers, making banking more intuitive and less overwhelming for neurodiverse individuals.
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Our vision expanded beyond merely developing tools for credit management. We sought to create a systemic change in how neurodiverse individuals interact with their finances. The objective was to empower them to undertake timely financial decisions backed by the right underlying knowledge, thereby building trust and confidence in the banking system and within themselves.
Arriving at the Final Solution
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Our journey to designing the final solution commenced with speculative ‘What-If’ scenarios and Futures Wheel exercises. These activities stimulated imaginative thinking around the potential futures of inclusive banking, thereby shedding light on immediate actions required to transform the current banking and personal financial management landscape.
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We conducted a series of ideation exercises, including Crazy Eights, SCAMPER, and 10x10 Brainstorming. These sessions fuelled the generation of unique concepts centred around sensory load reduction, information processing improvement, and credit score enhancement, stretching across both physical and digital domains.
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We took our preliminary concepts back to our neurodiverse research panel and experts, receiving endorsements for our focused approach. Preferences for familiar voice tones for information delivery and universal colour patterns for action indicators emerged as valuable insights. It was here that we realised a clear need for a proactive credit score management product.
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Our insights from the prototyping phase guided us in designing two unique solutions, which we later validated:
A new design language based on semiotics and accessibility technology which allows neurodiverse individuals to consume information in a way that works best for them.
Nurominder, a credit score management tool that leverages the new design language, and proactively nudges neurodiverse individuals in taking timely actions around their credit score, while delivering the right information around these actions, so as to make the users feel confident and in control.
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Our final endeavour was to present our solution to Barclays’ key stakeholders, outlining our vision for seamless integration of the new design language into existing Barclays guidelines. We proposed strategies and business plans for the potential development and rollout of Nurominder, either as an in-house offering or a separate start-up in partnership with Barclays.
Our efforts culminated in customer journey maps, service blueprints, product specification document, a business model canvas, and a comprehensive business plan.
Solution Delivery
Impact
Customer Impact:
Enhanced Barclays’ service for 7.2 million neurodiverse customers and expanded financial understanding and confidence across Barclays' customer base.
Business Impact:
Potential for cross-selling and customer base expansion to broader neurodiverse audience in UK.
Industry Influence:
Establishes Barclays as a leader in neuro-inclusive financial experiences, setting new industry standards, thereby improving their brand image, reputation, and credibility in the financial market.
Key Learnings
Engaging with this audience is difficult, not because they don't want to speak, but because we communicate with neurotypical tools.
A robust neurodiverse design language needs to be rolled out across the banking ecosystem for all products and services.
There is no one size fits all. Micro interventions are needed to nudge forward.
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