Next-Level Banking Experience Powered By Drupal
Union Bank & Trust (UBT), a growing, Midwest banking institution, was motivated to take their digital experience to the next level. Together we had specific goals to achieve—more accounts, more loans, and a better overall experience.
Any good user experience starts with insights generated from talking to real people, real customers. So that’s what we got. Our UX team interviewed people at every “life-stage,” from young people with one bank account to older folks looking to retire, and everyone in between. What were we looking for? Patterns and insights, such as the importance of seeing actual human beings before picking up the phone, confusion with banking terms, and knowing which branches offered notary services.
At the same time, our strategy team dug into the tired information architecture of the current site, looking for ways to simplify. After all, banks are banks, and people get it (for the most part). What they don’t get is how banks are different. That was the key.
WORDS ARE EVERYTHING.
The menu approach for UBT represents months of strategic thinking. The order of items, amount of items, and visual hierarchy were all painstakingly considered and tested. At the top level, it doesn’t get any simpler than this.
We present users with a direct path. Imagine if “Checking” and “Business” appeared as top-level navigation items (as is often the case). Confusion inevitably arises—where does one go for business checking accounts? This is the art and science of information architecture.
For the mega menus, we blended user familiarity and preference with UBT’s other service lines (nobody cares about a company’s org chart, btw) to balance predictability and promotion. But what if a user doesn’t know what products or services they need? That’s where we flip navigation on its head by focusing on financial goals. These curated goal pages are more about how multiple products can come together to solve the customer’s needs, then offer the products to do the job.
FINANCE IS CONFUSING, BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE.
UBT’s digital team is ahead of the curve. They had already been investing in useful educational content, but it wasn’t presented well as it was usually buried so far in the sitemap it was rarely used.
By focusing on user goals and the “life-stage” idea, we better organized educational content under these large themes (as opposed to dozens and dozens of tags). Now the content is thematically connected and logically points to conversion. For example, when younger customers are learning how to build credit, UBT offers simplified credit card CTAs and mobile banking tools in context of the education content—not separately! This is how you achieve more with less.
BUILT FOR PEOPLE
Powered by Drupal 8 and Paragon, UBT’s website was a breath of fresh air to the marketing team. Modular components allow for infinite combinations of layouts as opposed to strict “page templates” (a dirty phrase around here). Even complex components such as account comparison tables were built by our Drupal developers to respond to different amounts of content and, of course, to screen size. Every component was tested under mobile conditions to ensure responsiveness and speed.
When it finally came to populating content, the UBT team took to the site like fish to water. Some clients struggle to bring their content vision to the web. But the UBT team knocked it out of the park. After a few training sessions with us, and using high-level page emphasis maps and content architecture, UBT’s content admins embraced Drupal’s flexibility to make the site their own.
DOLLARS AND SENSE.
Months before the site launched, detailed tracking metrics began measuring the existing conversion rate for various KPIs. We needed to understand where the weak points were, initially, and have a comparison once we re-launched to evaluate success.
Even with high expectations, we didn’t expect the results we see now. Six months after launch, we can happily report a slew of impressive metrics, directly tied to UBT’s business goals. These results are a combination of UBT’s dedicated marketing team, the built-in and optimized user experience of the site, and the ease of the Drupal 8 backend.
Increase in deposit apps started
Increase in loan & credit apps started
Increase in business inquiries
WHAT’S NEXT?
Our work is never done, and although everything we’ve built alongside UBT has performed, we can do even better.
Content personalization and integration is next on our roadmap. Our Drupal 8 personalization module, Smart Content, will help make the UBT Drupal website even smarter when it comes to providing the right next step to new and existing customers.
