Simplify your life and stay in control with the Wells Fargo Mobile® App. Manage your finances; make check deposits, transfer funds, and pay bills, all in the palm of your hand. App features include: Manage your accounts, deposit funds, make transfers & payments, send money to friends using Zelle, track investments, stay secure, locate ATMs, email customer service, and more.
As part of my UI/UX Master Certificate class at FIT, we were tasked with redesigning any banking app. I use a couple banking apps, but for the most part, I use Wells Fargo. It does everything you need it to do, but it is overcomplicated, and could use more intuitive features. A feature many users frequent is money transfer, and that is hidden behind a hamburger menu. There is so much information, it can be hard to organize it, but here goes nothing.
Pros
• Highly rated mobile app
• Financial Health tracking
• Chase Quickpay with Zelle
• Rewards program
Cons
• Unexplained glitches
• Poor wait time mobile check deposit
• Delayed transactions
Pros
• Easy to set up and use
• Fingerprint access
• Pay friends with Zelle
Cons
• No real time updates
• Only 6 transfers per month
• Mobile check deposit crashes app
Pros
• Touch-free pay with QR code
• Send or request money
• Instant spending notifications
• Very secure app
Cons
• Transaction fees for debit cards
• No bill splitting feature
For this redesign project, I focused on improving some features, but also wanted to add something new. After interviewing family & friends, reading articles, reviews, user comment sections, and more,
a few similar complaints started emerging.
I would like to see my transaction history
immediately update in
real time
I should not have to dig
through the app to find
where I can transfer money
...Transactions should be
easier to find AND should be
updated after purchases
Dates of checks...map view of purchases...list of joint account user shown with purchases would be nice
...I wish I could view all of my
accounts on one page as soon as
I open the app, so I immediately
know how much money I have
With WF there is much more
clicking...I forget where I am
in the app sometimes
The Wells Fargo app does it’s job, but feels like it was designed with the bank in mind, not the user. While bank apps are critical and contain lots of vital information, they must present that information in a simple way. Your money, mortgage, car payments, credit cards, rewards, and more are all inside this app, so let’s make all of that more accesible. It should not be a chore to transfer money to your friend after dinner.
Home Screen Update
After securly scanning your face, you are in...but now where do I go. After a quick 2 step setup, you can customize 6 most used features that you use the most. They are positioned at the bottom of the screen for easy access. Everyone uses their bank apps differently, so why shouldn’t everyone’s home page be unique to them?
Snapshot
Sometimes, you are in line at the store and you realize it is the 14th of the month, and want to make sure you have enough money to buy whatever it is that you shouldn’t be buying . Click on “Snapshot” and you are presented with all of your major accounts all on one screen. No clicking around, they are at your fingertips.
Transfer Money
In their current app, you have to hit the hamburger to get a drop down menu, to click on “Transfer Money.” Now you can access it from the home screen. People are constantly transferring money between accounts or to other people and there is no reason it should be difficult to do. I also worked to streamline that process and eliminate some unnecessary steps.
As I said above, this is more about the user’s convenience than anything else. Everyone uses their bank app differently, so everyone’s home screen should be different. It is easy to set up custom buttons for 1-click access to your most used features.
Sketching and Testing
Through user testing, I was able to figure out a way to have your most-used features at your fingertips. Is it best to have the user set that up? Should it be based on usage? Both? I decided it was best to have the user in control. Using a quick set up, you can have your home screen your way.
High Fidelity Prototype
This feature is simple, yet effective. You are wondering if you have enough money to buy that giant TV you are staring at. They are so cheap these days, how can you not buy it? Now, with one click, you see that you can afford to get it! This new “Snapshot” feature cannot explain the TV to your girlfriend, though.
Sketching and Testing
Right now, the app combines your checking and savings accounts and shows you how much you have combined. It does the same to your credit cards. This does not help if you have more than one account and need to know exactly where your money is.
High Fidelity Prototype
For the update, you can see all of your accounts and how much is in each one. Once you select an account you can dive in and see the transactions for that account. This is another area where I simplified the list of transactions and labeled each so at a glance you can see where you are spending your money. The app also breaks down how you spend your money if you would like to find any “trouble areas” of your spending.
Transferring money is a very important feature. You could be sharing money with a friend or just transferring between your accounts. In the current UI, you need to click for more options and find transfer in the long list of options. Now? it’s on the home page.
Sketching and Testing
Now, once you get to the transfer money section, it is fairly standard, but not great. Some issues found were there is too much extraneous information and a few too many steps. Also, when you select where your money is transferring FROM, that account disappears in the TO section. That would be more clear if the account your transfer FROM just faded or dimmed to show that you can’t send money to the same account.
High Fidelity Prototype
The end result is simple: transfer from here to there and confirm. Complicated made easy.
The Wells Fargo app is pretty good but it needs some help. Right now it feels very corporate and does just enough to be serviceable. But, that bar should be higher. With a small UI tweaks, this can be an inviting and intuitive app that users would love. People want to love their banking app as it is so critical in their lives. It needs more features that focus on the user and not how we can jam that feature into an already jammed pack app. If we build it (with more customization options), they will come.
