Emirates Islamic Digital UX
Finance and banking digital enhancements
Intro
Emirates Islamic Bank(EIB) is a United Arab Emirates based bank engaged in the provision of Sharia-compliant banking solutions This is one of the premium islamic bank in the market and as connected to Emirates NBD it has its own set of premium and loyal customers.
The Problem
As the sole UX designer within a ten-person agile squad at Emirates Islamic, I was tasked with enhancing the digital customer journey across retail and online banking channels. The team focused on bug fixes, addressing customer feedback, and implementing feature requests.
Traditional Banking environment: As part of a traditional bank, it's very hard to explain the importance of user
experience to people.
UX maturity: A prevalent challenge was the limited understanding of UX design as a distinct discipline. Design was often equated with development, and the significance of clearly articulating problem statements was undervalued.
UX in Agile environment: The two-week sprint cycle demanded efficient planning and execution of design tasks. Close collaboration with development was essential as their work was dependent on design deliverables..
Approach
Discovery in Grooming: By actively participating in grooming sessions, I ensured a deep understanding of user needs, business objectives, and the validity of user feedback. This critical analysis enabled precise problem identification before assigning story points.
T-shirt sizing UX stories: To arrive at correct story points i identified user stories assigned to me based on complexity and hours required based on my experience.
for eg:Simple UI enhancement - 2 - 4 hours - S (need to fix this across 3 digital channels)Paper sketches: To optimize ideation within tight deadlines, I used paper sketches to quickly ideate and brainstorm ideas with the team.
Results
Agile methodologies accelerated time-to-market, enabling rapid feedback loops and iterative design refinements based on customer interactions.
Increased digital adoption: Within 2 months of our squads first release the digital adoption started to rise and rose to 55% at the end of our squads tenure which is 20% more than the success criteria of 35%
Addressed UX feedbacks: Addressed 75% of the UX feedbacks from customers at the end of 14 sprints
Over 24 sprints, the Emirates Islamic digital enhancement squad successfully cleared the backlog and resolved bugs, aligning with objectives of increased digital adoption, reduced customer complaints, and fewer customer service calls. This fast-paced environment fostered innovative UX problem-solving through iterative guerrilla testing and rapid paper prototyping.
