How might we make safe deposit locker booking better, easier and more accessible
Introduction
Kotak Mahindra Bank is one of India’s leading private sector banks, renowned for its innovative financial solutions and customer-centric approach. In this case study, I’ve explained how we digitalized Physical safe deposit locker booking and how I’ve built the Locker booking system from the scratch.
Role
UX designer
Team
Me (UX designer),
Design lead
2 Product managers
Bank Agency Managers
Project tenure
3 months
Tools
Adobe XD
Adobe Illustrator
The challenge 🎯
The locker booking process at Kotak Mahindra Bank is inconvenient and inefficient, requiring customers to visit a branch physically. Users seek a digital solution to book and manage lockers, avoiding long queues and physical visits. The current system is also inaccessible for senior citizens and individuals with physical disabilities, as some lockers require ladder access.
Business Statement 🏦
High-value clients, such as Privi users, face challenges when trying to book safe deposit lockers remotely. Currently, they must visit the bank in person, which is inconvenient and time-consuming. There is a need for Kotak Mahindra Bank to implement a locker booking feature within its mobile and net banking platforms to provide a seamless experience for Privi users, enabling them to secure lockers easily without the need for in-person visits.
The solution đź’ˇ
Enhancing Kotak Mahindra Bank’s digital locker booking system with a UX-driven approach and streamlined interface.
- Designed a digital app flow for for locker booking system, tailored for Privi-league users of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
- Considered Accessibility and inclusive design to make the experience better for Senior citizens and Physically challenged people.
- Integrated key components into the existing Style guide to maintain consistency and streamlined the interface for a clutter-free booking experience.
Timeline
A rough visual representation of the whole process from inception till measurement
Preface
India is not for beginners. Just kidding! Banks to population ratio is is approximately 1 bank per 14,600 people. If we narrow down safe deposit lockers to population, 1 locker per 567 people. At Kotak, they provide locker facility for Privi persona, who maintain monthly bank balance of â‚ą15 lakh/ $18,000. So it results in long waiting times at bank and locker facility for very limited people. It’s a bit of hassle in India to book a locker, as customers have to go to the bank where they opened their bank account.
We conducted both quantitative and qualitative research because quantitative research provided measurable and statistically significant data that informed our design decisions, while qualitative research helped us uncover insights and nuances about user behavior, attitudes, and motivations that could not be captured by numbers alone.
Conducted survey across existing Privi users and other bank users who are having lockers
Even though we had desk research in hand, it’s always crucial to understand what users are struggling with. Along with the product manager, I spoke to 20-25 people outside of Kotak to learn about their experiences with locker bookings at their current banks.
Strategy
After spending almost a month deciding how to make it easier for users, we finally moved on to the actual design phase. I specifically wanted to draw inspiration from real-life locker booking systems for the mechanism, behavior, and flow. From there, we simplified the process and made it more user-friendly.
Because, 2nd Heuristic principle states that :
Always try to maintain match between system and the real world. The design should speak the user’s language. Follow the real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
User flows
Solution
Learnings
This is one of my favorite projects so far because I tackled the problem in a new way. We focused on fully educating users about this new feature. Even though it was a small project, I learned a lot from it.
Future scope
Although it saves a lot of time for both customers and bank employees, if I had more time, I would have designed the flows below. We have built the locker booking flow online, but users still have to go to the bank to collect the locker key.
- We can design a flow where users don’t have to go to bank, for identity verification
- The flow allows users to transfer items from one branch to another without going to the bank.
- Locker key will be automatically sent to home
Impact
