DIPANKAR DESIGN
Home > Banking Teller Platform > Design challanges
Information Architecture
I began by crafting the information architecture for this teller system, strategically organizing content to ensure clarity and comprehension. This meticulous structure enables users to effortlessly locate all necessary information, streamlining their navigation experience with minimal effort. User interviews uncovered that this created confusion and challenges, making it difficult to complete daily tasks efficiently and effectively.
One of the more challenging aspects of TellerMagic was the need to provide customized data for each employee. This complexity stemmed from varying daily routines, task requirements, and, most critically, the dynamic internal security permissions that differed across departments and job roles.
To address this, we developed a unified overarching architecture for the solution, complemented by two focused sub-architectures tailored to specific user personas. This approach allowed us to identify and address the unique information needs of each user type, ensuring the core banking back-office product remained both intuitive and cohesive while accommodating these nuanced requirements.
User stories and workflows
Once we finalized the feature prioritization, our dynamic collaboration between the product and business analysis teams kicked into high gear. While our talented product and BA team delved into crafting user stories on Jira, I simultaneously delved into the intricate realm of user flows. This dual effort allowed us to uncover potential opportunities for process enhancement.
This wasn't just a solo expedition; it was a team endeavor. We actively engaged junior designers in the process, fostering an environment of collective creativity. By involving team members at all levels, we ensured a diverse influx of fresh ideas, enriching our exploration and refining our approach to deliver a well-rounded and innovative solution.
Detailed design and Interactions
We began by creating low-fidelity wireframes for the dashboard, refining them through multiple iterations to finalize the concept. Drawing insights from our research, we focused on prioritizing the key tasks a teller performs while managing long queues of customers at the counter. There was significant pressure from the product team to add more cards to the dashboard, but our research showed that many of these features were rarely used by tellers. To avoid overwhelming them with unnecessary information, I proposed a simplified default view with a customizable option. This idea was well-received by the team and became the foundation of our solution.
As a team, we opted for a card-based design, considering the potential use of tablets by tellers. This approach allowed the dashboard to remain flexible, adapting to the user’s role and permissions while providing a clean and user-friendly experience.
Based on the insights we gathered from our research, we approached every problem as an opportunity to create impactful solutions. I conducted brainstorming sessions, engaged in white boarding, and worked through multiple iterations to ensure we addressed each challenge thoughtfully. Through this collaborative process, we crafted solutions that were user-focused and aligned with the product goals.
Once we had a solid design concept, we created a clickable prototype to test our ideas in real-world scenarios. We conducted A/B testing with actual users to evaluate different design variations and understand what worked best. The feedback we received was invaluable—it helped us identify areas for improvement and refine the design further. By incorporating this feedback, we were able to deliver a polished, user-centered, and reliable solution that met both user needs and business expectations.
Challange
Handling a high volume of transactions during peak hours is highly stressful and time-consuming for Sarah, often resulting in potential errors and delays. How can we provide Sarah with an easy-to-use tool that allows her to manage transactions quickly, efficiently, and error-free?
1. Easy accessible navigation
During user research, we identified the most frequently visited interactions by bank tellers to better understand their daily workflow and needs. As a result, we prioritized the top three to four actions that tellers use most often—specifically customer search, drawer management, transactions, and notifications. These critical functions were made immediately accessible on the main interface to streamline their workflow and reduce the time spent navigating through the application.
To further enhance usability and efficiency, we relocated all other secondary interactions to the hamburger menu. These secondary interactions include account services (such as opening and closing accounts, updating account information), loans and credit management (processing loan applications, disbursements, and repayments), report generation (transaction reports, end-of-day summaries, audit trails), and settings (user profile management, customizable keyboard shortcuts, language preferences).
By organizing the interface in this way, we have maximized the available work area for bank tellers, ensuring that the most essential tools are always at their fingertips. This design minimizes unnecessary navigation and allows tellers to focus on providing prompt and accurate service to customers, ultimately improving their overall efficiency and productivity.
2. Preference & hot keys
During research we found hot keys are very crucial for a teller to perform tasks much faster than using a mouse. Keyboard shortcuts enable tellers to perform tasks much faster than using a mouse. This is crucial in a high-volume, fast-paced environment where speed and efficiency can significantly impact customer service and transaction processing times.
Constantly switching between the keyboard and mouse can lead to repetitive strain injuries over time. Keyboard shortcuts reduce the need for this constant switching, allowing tellers to work more comfortably and sustainably which reduces physical strain.
In addition, tellers who frequently use specific functions develop muscle memory for those actions. Keyboard shortcuts allow them to perform these functions consistently without having to search through menus, enhancing their overall workflow which reduce the chances of making errors that can occur when navigating through complex menus. This accuracy is critical in banking, where even small mistakes can have significant repercussions.
3. Easy search
Designed an easy type-ahead search feature for customers and organizations, which displays results on the same page for streamlined navigation. This functionality enables tellers to check in customers quickly, a particularly valuable tool for smaller banks and credit unions without self-service check-in kiosks. Additionally, tellers can seamlessly access a customer's profile by clicking on the customer’s name from the search results. This helped them quickly validate the customer and check if there is any restrictions previously aded for that particular customer. This definitely facilitate a smooth transition to detailed customer interactions and service.
Challange
Ensuring Sarah's consistent accuracy in handling cash is paramount, as any errors can have serious consequences for both the bank and its customers.
1. Transact - Cash in
After numerous iterations and multiple versions, we have developed a drawer approach for the most frequently used action: ‘Transact’. This feature caters to tellers who perform essential tasks such as cash in, cash back, transfers, cash withdrawals, and cash deposits. With the transact drawer, users can carry out these critical operations without navigating away from their main page. The drawer is designed to be expandable and can be pinned for easy access, ensuring a seamless and efficient workflow.
2. Cash balancing
Sarah reconcile her cash drawers at the end of their shifts or workday. Cash balancing ensures that the amount of cash recorded in the system matches the actual cash physically held by the teller(Sarah) or in the bank's vault. This functionality will help Sarah detecting discrepancies due to errors or fraud and ensures proper reconciliation of cash transactions.
Challange
Michael, an IT administrator, needs a highly efficient system to manage a range of critical tasks. His role involves creating and managing user roles, configuring permissions, setting transaction limits and overrides, and adding new users. Additionally, he must handle the creation of branches and cash drawers, as well as oversee institutional settings. To ensure accuracy and efficiency, Michael requires a solution that simplifies these processes, minimizes manual effort, and reduces the potential for errors.
1. Create role
As part of the TellerMagic platform, I designed a streamlined role management system tailored to the needs of IT administrators like Michael, who oversee critical access control functions in a banking environment. This feature empowers administrators to easily create and manage user roles and permissions, ensuring both operational efficiency and security. Key highlights of the design include:
Simple Role Creation: Michael can effortlessly define and name roles such as "Teller," "Branch Manager," or "Auditor" using an intuitive, guided flow.
Permission Assignment Made Easy: A clear, categorized permission interface allows Michael to assign and customize access levels for each role, ensuring users have the precise tools they need without overburdening the system.
Efficiency and Control: The design prioritizes clarity and usability, enabling administrators to manage roles and permissions with minimal effort while reducing the risk of errors.
We worked in an agile environment, where each sprint focused on delivering prioritized new features. This iterative process allowed us to be flexible and responsive to evolving user needs and business goals. Before final handoff to development, we conducted a moderated usability study using the UserTesting platform, which leveraged AI-driven insights to identify areas where users struggled. These findings were instrumental in identifying pain points early, serving as a lifesaver for designers by saving both time and effort.
After each usability study, I presented detailed research readouts to the executive leadership team to justify our design decisions and ensure alignment with the product vision. The feedback loop we created was crucial—incorporating learnings back into the designs before handing them off to development ensured that the final product met both user expectations and business requirements.
Once the development phase was complete, we conducted extensive UX audits to validate the implementation and ensure the product adhered to our high-quality standards. These audits focused on maintaining design fidelity, usability, and pixel-perfect execution—an essential step in delivering a product that met our commitments.