Scotiabank referral program won third place in the Scotiabank UX Competitions.
As a team, we worked together on the project to create an end-to-end solution using different UX methods and teaching in the program. The project was an opportunity for Scotiabank to extend its target users to international students. We focused on the city of Brantford to conduct all the research, gathering insights from different students who have come to Canada to study at universities and colleges. The target goals of the project were to streamline the onboarding process of international students and long-term immigrants towards Scotiabank, increasing their user base. Scotiabank's referral program was a capstone project completed in a group of 6 — a yearlong project showcased at the end of the year. Design Problem Research implementation Impacts Designs New feature to the Scotiabank banking application to increase their international student user base. 3rd Place winner The why Understand that the user wants to bank with the bank that they trust and have built a community with.

• Users' banking goals include earning more rewards from their daily spending that they can use in their student life.
  
• Integrating a system that create a system to share different perks from those they trust and earn different reward points that can be used for various student expenses.
  
• An easy system to send and receive referrals from family and friends — one that is simple, easy, and smooth to integrate.

We conducted a 30-minute Zoom and in-person group session to ask target users to explain their onboarding process with their banking systems. As they are coming to a new country with little knowledge about the banking institutions, they want someone they trust to refer them to a bank they can trust. Many expressed they do not trust the different information they received from recruiters, including those helping with their student visas. We gathered quantitative research in a form that asked questions about:

• Their personal life as an international student in Canada
  
• Their different banking goals as a student
  
• Their values when choosing a bank

How might we statement How might we streamline the onboarding process for those new to Canada, ensuring it is straightforward as they become new customers of the bank? Successfully connecting international students to Scotiabank What do the students think about the different referral programs? Design Problem Research - target users We came up with 4 different user bases from the research and findings, helping us get a better understanding of who we were designing for and how we could solve the problem. Two different types of users were concluded from the user research: The primary user The secondary user

• International students
  
• Individuals who would like to transfer from different banks to Scotiabank
  
• Long-term immigrants

• Families that have created homes in Canada for many years, with children born and raised in Canada
  
• Individuals with stable situations such as Canadian citizenship or permanent residence

The main goal of Scotiabank is to create a long-lasting and wider demographic of international student user base. We created a deeper understanding of the different user bases from the research, with four categories. Using the research that was conducted we evaluated several challenges that we need to implement into the Scoticabnk referral program.

• Gain qualitative and quantitative feedback using card sorting and google survey to get a better understanding of the different task that users needs to complete.
  
• The first goal is to Identify which different functions the users value the most.
  
• The a goal is to identify the types of incentives that are most attractive to users

The main goal of Card sorting was to gain insights into the user's perception and primitive the various functions and tasks available within the Scoticabank application. Expanding to long-term immigrants residing in Canada helped explore the demographic and connection between the students. To deepen our research of the users, as a team, we completed 5 structured usability tests.
The users needed to complete three specific tasks to observe their interaction with the application.
Two distinct levels of achievement were used to analyze the user's interaction: Complete success Failure The main focus was to see if the users clicked the referral button interaction and completed the onboarding process.
This enabled us to evaluate the prototype's usability and identify areas requiring enhancements. It was evident users from different backgrounds — international students and middle-aged immigrants — faced challenges with the language and terminology of the application.

• Users' feedback indicated the application lacked immediate and transparent confirmation messages following referral submissions.
  
• This left users with uncertainty regarding the success of their actions.

The findings: Improve the IA navigation and the terminology used to complete the onboarding task. There was a 100% failure rate with the current prototype.
The users were confused, and many were deterred by the challenges of sending and completing the referral process. Results Changes: Create a message at the end to reassure the user that their referral has been sent out to their chosen contacts. Improvements focused on enhancing overall user experience by addressing: Simplifying the referral process Refining and honing the "How might we" statement of connecting new international students to Scotiabank seamlessly using a referral system. Medium Fidelity Testing Overview Phase 1: Task-based on main pages Results from testing 1: Users were asked to navigate sections where the referral button is placed, such as:

• Homepage
  
• e-Transfer
  
• Credit card
  

18 participants were analyzed to see if they were able to find the referral button.
3 out of 18 succeeded, making a 17 percent success rate. The participates was not sure of the main purpose of the button. on the landing page.
Phase 2: Explore the entire application Users were allowed to explore and talk out loud about their experience using the application based on the changes made after the first testing. Reaching out to Laurier International College through Waterloo and Brantford, we collected feedback from a total of 42 participants.
9 participants referred onboarding fellow international students, making a 21% success rate. "This is a banking app; I don’t need anything extra." Quote from one of the participants The “hub” was too overwhelming for the users, and they were not able to see the main referral button. This made the team realize that we need to keep it simple.
As a team, we went into the different screens and simplified the IA navigation of the application. Receiving referral Simple efficient translations form sending a referral to receiving and booking an appointment This is the lowest estimate, as users have the option of sending as many referrals as they wish, meaning that number has a chance to be significantly higher by a landslide. 25 Million users Latest test success rate The Impacts 21% 5 million and 250 thousand people have send sent out referrals View other projects