Overview
The Bank of America Lite application is stripped down version of the original Bank of America application that offers essential functionality only and consumes less device space and resources. It is an intuitive app that lets users manage their bank accounts and perform all basic tasks including viewing recent transactions, money transfer, managing their FICO score and managing their rewards.
The possibility of getting lost and feeling confused while trying to do something in a heavy app with a lot of features has been the key motivation for the Lite application. The Bank of America application is very useful and shows most of the account details to the users. However, sometimes too many features may confuse users, especially new users and make it difficult to do their task.
The idea behind a Lite app is originally inspired by the Facebook Lite app I have been using for a while. The original app becomes heavy in terms of memory and provides a lot of features and not all users use all the features provided. The Lite application is small, saves phone memory and works well in sparse network conditions also.
Research
I conducted a google forms survey on 16 people. I asked them to fill the survey about what features they used in the original bank application. From the responses of the group, I figured that they performed very basic tasks on the application including viewing recent transactions, money transfer, managing their FICO score and managing rewards. This validated my hypothesis of the features used by the target users.
Target Users
The 16 chosen people, in the age group of 22-28 years were college students or had just started their career in the industry. This group had people who had been using the app ranging from 0-4 years. Some were comparatively new, others had been using the app for a while and were helpful in giving constructive feedback.
Selected Survey Results
Initial Sketches
Visual Design System
Design Decisions
Spending and budgeting screen
The spending and budgeting graph was not being used by people even though it was easily accessible and right below the card for Recent Transactions. The number of clicks and screens are reduced by removing the Budgeting screen in the original application and showing the pie chart right below the Recent Transactions card. The Spending card is enhanced visually to encourage users to use it.
Deposit Checks screen
The deposit checks screen has not been changed much. A user pointed out that they had forgotten to endorse the check once or twice. So, a small note is added at the bottom to remind users to endorse at the back of the check.
Credit Score screen
This screen is enhanced visually to encourage users to use it. Even though this is an important screen, most of the people interviewed did not track their credit score. Also, a new card for tracking factors affecting the credit score is added to allow users to know which factors are affecting their scores in particular.
Navigation menu
Moved the navigation menu from the top of the screen to the bottom to make it more accessible for a user’s thumb. Menu items were changed to accommodate the features of the Lite application.
Design Prototype
