During the first week of the semester, we were introduced to our next project which I am excited to start. The task at hand allows us to either rebrand an existing bank or create a completely new modern banking app. This project will allow me to explore the core principles of iconography, branding and identity. during the lecture, we covered the brief of the project including the age range of 16-25 year-olds, how to make my brand different and what matters to the user such as money management, ethics accessibility etc.
During the lecture, we split into groups to do some market research on some traditional methods of banking, we explored collecting this information in the real world by creating surveys and looking at the banks around Belfast. This is an important step to creating a successful brand as I will be able to see what needs to be improved and what users are looking to have in their banking app to make mine effective and accessible.
During the lecture, we conducted some user research we started by getting first-hand details on in-store branches in Belfast including Barclays, HSBC, Ulster Banks and Santander when analysing you could see the age ranges using the bank which was the older population showing that the younger population maybe would not use the in-store banks but rather the online banking methods as they save time and are more convenient. also, there was little footfall in the branches which shows that people might rather use online banking as it is accessible 24hrs and the branches are less accessible as of the opening hours.
After conducting the market research as a group we decided to research the different companies’ and online banking app’s main page. by using the app store we could get an insight into the apps without having an account. When analysing the different design features of the banking app I noticed that most of the apps and branches use the colour blue which links it to the colour phycology as blue means trust and professionalism which I learned in semester 1 - IXD101. we also looked at the reviews of the apps to add more depth to the research as we could find out people’s likes and dislikes about the banking apps.
After reading the article on user research questions from the Norman group I found that the first survey that I created had more closed questions which led to more statistics rather than having open-ended questions that provided more insight into the subject area, I noticed that most of my questions lead the user towards a certain answer do when creating my second survey I used more open-ended questions to allow for more insight into the users thoughts instead of just yes and no I also had some closed questions such as what bank as it gave a clear statistics and clarification of the bank that the user used.
After the initial research, we decided to conduct primary research around the uni by creating a survey in which we found out what banks are most used if the students would rather use online or in-store banking etc. We collected valuable information but these questions were mostly yes and no answers so we could not get in-depth answers to what they liked and disliked so I created a Google form so I could collect more information from my target audience.
A brand is a product or business that identifies a service from other sellers. Branding can be the name, design, symbol or feature of a brand. branding creates an identity for the company and gives the user insight on what the company’s personality or service is. the brand can also allow users to make a connection with the company as they might like the logo, values, colours and personality.
“Brand values can be defined as the foundational beliefs that a company stands for. They refer to the “ideals” guiding the brand's actions, such as environmental protection, diversity, solidarity, or transparency.” The branding journal
