KiwiSaver: From complex to clear

By James Burgess and Judy Knighton at UX New Zealand 2013.

We helped ANZ Bank’s KiwiSaver Investment Statement become the first to achieve the WriteMark Plain English Standard. KiwiSaver is a national retirement savings scheme — the investment statement would be mailed to over 200,000 existing customers, so the stakes were high. Our combined approach of user-testing and assessing against an elements-based quality standard helped to create a document that was clear, concise, and accessible. We’ll describe measures for determining success and monitoring return on investment, and constructive ideas for building accountability into a document project.

Transcript

1. A  usability-­‐driven  route  to  
   financial  informa6on  that  
   works  for  readers  
   Judy  Knighton  and  James  Burgess  
   

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2. We’re  going  to  talk  about  
   Plain  English  and  UX  
   Case  study  of  a  success  story:    
   ANZ  KiwiSaver  investment  statement  
   Construc6ve  ideas  for  you  to  take  away  
   

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3. But  first  
   Who  are  we  to  
   talk  about  UX?  
   

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4. We  think  of  UX  in  terms  of  
   u6lity  
   usability  for  (whatever  task)  
   beauty  
   

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5. …which  gives  us  the  context  for  
   The  role  of  plain  
   English  in  UX  
   

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6. U"lity,  usability,  and  beauty  
   I  have  all  the  informa6on  I  need  in  
   order  to  act.  
   

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7. U6lity,  usability,  and  beauty  
   The  informa6on*  is  in  a  form  that  
   is  easy  for  me  to  understand.  
   *words,  numbers,  layout,  design,  
   and  images  
   

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8. U6lity,  usability,  and  beauty  
   Reading  and  using  the  informa6on  
   is  pleasant  and  comfortable*.  
   *or  minimally  unpleasant,  at  worst  
   

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9. Case  study  6me  
   ANZ  KiwiSaver  
   Investment  Statement  
   

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10. For  context  
    KiwiSaver  is…  
    A  KiwiSaver  Investment  Statement  
    (KIS)  is…  
    Everyone  thinks  they  know  KiwiSaver  
    but  who’s  read  a  KIS?  
    

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11. Rules  for  these  statements  
    Legal  requirements  on:  
    •  content  
    •  order  
    •  some  specified  wording  
    •  ‘clear,  concise,  effec6ve’  wri6ng  
    

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12. So  ANZ  need  to  meet  FMA  reqs…  
    …but  they  also  want  to    
    (use  plain  English  to)  
    improve  the  customer  experience.  
    

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13. For  a  KIS,  u6lity  means…  
    The  reader  understands  the  
    investment.  
    The  reader  can  compare  it  with  
    others,  and  with  their  needs.  
    “Should  I  invest  here?  How  do  I  
    manage    my  investment?”  
    

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14. For  a  KIS,  usability  means…  
    The  KIS  meets  the  needs  of  
    different  readers  (scanning  for  
    ‘their’  info).  
    The  KIS  is  free  of  financialese™.    
    We  have  minimised  any  perverse  
    consequences  of  the  FMA’s  
    required  content/wording.  
    

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15. For  a  KIS,  beauty  means…  
    The  KIS  doesn’t  look  like  tradi6onal  
    ‘terms  and  condi6ons’.  
    The  KIS  doesn’t  look  like  an  advert  
    either  —  must  be  trustable.  
    Design  supports  the  brand  and  task.  
    

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16. Test  everything  
    survey    
    customers  
    survey    
    frontline  
    staff  
    survey    
    customers  
    star6ng  
    version  
    version  
    2  
    final  
    version  
    StyleWriter  
    tes6ng  
    user-­‐
    tes6ng  
    version  
    3  
    WriteMark  
    tes6ng  
    survey    
    customers  
    survey    
    frontline  
    staff  
    WriteMark  
    tes6ng  
    StyleWriter  
    tes6ng  
    

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17. The  user-­‐tes6ng  ac6vi6es  
    Think-­‐aloud  tes6ng    
    Formal  protocol  tes6ng  with  a  fixed  
    set  of  ques6ons  
    (the  different  styles  complemented  
    each  other)  
    

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18. Think-­‐aloud  intermission  
    Photo  CC  BY  2.0  Paul  Keller    
    

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19. From  user-­‐tes6ng  we  found:  
    Stuff  we  expected  
    Stuff  we  didn’t  expect  —  like  
    reading  the  statement  in  reverse  
    order  
    

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20. What  were  the  surveys?  
    Client’s  own  methodology  
    Reinforced  to  them  that  our  work  
    worked  
    

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21. The  WriteMark  assessment  is…  
    a  review  by  qualified  experts  
    against  an  elements-­‐based  quality  
    standard  
    (explained  some  user-­‐test  findings)  
    

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22. WriteMark  before-­‐and-­‐afer  
    

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23. WriteMark  before-­‐and-­‐afer  
    

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24. The  StyleWriter  test  is…  
    an  automated  test  that  gives  
    quan6ta6ve  results    
    a  complement  to  qualita6ve  and  
    subjec6ve  tes6ng  
    

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25. StyleWriter  before-­‐and-­‐afer  
    

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26. Enough  of  the  methodology  
    What  were  the  
    challenges?  
    

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27. Legally  required  content  
    

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28. Utopia  vs.  likely  reality  
    What  takes  the  place  of  the  user  
    agreement  you  don’t  read?  
    

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29. The  infinite  workflow  trap  
    “We’ll  just  run  it  past  legal…”  
    improve  
    test  
    agree  
    sign-­‐off  
    

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30. Developing  trust  
    Legal  rigour    
    ≠  
    legalese  
    

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31. Change  is  inevitable  
    Changes  in  the  organisa6on  
    Leading  to  changes  in  the  business  
    environment  and  changes  in  the  
    product  
    

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32. So,  how  do  you  demonstrate  that  
    UX    
    !    
    return  on  investment  
    

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33. Measurable  benefits  for:  
    this  document    
    (and  the  business  it  affects)  
    future  documents  
    processes  and  ajtudes  
    

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34. Some  anecdotes  
    From  ANZ’s  frontline  staff:  
    ‘the  new  format  makes  checking  
    the  forms  a  lot  more  6me  efficient’  
    ‘my  team  are  now  more  confident    
    in  selling  this’    
    

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35. Some  anecdotes  
    Less  6me  overseeing  form-­‐filling  
    means  more  appointments  per  
    person  per  day.  
    

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36. Comments  from  a  customer  
    ‘This  is  the  first  wrilen  informa6on  I’ve  
    ever  had  on  KiwiSaver.  I  joined  last  year,  
    but  I’ve  learnt  more  about  it  today  than  I  
    ever  knew  before.  Before,  I  kind  of  heard  
    through  the  grapevine.  I  got  nothing.    
    It’s  good  to  see  ANZ  really  wants  people  to  
    understand  what  they’ve  signed  in  for.’  
    

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37. Examples  of  the  changes:  from  
    Funds  may  gain  exposure  to  the  asset  classes  
    above:  directly  (by  buying  the  asset),  
    indirectly  (by  inves6ng  in  other  funds  that  
    hold  the  asset)  or  synthe6cally  (by  
    purchasing  a  deriva6ve  instrument  which  has  
    a  price  that  is  derived  from  the  price  of  the  
    asset).  The  risks  set  out  in  this  sec6on  apply  
    where  the  assets  are  held  directly,  indirectly  
    or  synthe6cally.  
    

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38. Examples  of  the  changes:  to  
    When  we  talk  about  our  Funds  inves6ng,  we  
    mean  they  invest:  
    •  directly  by  buying  or  selling  assets,  or  
    •  indirectly  by:  
    o  inves6ng  in  funds  that  hold  assets,  or  
    o  entering  into  deriva6ve  contracts.  See  
    the  prospectus  for  more  informa6on  
    about  deriva6ves.  
    

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39. Examples  of  the  changes:  from  
    

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40. Examples  of  the  changes:  to  
    

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41. Funds  at-­‐a-­‐glance  on  two  pages  
    

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42. Which  version  would  you  open?  
    

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43. Ideas  to  take  away  
    Give  the  UX  of  words  the  same  
    weight  as  the  UX  of  processes  and  
    interac6ons.  
    Different  types  of  test  give  
    different  informa6on  —  do  them  in  
    parallel.  
    

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44. Ideas  to  take  away  
    If  words  are  part  of  a  business  
    process,  they  have  a  cost  for  both  
    the  company  and  the  customer.  
    Measuring  ROI  will  involve  new  data  
    collec6on  before  making  changes.  
    

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45. Want  to  learn  more?  
    Come  and  ask  us  
    Q&A  now,  at  lunch,  or  at  
    judy@write.co.nz  
    james@write.co.nz  
    

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46. Q&A  
    Think-­‐aloud  user-­‐tes6ng  
    Plain  English  
    Return  on  investment  
    Anything  else…  
    

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