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  
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  
3. But  first   Who  are  we  to   talk  about  UX?  
4. We  think  of  UX  in  terms  of   u6lity   usability  for  (whatever  task)   beauty  
5. …which  gives  us  the  context  for   The  role  of  plain   English  in  UX  
6. U"lity,  usability,  and  beauty   I  have  all  the  informa6on  I  need  in   order  to  act.  
7. U6lity,  usability,  and  beauty   The  informa6on*  is  in  a  form  that   is  easy  for  me  to  understand.   *words,  numbers,  layout,  design,   and  images  
8. U6lity,  usability,  and  beauty   Reading  and  using  the  informa6on   is  pleasant  and  comfortable*.   *or  minimally  unpleasant,  at  worst  
9. Case  study  6me   ANZ  KiwiSaver   Investment  Statement  
10. For  context   KiwiSaver  is…   A  KiwiSaver  Investment  Statement   (KIS)  is…   Everyone  thinks  they  know  KiwiSaver   but  who’s  read  a  KIS?  
11. Rules  for  these  statements   Legal  requirements  on:   •  content   •  order   •  some  specified  wording   •  ‘clear,  concise,  effec6ve’  wri6ng  
12. So  ANZ  need  to  meet  FMA  reqs…   …but  they  also  want  to     (use  plain  English  to)   improve  the  customer  experience.  
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?”  
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.  
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.  
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  
17. The  user-­‐tes6ng  ac6vi6es   Think-­‐aloud  tes6ng     Formal  protocol  tes6ng  with  a  fixed   set  of  ques6ons   (the  different  styles  complemented   each  other)  
18. Think-­‐aloud  intermission   Photo  CC  BY  2.0  Paul  Keller    
19. From  user-­‐tes6ng  we  found:   Stuff  we  expected   Stuff  we  didn’t  expect  —  like   reading  the  statement  in  reverse   order  
20. What  were  the  surveys?   Client’s  own  methodology   Reinforced  to  them  that  our  work   worked  
21. The  WriteMark  assessment  is…   a  review  by  qualified  experts   against  an  elements-­‐based  quality   standard   (explained  some  user-­‐test  findings)  
22. WriteMark  before-­‐and-­‐afer  
23. WriteMark  before-­‐and-­‐afer  
24. The  StyleWriter  test  is…   an  automated  test  that  gives   quan6ta6ve  results     a  complement  to  qualita6ve  and   subjec6ve  tes6ng  
25. StyleWriter  before-­‐and-­‐afer  
26. Enough  of  the  methodology   What  were  the   challenges?  
27. Legally  required  content  
28. Utopia  vs.  likely  reality   What  takes  the  place  of  the  user   agreement  you  don’t  read?  
29. The  infinite  workflow  trap   “We’ll  just  run  it  past  legal…”   improve   test   agree   sign-­‐off  
30. Developing  trust   Legal  rigour     ≠   legalese  
31. Change  is  inevitable   Changes  in  the  organisa6on   Leading  to  changes  in  the  business   environment  and  changes  in  the   product  
32. So,  how  do  you  demonstrate  that   UX     !     return  on  investment  
33. Measurable  benefits  for:   this  document     (and  the  business  it  affects)   future  documents   processes  and  ajtudes  
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’    
35. Some  anecdotes   Less  6me  overseeing  form-­‐filling   means  more  appointments  per   person  per  day.  
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.’  
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.  
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.  
39. Examples  of  the  changes:  from  
40. Examples  of  the  changes:  to  
41. Funds  at-­‐a-­‐glance  on  two  pages  
42. Which  version  would  you  open?  
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.  
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.  
45. Want  to  learn  more?   Come  and  ask  us   Q&A  now,  at  lunch,  or  at   judy@write.co.nz   james@write.co.nz  
46. Q&A   Think-­‐aloud  user-­‐tes6ng   Plain  English   Return  on  investment   Anything  else…