In recent usability tests, 90 percent of participants said they would recommend Money Dashboard, the ground breaking online personal finance tool, to friends when it launches later this spring.
In User Vision's state of the art usability facilities in Edinburgh, the Money Dashboard web based application was subjected to a series of rigorous usability tests to assess whether the UK consumer will be able to use the service easily to manage their money when it launches.
Money Dashboard's ground-breaking interface is unlike anything users in this country have seen before from a financial product. It challenges consumers because they have nothing to base their experience on. For that reason, Money Dashboard knew from the start they had to put user experience at the heart of their technology and design. Hiring an in-house user experience specialist from an early stage, the company has been forward thinking and proactive about engaging with users, willing to invest time and resource to create a product that meets users' needs and is easy to use.
Additionally the team at Money Dashboard are navigating uncharted waters by developing the tool as a rich internet application (RIA). RIAs run on a web browser and are more complex and interactive than traditional websites but their adoption is still embryonic with very few achieving their full potential.
Money Dashboard deliberately chose to develop the online personal finance tool as an RIA, confident that it will make the user experience far more dynamic and engaging than a two dimensional static web page.
Elise Urbanek, Money Dashboard's User Experience expert explains: Managing your money is not a job many of us relish. And so our challenge at Money Dashboard is to breathe new life into the process of financial planning and make it something people can have fun with and be empowered by.If you want a product that succeeds you have to meet people's needs and deliver it in a way they can use. If users don't ‘get it' they won't use it - so it is critical that we listen to them and give them what they want. User Experience bridges the gap between technology and business. A business needs to accomplish goals using technology. But the user has to be able to use that technology and business may think in a different way from the user.A good user experience person is able to take their business hat off and look at the problem from the user's perspective look at how they interact, navigate, browse and search a site so they can create a product that is user friendly, intuitive and easy to learn.
The key objectives of the usability testing were to assess navigation, interaction and the user journey through the application. Additionally User Vision tested the design and clarity of information, labelling, the ability to enter new data, expectations of the application and future functions desired. The testing with real users helped identify improvements in the navigation and page layout which Money Dashboard is implementing for future releases.
The test participants comprised an even split of men and women, ranging in age from 21 to 45. Most were in professional occupations who also actively manage their bank accounts once a week and have other online accounts including credit cards, mortgages and savings. A number of students with online accounts and who use social media networks to talk to their friends were also tested.
Participants took part in a series of defined tasks including logging in, setting up an account, tagging transactions and adding a new account. In general, participants responded positively and the results of the emotional response questionnaire used to gauge feelings towards a site revealed that Money Dashboard provides useful functionality in a new and fresh way.
Those tested thought it was a good idea, informative, useful and showcasing excellent functionality. With nothing on the market today offering the same depth of service, there is a clear gap in the market coupled with strong demand.
Money Dashboard has taken the outcomes from the User Vision's usability testing, prioritised issues raised and fed them back into their business strategy. Money Dashboard remains under constant iterative development, each release delivers new improvements, continually making the tool better for users.
