YouInvest™ – Rolling Research, Discovery & Usability Studies for a New Investment Account at J.P. Morgan Chase (2017-19)
Our Impact
4-5% of weekly site visitors open a YouInvest account (March, 2020)
Our user research contributed to building the personas and helped Chase target a very specific audience of new investors when they launched the YouInvest™ independent investment account in September, 2018.
Over the course of my tenure at J.P. Morgan, the large scale usability testing program enabled me to offer more and more usability expert feedback to my teammates on the DCE-DWM UX design team.
Because we tested many iterations of each product over a significant amount of time, we were able to use the data to inform a detailed customer journey map for beginner investors (i.e., “starters”).
Image: Final design for YouInvest™
Overview
Many people are afraid to take the first step toward investing in the stock market because they don’t understand the language or concepts. Some believe a safer option is to keep cash in a savings account. Our company wanted to design a product that would enable these people to learn the benefits and build confidence for long term investing.
Image: After the UX research and design. https://www.chase.com/personal/investments/you-invest/trade
Image: drawing of a research participant in our lab
Our Challenge
How might we enable new investors to educate themselves enough to feel comfortable and confident investing in the stock market?
User Panel
We recruited people who had more than $25K in a savings account and less than $10K invested in the stock market, preferably in a mutual fund. We called this population “Starters.”
My Role: Senior User Researcher
Within Digital Customer Experience (DCE) and Digital Wealth Management (DWM) at J.P. Morgan Chase, I was part of a smaller team of two user researchers performing rolling cycles of usability testing for all investment-related products on web and mobile platforms.
Image: DWM Cadence Research Team on launch day, September 2018
Methodologies
1:1 Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Personas
Customer journey map
Stakeholder interviews
Stakeholder workshops
Usability testing (lab based, and hallway testing)
Cadence Research Team
Lead UX Researcher: Michael Smith
Senior UX Researchers: Kerry Beasley
Interesting Findings
Over the course of many months, we conducted rounds of research, digging into different details about the world of investing. It was fascinating to observe responses change with each tiny adjustment to the visual and written content.
Image: Stimuli for research around the CTA widget on the mobile dashboard
Objectives – A few things we wanted to learn.
How do people respond to a CTA on their mobile dashboard?
How would their response change from one CTA to the other?
Which CTA piques curiosity more?
How do people respond to the icons?
What meaning do people attach to each icon?
Findings – A little of What we learned.
Some bristled at their bank claiming to know things about their financial attitudes and habits
Some wondered what criteria the bank was using to make comparisons between customers
Some were dubious about investing with only $1
Many experienced skepticism when viewing CTAs
Many distrusted the CTA because the bank didn’t know their full financial story
Image: Stimulus for YouInvest cadence testing
Objectives – A few things we wanted to learn.
How would people respond to the investing / driving metaphor?
Would a driving metaphor increase understanding of different investing options?
Do people understand what a mutual fund is?
Do people know the difference between a mutual fund and an equity or other asset class?
Findings – A little of What we learned.
Many people are accustomed to using GPS for any trip- anywhere, not only to assist them on an unfamiliar path
Many people don’t drive in NYC, so have little context with which to understand the metaphor
Many people weren’t sure what a mutual fund was, but over time we honed our explanation until more people were able to understand the concept.
Ultimately, we decided to scrap the drive metaphor.
Image: Stimuli for YouInvest cadence testing
Objectives – A few things we wanted to learn.
Do people understand how these accounts work?
Would people expect to meet with a human advisor?
How do people respond when they learn their money would be managed by a “robo-advisor”?
How do people react to the concept of letting an algorithm manage their investments?
Findings – A little of What we learned.
Many people were extremely uncomfortable with the idea of trusting their money to a robo-advisor
Some expected that they would be matched with a human financial advisor
