Understanding user's relationship with money across cultures
Financial Services Design Research
I was hired in 2004 by First Data to set up and scale design research in support of Western Union's (WU) accelerated international expansion. An initial step was introducing the organization to the cultural dimensions initially developed by Dutch cultural anthropologist Geert Hofstede during his time with IBM. Dr. Hofstede convinced IBM to allow him to leverage our diverse global employee population to examine the effects of a society's culture on its values and behaviors. The resulting framework provides the structure to organize rapid research of fuzzy global experience challenges.
The introduction of Hofstede's framework resulted in several breakthrough improvements to Western Union's global omnichannel experience. An early example of this success was related to the dimension of uncertainty avoidance (UA). Specifically, the insights uncovered via the UA lens focused on the extent to which users feel anxiety about uncertain or unknown matters.
I noticed that while many of our retail customers expressed interest in online money transfer in our annual brand tracker study, they were converting to this channel at a much lower rate than expected, as demonstrated in our quantitative transactional data. I also spotted clues in regional qualitative market research that pointed to consumer uncertainty about money transfer services.
With this data in hand, I secured funding for a series of global studies that informed ongoing improvements to our omnichannel experience. Some highlights include:
Learn More
Learn more about Geert Hofstede's cultural research at IBM and over 30 years of work helping companies become truly global.
EXPERIENCE DESIGN RESPONSE
It was not apparent to the user that the money, in this case, could be picked up anywhere in Denver, and we were failing to explain this to users clearly. In response, we developed graphics using a mnemonic device leveraging a gold arc (see example right) depicting how money moved via the money transfer system. This approach was tested and deployed across countries with mid to high levels of uncertainty avoidance (UA).
Insight: Regional marketing message confusion
In several regions, this series of studies uncovered issues with local marketing materials. Two examples include:
1-In the EU, more than a dozen different German words were being used to describe money transfer
2-Marketing images were not matching the level of seriousness felt by different cultures when it came to financial services (see example right)
We responded with tighter guidelines and a process to gain more regular regional direct customer feedback on marketing materials.
Conclusion
These are just a few examples of the customer-centric culture at Western Union and how I contributed to Western Union's mission to 'move money for better'.
Of course, every business problem is unique, thus making it necessary to decide which design approach(es), methods, tools, and techniques to use in a specific project. In my experience examining topics through various lenses like Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions provides a path to organize thinking and develop a clear research roadmap.
All materials used with permission of Western Union (WU).