Thursday 24th April 2015 marked Sigma’s Camp Digital event. It was a fantastic insight into the minds of Digitalists and UX designers alike from huge companies including Laterooms.com, Twitter, IBM, Atom Bank and more. Whilst there were a lot of really great presentations, one that really stood out for us was the closing keynote, which came in the form of a pitch, backed up with a UX explanation of how it will work from Stewart Bromley (Director) and Nick Wiles (Head of UX) of Atom Bank, the much anticipated innovation on digital banking set to go live towards the end of the year.
“Atom is for people who want to self serve, want value and love digital. You’re only as great as your last experience. You have to know your audience!”
Here we’ve provided a summary of the presentation and discussion. Bromley talked about multi-channel being mostly for tangible products, you want to touch it, feel it, smell it. He asked ‘Do we need to smell the cashier?’ Finance is data. Their mission is to change banking for the good. Set on values of psychological needs defined by the generation. One value often used in banking circles is respect. He suggests many brands use it but don’t think they understand it. Bromley commented “Treat others the way you want to be treated. If you believe that, what you believe is everyone’s like you, they want what you want, they have the same preferences, motivations and beliefs. Nonsense. We are individuals, if you want to respect someone- treat them how THEY want to be treated.” This is the cornerstone of their brand value system. “When you go into a branch it’s not your branch, it's a branch- your bank is this *holds phone up* your experience, for you- it’s in your pocket. That’s a massive difference. Respect is key. We aren’t another option of what already is, we are a different league, a true alternative.
Stewart Bromley using underwear to compare Atom's fun and exciting advancement in digital banking to the old and boring online banking offered by the high street.[/caption]
“This is not your usual bank.”
Atom bank seems to not be about problem solving- that makes you think there’s a problem. They are a solutions business, finding and always looking for solutions. An interesting way of looking at the world of banking…
“There’ll be no branches and no call centres, which proves a challenge for our UX design.”
Interestingly Atom also mentioned that their development team is made up of developers from the gaming industry and their designers from the entertainment industry. This along with being built on a 3D platform. With a number of people already at Atom having experience at one of our favourite brands, First Direct, we’re eager to see how it turns out.
IMAGE CREDIT: @UxDInsights
