From Ethnographic Insight to User-centered Design Tools

Abstract

This case study illustrates how Wells Fargo, a leading financial services institution, builds user-centered online experiences on a foundation of ethnographic insight. The research maintains a shelf life of several years and findings are kept alive through multidisciplinary participation and reusable user-centered design tools. We want to make customer experience everyone's business by making the process of creating experience intuitive and repeatable. A five-year program to establish ethnographic research as a core competency in the Customer Experience Research & Design (CERD) team led to the development of user-centered design tools that now form a foundation for multidisciplinary collaboration in Wells Fargo's Internet Services Group (ISG). This paper traces the transition of ethnography from an approach used by outside consultants to inform discreet projects to a program that produces insights that extend across multiple design projects and strategy initiatives. This case study demonstrates the power of collaborative research participation to embed ethnographic insights into the corporate culture through the creation and use of user-centered design (UCD) tools. A key component of success for ethnographers at the bank has been their willingness to let go of findings so they can evolve to suit the needs of the business. Outside consultants initially introduced ethnography as a means to explore discreet, project-specific questions such as 'How do people invest online?' Previously, Wells Fargo project teams were typical in their focus on market research to drive business planning, new product development, and sales forecasting. Usability testing was often conducted late in the process to validate website designs. The introduction of ethnographic inquiry heralded a transition both from a reliance on numbers-oriented market research and task-focused usability testing. While market research and usability testing remain core to CERD's user-centered design practice, teams hungered for data that would illuminate the stories underneath survey