The lock card feature allows mobile app users to lock their debit or credit card at any moment.

The goal for this project was to answer several key questions proposed by the business. Some examples of the questions are: Do users understand how to lock their cards on the mobile app? How would an every-day user approach the lock card feature? Would the user tap on the menu icon via the home screen or access the card via the home screen’s quick links? 

Based on our research of direct competitors, I began with a fail-safe suggestion. A design that allows users to lock their cards in three click approach through a direct link from the home screen. I noticed an emerging theme when comparing money management apps during our competitive analysis. The team agreed with my pitch, this was the quickest way for a user to access the lock card feature. Shortly thereafter our team ran user testing on several designs on UsabilityHub. After compiling the results, we decided on the proper approach and ultimately tested our hypothesis.

There were extra ways for users to access this feature. And we did not want to limit ourselves to a single access point. Other design options allow the user to access the feature by clicking on the card from the home screen and navigating to the lock feature from there.

The team wanted to test variations of the visual design using different design system components. Curiosity led us to run a preference test to see what the user preferred.

To do so I composed two alternatives. The first with a traditional toggle and the second with a button. This was the perfect opportunity to employ preference testing to gage user reception sentiment.

To begin, I promptly prototyped our preferred design. Then the research team ran user testing to test the effectiveness. Users were able to accomplish the task as we foreseen. After the first phase of user testing, we proceeded with the preference test. The second phase of testing was designed to indicate the preference between a toggle or button. Based on the results, 64% of users preferred the toggle.

At the end of testing, our team proposed recommendations. We ultimately decided to use the term “Lock” instead of “Freeze” and keep both paths to lock the card. In the end, we concluded that based on our findings project was a win.