Western Union:

My agency was hired by Western Union to revamp their outdated money transfer flow.
Our objective was to design a customer-led transfer through a Clover device and redesign the agent desktop experience in order to create a low friction experience for both customers and agents.

Western Union was seeking a more effective user flow for wiring money:

• Allow users to go through a self-guided process

• Reduce wait and time users took to initiate a transfer

• Allow for the tellers to have a smoother transaction with customers

• Make the experience for returning customers more seamless

the problem

The flow was entirely agent-facing and required multiple devices, enabling opportunities for miscommunication and device malfunctions. I visited Western Union storefronts, observing interactions between agents and customers to identify areas of friction where users were dropping off. I found that communication between agents and customers were long and taxing.

Our Findings

Agent centric - The agent leads the entire transaction.
Hardware malfunction and multiple device handling - More devices create more opportunity for errors that agents are ill-equipped to troubleshoot.
Data and transaction errors - It can be difficult for agents to transcribe information that customers give them verbally, particularly for non-native English speakers.
Long transaction duration - High manual data input and back-and-forth between agents and customers can cause lengthy interactions.
Transaction abandonment - At the end of a tedious transaction, a customer might still walk away after seeing hefty currency exchange rates and fees.

Proposed Ideal User Flow