XE has been providing people with currency information since the dot com era. They are most known for their popular website that receives hundreds of millions of visitors per year and their flagship currency app, that has been downloaded over 70 million times.
I joined XE during a unique time, where they had recently been acquired by the Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ: EEFT) family, who are recognized as formidable leaders in currency exchange.
They had a new goal after the acquisition: Get users to utilize all the solutions XE had to offer, especially sending money.
My responsibility would be to assist the UX team in updating the website and app to emphasize our new goals and also to lead the research initiatives to find out more about how we can tailor our services to talk to our user's pain-points.
Our goal was simple:
Take XE from being known as just a currency converter, to a service that helps you with all things currency.
Starting with Research
To understand how users interacted with XE and its services, we needed to dig deeper and create a multi point research program. As the primary UX researcher I designed and led the various campaigns which included expansive surveys, moderated/unmoderated user-testing, persona generation, and user interviews.
XE offers many solutions for a variety of different users. This includes:
- Currency converter
- Currency converter
- Money Transfer
- Rate Alerts
- Currency Data API
"Which of the following tools are you aware of?"
Our findings showed us very clearly that a lot of users simply did not know we provided things outside of currency information. Promisingly enough, many users indicated that they would be interested in using these, especially sending money with XE
"Did you know XE offers a money transfer service?"
Of those that were not aware this service existed, 44.82% indicated that they would be interested in this service.
This was a big eye opener, but also a great problem to have. People did not know about our other services, but a large amount felt like they would want to use them!
Establishing Single Sign On and breaking down blockers
While we continued our research initiatives, we had another project that involved creating a smoother experience for users to jump between XE's services. If XE truly wanted to do more than provide currency information, it needed single sign on support. I would help organize and design the migration process and also design the new login/registration screens.
This was very important because now we could have a central login button throughout the website where users could access all our tools. Furthermore, we were now at a point where we could integrate money transfer services within the currency app. By doing this, it removed a series of blockers for users and made sending money with XE easier than ever.
The XE currency app gets in-app money transfer services in 2019 with the addition of single-sign-on.
A screenshot of a marketing campaign showing off our app's capabilities across different devices.
Giving XE a fresh look
The addition of SSO allows us to promote the fluid movement of users between our products, but to further create a cohesive experience, we knew we had to make sure our popular tools were refreshed in order to both incorporate findings from our research campaign and also fit with the competitive landscape.
Screenshot from a competitor benchmarking session that took place when we redesigned the new currency app.
My involvement would primarily be with helping the UX team redesign the currency app, however the findings from my research initiatives would be used alongside further exploration to assist in redesigning the website.
Screenshots of the new app
Comparing the previous version of the app (left) with the new app (right). User is able to register and send money while the previous user is still setting up their payment method.
Screenshots from the website redesign showing the fluidity of getting different currency information and learning more about our money transfer services.
Next Steps
While the work I've done at XE has helped the company move forward towards their goals, there is always more to be done. Data tracking is showing our new user registrations and successful money transfers are increasing. XE is currently working on improving its services, listening to user feedback, and testing new ways to help customers do more with their currency.
