PlusCard Case Study
This project started when Utah Community Credit Union noticed the students of Utah Valley University were not actively signing up for the credit unions PlusCard. The card was considered a Swiss army knife of cards as it served as a student id, a debit card, a bus pass, and a discount card.
To help solve the problem, my team and I were tasked with understanding why the university students were not interested in signing up for the plus card.
For this case study, we conducted and recorded a couple focus groups to get qualitative information about these students impressions of the PlusCard and UCCU.
Summary of Findings
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Students weren't entirely aware of UCCU
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Don't understand the difference between Banks and Credit Unions
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UCCU's online capabilities should be expanded
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Unaware of benefits and incentives
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Concern of what will happen after graduation
Recommendations
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Refer a friend program
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Help educate about banks and credit unions through advertising, emphasize benefits
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Expand online capabilities
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Target freshman and alumni
MoneySmartU Online Brochure
The credit union took our ideas seriously, and began several projects that would attract more students to the PlusCard, as well as, new members to the credit union overall.
An area we realized was untouched however, was in educating people about how money works. Thus began Money Smart University. By educating people early about their finances, we observed the credit union could gain the trust of their members and retain members sooner and longer.
As part of the promotion of MoneySmartU for UCCU, I created an online brochure. Its purpose was to help young adults understand how the credit union can help them get the most from their finances as they transition into adulthood.
When the brochure cover is clicked, the information folds out. From there, the images and links can be clicked to direct the user to the web page on UCCU's site to get all the information of the programs.
Wireframes
This project was done on a tight timeframe, but the content was already prepared. So my challenge was to find a layout that would be engaging and informative. These are a couple examples of what I came up with.
At the time we were heavily promoting Smart Deals and Rewards at UCCU. So it was my intention to give that program more attention.
After a few discussions, we decided on the final layout because none of the programs were more important than the others. However, the Smart Deals and Rewards button is at the top to gain first visibility.
Marketing
Along with teaching people about their finances, UCCU took our advice to expand the capabilities of their app by including mobile deposit and general banking operations. I also helped them with their marketing efforts in reaching out to future and current UVU alumni, and reaching out to current students explaining the benefits of the PlusCard.
