The intelligent IVR

If you call Services Australia these days there’s some new technology which is quite class-leading:

  • like 40% of callers, you can use your voice to authenticate yourself straight away, instead of having to remember a PIN, or answering security questions at the start of the call
  • because you used your voice to pass security, you’ll get personalised service from the IVR, like important reminders, specific info about eligibility and payments (really helpful during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020) and even simple services like getting an advance payment… all without having to wait on the line and speak to someone
  • once you do get through (more quickly) the person answering your call will be able to understand your situation much more quickly so you get better help more quickly

After two-and-a-half years Services Australia was provided with new IVR services, a style guide about how to create effective spoken messages, a new single-view-of-customer solution for staff to use, staff personas and a new model for comms and change.

The ATM deposit

Businesses small and large still handle quite a bit of cash and it causes a lot of problems… you have to collect it, count it, account it, take it to the bank and then clear up all the discrepancies.

There’s dozens of issues in the process and both the bank and the businesses needed a better solution (preferably more self-service; it means less errors).

If you look in your CBA mobile app or online banking you can now create a QR code (with your own reference) and send it anywhere, and the store manager can scan it at an ATM and make the deposit.

It’s a much shorter path, 24/7, with less stress and frustration.

(but why didn’t you use NFC??  ah… because the store manager and the business owner don’t want to have to use an app for this)

The new health website

There was a lot to design for the new HealthDirect website – the information architecture (how people find stuff), the individual page structure (how to present info), the service finder (where’s an open GP?)… so we did that.

We defined how the site should work for the key users and we worked with the brand agency and the photo agency to make the whole vision come to life.

The credit-card reader

The world-class design agency IDEO had designed a pretty awesome new card reader device for CBA (which you see everywhere now). It brought a revolutionary user experience to the payment event.

However, the job was half-done as all of the management screens were left to be filled in, and the business architects couldn’t figure out how to design them.

We spoke to customers (walked into shops) and we designed settlement (end-of-day process), refunds, history, user shifts and other screens, in a way to help customers get the most out of their new machine.

The UI for contact centre staff

For over a decade, Centrelink call centres had needed a useful “single view of customer” so that staff answering a call could *quickly* understand the most important things about a caller. However, with all the complexity, and all the legacy systems, staff were still having to look all over the place to get to the right info for each call.

Working with a set of users we found in one of the call centres, we iteratively designed a UI that would work just by glancing at it, while having a conversation, perhaps with an upset caller. The new UI is super-clear and presents vital information in one place.

“I didn’t know we could make something that people actually liked” said one project manager.  “This is the best thing in 30 years” said one user.