Through technology, creativity, and community, Bettr is equipping young people with the confidence and currency to achieve their dreams with #zerocompromise.
Building a bank is difficult, it’s so difficult in fact that your best bet is not to start a bank at all. The team over ast Bettr, however, were determined to launch a new banking solution. A solution that would provide young people with the access they need to the financial products they deserve.
There is a smorgasbord of challenges facing new banks, starting with licensing and regulatory approval right through to sufficient funding, risk and compliance, as well as a clear understanding of the various facets that make up banking services. While new banks are getting to grip with these challenges, their largest hurdle is presenting a comprehensive product to decision makers to meet those decision maker’s expectations.Together, our aim was to deliver a product that was seemingly simplified (even though banks are incredibly complex), while also providing an incredibly secure, scalable product with a world class UX and UI. The fully developed bank needed to exceed the benchmark set by the competition in the market.
Blott Studio provided Bettr with assistance in developing and building out their UI and UX, developing its Android and iOS applications, providing guidance on the architecture of the platform, and building out their Customer CRM. The collaboration between Blott Studio and Bettr has always been dynamic; with the two teams working in tandem and progressing towards common goals.
Bettr wanted to push the boundaries when it came to their website. To do this we built the website in Webflow and then took it to the next level, using custom JavaScript and GSAP. The launch of the site was such a success that it drove 65 000 pre-registrations for the mobile apps. The site also featured on both lapaninja and landing folio.
The scope of design work was very broad and challenging. The Bettr team had previously worked with a number of designers, which is what Blott Studio initially based the new designs on. However, it soon became clear that there were many inconsistencies in the old designs. This, combined with the fact that there was no design system in place to reference when designing new flows, meant that there were no foundations to provide support for a hyper growth environment when it came to scaling.
Together with Bettr, we decided to start fresh with a new design system. Our team of product designers worked simultaneously on the development of new features, to accommodate the new visual style, and design system. The challenge here was to coordinate the work of brand design, illustration, motion design, Webflow development and product design in order to create a cohesive brand experience that fit the detailed target audience description and tone of voice provided by the client.
The mobile application development began with implementing the user onboarding, account and card issuance, and simple transactions between users. Once these processes were fully formed, we moved to the creation of notifications and value-added services, such as: card security controls, analytics, and a round ups feature (that allows users to save regularly). When the mobile applications were first launched, we encountered a challenge regarding the onboarding journey and our team quickly worked to optimise the process, thus ensuring a more user-friendly experience. This also led to increased conversions.
From a technical perspective, we are continuing to develop the apps in React Native. There are a few integrations with third-party services, including: Firebase, Auth0, Google Places, Intercom, Onfido and, recently, Stitch. The communication with the backend is handled by GraphQL. As a state management the decision was reached to use Redux.
Bettr needed a CRM system wherein they could manage the relationship between themselves and their customers. Their initial plan was to purchase an “off the shelf” solution from the existing market, though they soon came to realise the cost implications and rigidity of those available solutions. Due to Bettr requiring a more flexible solution, Blott Studio assisted with building a CRM system from scratch.
We continue to deliver value for the product as we work on a number of components within Bettr’s ecosystem: the architecture; managing, monitoring, and improving the infrastructure; handling the choice and the implementation of third-party integrations; developing new features within the mobile applications; deploying new changes to the production environment and providing 24/7 maintenance support.
The Blott Studio team is composed of React Native Developers, Python Developers, Product Designers and Product Managers. We always follow an agile approach in our work, adjusting and embracing changes. The whole mobile team consists of a combination of around 10 people, which makes Bettr one the biggest mobile projects at Blott Studio to-date. With 65 000 pre-registrations, and a full complement team of fintech gurus backing them, Bettr continues to move onwards and upwards.
months to launch the product
team members involved in the process
of users onboarded within first weeks
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