The Huntington Cashback® Card & Online Account Opening Redesign

Project Overview

The Huntington® Cashback Card offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases and allows you to redeem your cash at your own pace or at the end of each statement cycle. This was Huntington's first consumer credit card to offer cash back rewards.

Challenges

The Huntington® Cashback Card was in development alongside the redesign of our online account opening flow, also known as OAO. This redesign improved the UI and content within the online account opening experience. Another aspect of this redesign included decoupling our Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠ into two individual credit cards; one that offers 3X rewards in a valid category of your choice, and one that offers a lower interest rate.

Here are some challenges I overcame:

  • Managed establishing content for the new Huntington® Cashback Card in a fast-paced and highly regulated environment.
  • Decoupled the Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠ into two credit cards.
  • Created a content strategy that ensured customers understood that there were 3 distinct Huntington credit cards.
  • Ensured that the OAO redesign achieved the desired outcome of being a more simplified and scannable online application.

Tools

  • Adobe XD
  • User Interviews
  • A/B Testing
  • Excel


Team

  • Project Managers
  • Legal, Risk, Compliance (LRC)
  • Marketing Partners
  • Interaction Designers
  • Visual Designers
  • Developers

My Role

As the lead content strategist on this initiative, my responsibilities included:

  • Updating content for the product selection page.
  • Collaborating with marketing partners to ensure brand consistency.
  • Decoupling content for the Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠.
  • Working with product and design teams to optimize user interactions for the redesigned flow.
  • Ensuring credit card content was approved by our legal, risk, and compliance team.

User Research

The UX research team had conducted a couple of rounds of user testing, including A/B testing and user surveys. During testing, we referenced the credit card application portion of the OAO flow. Results from user testing revealed the following:

  • Over 25% of authenticated customers agreed the online account opening process took too long.
  • 14 of the 20 users in testing mentioned that the copy throughout the flow was not uniform and not scannable.
  • Authenticated Huntington users spent approximately 10 minutes opening a credit card account online. This was 5 minutes longer than the average online account opening time for an authenticated banking customer.
  • 70% of Huntington accounts were opened online and 80% of users had an online banking profile.

Content Strategy

To track and organize changes, I split the content strategy for this project into three content initiatives:

The Huntington Cashback® Credit Card

I frequently collaborated with product managers, marketing, and LRC partners to finalize content for the Huntington Cashback® Credit Card. The tone conveyed in the narration of this credit card was informed, confident, and supportive. I ensured customers understood this credit earned cash back, not rewards, unlike the Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠.

Online Application Opening (OAO) Redesign

After reflecting on findings from user testing, my content strategy focused on making the online account opening flow more concise and scannable. User research also implied that content was not uniform on the pages; this motivated me to lean into the 'design' aspect of content design. I worked closely with designers to ensure a harmonious balance between content and design.

Decoupling The Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠

The decision to decouple the Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠ was influenced by the fact that 70% of customers who applied for it were declined the first time. This credit card was only accessible to customers with excellent credit. Huntington wanted to offer customers with less-than-excellent credit a credit card that would benefit them.

The Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠ was still available but with a branch-off known as The Huntington Voice Credit Card®. Instead of cashback or rewards, customers get a lower interest rate. After decoupling, the credit cards were branded The Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠ (3X Rewards Credit Card) and The Huntington Voice Credit Card® (Lower Rate Credit Card).

Login Page

The Challenge

Normally, customers had to be authenticated by having a Huntington username and password to open an account online. User research suggested that 70% of customers opened their accounts online and 80% had an online banking profile. I wanted to make the online account opening flow more approachable for unauthenticated customers.

My Solution

After Huntington's recent acquisition of TCF Bank, new customers had the option to log in to the online account opening flow using their date of birth and SSN. I incorporated this login option as a part of the OAO redesign. Adding this option made the online account opening process more accessible to unauthenticated customers.

Unauthenticated user for redesigned OAO flow.

Offer Code

The Challenge

We discovered a critical pain point during user feedback: the login page failed to communicate the automatic application of offer codes. This lack of clarity resulted in customer confusion and a less-than-ideal user experience.

My Solution

Adding static text for a limited user base would have undermined our redesign goals. Instead, we implemented a strategic icon-text pairing. This approach provided the necessary context in a visually concise manner, decluttered the page, and ensured users understood the offer code process.

Authenticated user for redesigned OAO flow.

Compare Cards

The Challenge

There were now 3 Huntington credit cards customers could select from. I had to ensure users understood the distinction between the 3 cards, especially between the Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠ and the Huntington Voice Credit Card®. Before the OAO redesign, the footnote descriptions were also not consistent with the product descriptions.

My Solution

I collaborated with marketing partners to write content for the Compare Cards page. This page was strategically placed on the credit card homepage and displayed all Huntington credit cards for comparison. We included CTAs to apply and a link to learn more, which directed users to an in-depth description of the product. The Compare Cards page can be viewed here.

Comparison between three Huntington Credit Cards and application homepage.

Compare Credit Cards & Apply Page

Your Card

The Challenge

Before the OAO redesign, the marketing descriptions of credit cards were not consistent with those in the account opening flow. For example, "3X rewards" was sometimes replaced with "3% cash back". There were also inconsistencies with the product footnotes.

My Solution

To ensure user-facing content was consistent with branded content. I redesigned the product descriptions and footnotes for:

  • The Huntington® Cashback Credit Card
  • The Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠
  • The Huntington Voice Credit Card®

Your Card page for redesigned OAO flow.

The Huntington® Cashback Credit Card

Customers who selected this card had to select a redemption option to redeem the cash back they accrued. Manual redemption redeemed cash back as a statement credit or direct deposit. Automatic redemption credited cash back as a statement credit.

Redemption Option radio set for The Huntington® Cashback Credit Card.

The Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠

If customers selected this credit card, they chose which category their cash back went to. They also choose a personalized design for their card.

Rewards Category and Choose Design for The Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠.

The Huntington Voice Credit Card®

Customers who applied for this credit card have to choose a design for their card.

Choose Design for the The Huntington Voice Credit Card®.

Name Displayed on Card

The Challenge

Prior to the OAO redesign, this section was cluttered with text. The UI also appeared outdated compared to some of our other online flows.

My Solution

To make this section more scannable, I incorporated a character counter with the Your Name field, as opposed to having a sub-header. I also translated the the "Please Note" text from the older design into an information box. This made the page appear less cluttered, without cutting out necessary information.

Before and After of Name Displayed On Card for OAO Redesign.

Other Card Options

The Challenge

With a rotation of three credit cards, my team and I had to consider how to redirect customers who accidentally applied for a credit card they already own.

My Solution

I worked with designers to create a page that would redirect customers to other credit card options available to them.

Other Credit Card Options page.

Catch-all Page

The Challenge

Before our online account redesign, users experienced an abrupt transition from the "Your Information" segment directly to legal disclosures. User feedback indicated this sudden shift created a sense of surprise and unpreparedness, leading to anxiety about the final steps.

My Solution

To address this issue, we introduced a "Catch-All" page before the legal disclosures. This page served as a transitional guide, outlining the upcoming "Final Steps" section, while setting user expectations. For accessibility, we embedded "Open the Sample Document" and "Download Adobe Reader" links directly into the page.

Despite initial stakeholder concerns about adding an extra step to the process, we advocated for a content strategy that prioritized clarity over brevity. The resulting "Catch-All" page received positive user feedback, demonstrating a considerable improvement in user understanding and a reduction in apprehension towards the legal disclosures.

Catch-All Page and Agreements & Disclosures

Takeaways

Let's recap. The launch of the Huntington® Cashback Card and the redesign of the Online Account Opening (OAO) flow, yielded the following challenges:

  • Establishing content for the new Huntington® Cashback Card.
  • Decoupling the Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠ into two credit cards.
  • Improve the online account opening flow (OAO).

Establishing new content for the Huntington® Cashback Card entailed more than writing. I worked closely with legal and marketing partners to ensure this new product was consistent across web pages, user flows, and legal disclosures.

Decoupling the Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠ required reestablishing new product descriptions and legal disclosures. I worked with design and product teams to ensure the “Your Card” section reflected three distinct credit cards: The Huntington® Cashback Credit Card, The Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠, and The Huntington Voice Credit Card®. I also worked with marketing partners to publish the Compare Cards page, which educated customers while increasing product engagement. Additionally, we implemented the “Other Card Options” page, in case customers accidentally applied for a credit card they already had.

Lastly, to improve the online account opening flow (OAO), we integrated improvements to the flow. Providing an alternative login for unauthenticated users increased application submissions. Highlighting the offer code on the login page improved the flow for OAO users, reducing customer complaints about not being able to apply promotion codes when opening accounts online. User testing had indicated that the flow’s transition to legal disclosures felt too abrupt. We took these findings and implemented the “Catch-All” page to ease users into the final steps of the flow.

I struggled to brainstorm a title for this case study, there were many layers to it; I worked on a new product, The Huntington® Cashback Card. I also decoupled an existing product, The Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card℠, to create a new product, The Huntington Voice Credit Card®. Additionally, I worked on redesigning the interface of the online account opening flow (OAO). Despite the challenges these layers presented, I overcame them to create an improved experience with more credit card options for customers. This project emphasized how much digital experiences and products rely on interdisciplinary collaboration. Working with product, marketing, and legal teams strengthened my overall content strategy, but it also strengthened the final product by having support from multiple avenues.