The App Launch experience, which starts when a user interacts with the app icon on their device home screen and ends with the completion of sign in, is a crucial experience. It’s viewed 300 million times a month, by 100% of users in 100% of sessions, and is the first impression of Capital One’s digital servicing experience for 100% of first-time mobile users.
The splash screen did not present Capital One as a modern or high-end app to users. Along with visible errors in production, It lacked polish, emotional resonance, and positive brand messaging.
The first thing we did as a team was a competitive analysis of 25 app launch experiences from the highest valued brands in tech. We took screen captures of the app launch for each, then laid out an image stream side by side, applying annotation along each of the image streams to find patterns, bugs, and novel ideas.
We used the same process in analyzing our current launch experience. We then connected with our tech partners and laid out our findings in both our competitive analysis and internal audit. Combining our findings along with our tech partners', we were able to build out a framework that communicated the constraints of the effort, which enabled us to start digging into high fidelity.
After multiple iterations, we were able to create a pattern that worked for our brand, product, and tech partners.
We built a new dynamic framework to support a re-imagined app launch experience, allowing us to upgrade the current launch experience and easily update it for personalized and seasonal experiences.
Ryan is a UX Motion designer that considers branding and content essential to the user experience.