NAB Health Research
Background
In order to better understand the perspectives of NAB Health’s key audiences, I led a research effort to gain qualitative insights into their motivations, behaviours, needs, and pain points—particularly when completing key tasks online. This research also aimed to validate existing assumptions. The insights gathered will inform the landing page redesign with tangible, evidence-based findings.
*To comply with contractual obligations, I have omitted respondent details and certain business figures from the case study.
My Role
Gathered insights from the NAB Health to form a Research plan
Conduct Stakeholder interviews to help form a research roadmap
Engage research agencies for vendor selection.
Prepare Discussion Guide
Brief the research agency on the recruitment screening and interviews requirements
Worked with the team on result synthesis
Communicate research result to stakeholders
Approach
Given that the NAB website operates within a CMS framework, our research approach needed to account for both design flexibility and system constraints that ensure UI consistency and visual unity.
To gather actionable insights within a tight three-week timeline, we conducted 19 user interviews, leveraging two agency researchers to assist with data collection and synthesis. This allowed us to efficiently analyze findings and generate recommendations that informed upcoming website updates.
Discussion Guide
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1. Introduction
Contextual Introduction (25 minutes via Zoom). This segment provides an opportunity to get to know the participant . It also sets the stage for the interview by outlining its objectives, and what to expect.
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2. Task 1
Existing Website Task (15 minutes on Loop 11). Participants perform a task relevant to their group on the existing NAB Health website.
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3. Task 2
Prototype Evaluation (15 minutes on Loop 11). Participants engage with a proposed experience prototype, completing a task pertinent to their group.
Participants Profile
Based on previous research and NAB’s definition of the Health journey, I identified four personas and recruited 19 participants accordingly.
Student
The five students/graduates shared similar future career aspirations:
They follow a structured career path designed by their program.
They gain experience within the hospital system before considering independent practice.
At this stage, they haven’t decided on a specialization.
Most express interest in owning their own practice or pharmacy in the future, seeking to move away from high-stress hospital jobs.
They have limited exposure to business banking products.
2. Start Up
The five respondents in this category, a mix of NAB and non-NAB customers, were in the early stages of planning their career transition.
“I’m still deciding how to plan the next couple of years. I’m weighing up between renting a room and working as a contractor or actually investing in my own practice and hiring others to work during the hours I don’t want to.”
There is a strong preference for face-to-face consultations. Starting their own practice is a major life step, and they lack the confidence and knowledge to apply for a business loan online without prior guidance.
“That’s not my area of expertise—knowing how to move accounts around or manage finances to set things up properly. That’s why I need to speak to [the bank manager].”
3. Expansion
The five respondents had short-term expansion plans but had yet to develop a clear long-term roadmap.
They seek trusted advice from colleagues or professionals (e.g., financial planners, accountants).
As they are on the verge of making significant investments, guidance on the best financial products is a key consideration.
They require support with long-term planning and business forecasting.
Most respondents have business transaction accounts, credit cards, business loans, and car loans
4. Succesion
While some respondents have established clear succession plans, others are still in the process of developing them.
They have either already formulated detailed retirement strategies or are in the early stages of planning.
They tend to have well-defined wealth and investment plans for retirement and are not necessarily seeking additional information.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a slowdown in business for some, leading them to consider retiring earlier than expected.
All respondents have experience with a broad range of both business and personal financial products.
Findings Overview
Task 1
Existing Site
Likes
The opportunity to contact a specialist banker was particularly appealing to the succession group.
Information on products was comprehensive and clear.
Mentions of 'COVID-19 Help and Support' were well received.
Information on HICAPS and Medfin presented in bullet form was appreciated.
Dislikes
No participants navigated to the NAB Health page from the homepage.
Awareness of the NAB Health section is low; however, once on the page, it is generally met with positivity and seen as informative.
Information provided on pages is not succinct.
Advice lacks depth and is overly simplistic for the audience.
Images were distracting and did not feel relevant.
Participants felt they lacked visibility of what’s on the next page, leading to comments like, "I feel like I’m just going through click after click."
The articles and product information often felt too much like advertising or marketing.
Task 2
Prototype
Likes
The clean and well-structured page is preferred over the current NAB Health website.
The descriptions of the three brands are 'snappy' and concise.
Green checkboxes provide more details on what services are provided for each career stage.
Product information is also much more obvious and resonates strongly.
Dislikes
Participants have to go through a lot of information to find product details.
Photos chosen are not representative of the group and are too stereotypical.
“You are not going to graduate from medical school in your early 20s” -Female, 31, Hon. Psychology”
The images and content felt very biased toward general practice and did not feel relevant for smaller business owners and Allied Health.
Features
After synthesising the interview data, I conducted a product prioritisation session with the team. We utilised a Value vs Effort Matrix to visualise the 18 identified points for addressing the redesign of the NAB Health experience, categorising them into appropriate quadrants.
Review the placement of Healthcare in the menu tree.
Enhance NAB Health visibility in the mega menu.
Create clear pathways from relevant NAB pages to industry-specific banking solutions.
Conduct a keyword search audit to optimise discoverability.
Improve organic search performance to increase direct traffic to NAB Health pages.
Raise NAB Health awareness early in the customer lifecycle by running campus activities or talks.
Leverage the SEO tool Journey+ to analyse NAB Health’s keyword pool, understand consumer intent, and identify key competitors.
Use "Health Professionals" as the primary term when addressing the entire NAB Health audience.
Update the phrase "Students and Graduates" to "Health Graduates and Doctors in Training."
10. Conduct content QA with NAB Health banks to ensure accuracy and consistency.
11. Add a product information UI component on case study pages for clarity.
12. Design case study pages to support skim-and-scan reading behaviour.
13. Learn from the planned four case study page traffic using analytics and heatmaps.
14. Provide clearer details on the products and services offered by each NAB Health brand on the landing page.
15. Surface relevant NAB Health products on the NAB Health homepage.
16. Provide art direction for case study photoshoots to reduce reliance on stock images.
17. Update pages for easy access to bank contact lists.
18. Assign a page owner for the Contact Us page to ensure ongoing maintenance and updates.
Results
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Fourfold Increase in Traffic
Our research identified that internal navigation and user mental models were contributing to low traffic on the NAB Health pages. Following the implementation of Stage 1 features, monthly traffic increased fourdold.
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Bounce Rate Reduced to 46.3%
The bounce rate across all NAB Health pages decreased by 4%, indicating that the new page design is effectively retaining users by providing relevant information and articles.
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Organic Search Growth of 12%
There was a 12% growth in organic search traffic, demonstrating improved visibility and discoverability of our content. Data reflects a two-month period.