Redesigning the Digital Mailbox
An outdated screen, lagging in tech and UX, was transformed into a more intuitive and useful tool, despite low business priority.
My Role:
Research, Design, Prototype
Platform:
App
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Business Value
This project was part of a broader initiative to reduce paper mail usage and cut related costs.
The goal was to provide customers with a convenient digital mailbox that meets their needs, eliminating the need or desire for receiving physical mail via Israel Post.
Constraints
Upgrading the mailbox, which was developed years ago, to modern standards without complex or costly service developments.
Understanding the problem
Analyzing User Behavior
Using Glassbox, a data analytics tool, I examined real user interactions and identified major usability issues:
Significant difficulty in reading letters
The PDF display area was too small, requiring customers to enlarge it manually, disrupting smooth reading.
Inefficient controls
Action controls were positioned at the top of the screen, making it difficult to perform actions on letters lower down.
Unused features
Such as creating personal folders.
Listening and Learning
Through discussions with product and customer service teams,
I identified key pain points in managing the digital mailbox:
“The current situation is forcing them to open multiple documents until they found the right one”
“In some cases, customers struggled so much to find letters that they preferred to contact bankers for assistance”
"Some users ended up opening each letter individually just to clear the badge
Struggling to Locate Letters
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Customers didn’t know the exact names of the letters they needed.
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Even when they knew what to look for, letters only appeared by title and date, making it hard to tell similar items apart.
Struggling to Clear Persistent Notification Badges
There was no quick way to mark multiple letters as read, so notification badges remained unnecessarily.
Struggling to Locate Letters
Customers often did not know the exact names of the letters, forcing them to open multiple documents until they found the right one.
Letters appeared only by name and date of receipt, making it hard to differentiate between similar documents.
Listening and Learning
Through discussions with product managers and customer service teams, I identified key pain points that made it difficult for users to manage their digital mailbox. In some cases, customers struggled so much to find letters that they preferred to contact bankers for assistance.
Struggling to Clear Persistent Notification Badges
There was no quick way to mark letters as read, causing notification badges to remain unnecessarily.
Some users resorted to opening each letter manually just to clear the badge.
Competitive & Market Research
To benchmark industry standards, I analyzed competitor banks and leading email/PDF platforms.
Letter display:
Letter view:
Zoom in/out:
Filtering:
Actions:
Search:
Mark multiple letters as read:
Chronological list showing name & date
Full-screen
Pinch-to-zoom
By date
Delete/download single or multiple letters
Not relevant
Not relevant
Letter display:
Letter view:
Zoom in/out:
Filtering:
Actions:
Search:
Mark multiple letters as read:
Chronological list showing name & date
Full Page Slider
Pinch-to-zoom
By date & types of letters
Share single letter
Not relevant
Not relevant
Key findings from competitor analysis:
I analyzed how Bank Hapoalim compared to direct and indirect competitors in terms of quality and functionality: How much have other banks invested in their mailbox screens? What features have been developed?
Feature | Bank Hapoalim | Bank Leumi | Bank Discount | Bank Otzar HaHayal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Letter display | Chronological list showing name & date | Chronological list showing name & date | Chronological list showing name & date | Chronological list showing name & date |
Letter view | Popup | Full-screen | Full-screen | Full Page Slider |
Zoom in/out | + and - buttons | Pinch-to-zoom | Pinch-to-zoom | Pinch-to-zoom |
Filtering | By date | By date | By date | By date & types of letters |
Search | - | - | By letter name | - |
Mark multiple letters as read | - | - | - | - |
Actions | Delete/download single or multiple letters | Delete/download single or multiple letters | Download single letter | Share single letter |
Key findings from competitor analysis:
I analyzed how Bank Hapoalim compared to direct and indirect competitors in terms of quality and functionality: How much have other banks invested in their mailbox screens? What features have been developed?
OneDrive
A small component at the bottom displaying the current page number
Helps users navigate multi-page PDFs
Google Drive
Flexible File Access and Viewing Options
Allows users to open files via third-party apps and provides both list and preview views.
Gmail
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Displays multiple images in a carousel for quick browsing.
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Does not support in-app PDF viewing, requiring external apps.
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Allows free-text search within email content.
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Supports multi-selection of emails.
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Enables marking multiple emails as read at once.
Insights from email platforms & PDF viewing tools
Finding the Right Solution Within Constraints
The tech team and I explored multiple features to determine the most effective solutions for both customers and the bank. Since most issues could be addressed through client-side development, our primary challenge was tackling the biggest user pain point—difficulty in finding letters, which often led customers to contact a banker for help.
Full-text search in PDFs
Although this would help users unfamiliar with letter names, implementing it required complex backend development.
Instead, a simpler search by title was introduced.
Filtering by financial category
This would require significant internal system modifications, making it too difficult to implement.
Displaying additional dynamic information
Mapping and tagging hundreds of existing and future letters would be impractical.
Solutions Considered (and Rejected)
While we aimed for impactful improvements, some potential solutions were ruled out due to complexity or feasibility constraints:
Final screens
Solving the search problem:
A search bar with autocomplete for letter names, helping users who are familiar with the document title find what they need faster
No More Opening Letters One by One
A carousel-based PDF viewer helps users recognize letters visually instead of guessing names and repeatedly opening and closing them
filtering by
Common letter names to guide users & Date
Solving readability issues:
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Page indicator: added a navigation component to help users track their position in multi-page PDFs.
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Pinch-to-zoom support: displayed letters in full-screen mode, with pinch-to-zoom functionality.
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Pinch-to-zoom support: displayed letters in full-screen mode, with pinch-to-zoom functionality.
Solving action control placement issues:
Placed action buttons in a fixed upper section, appearing when at least one letter is selected. This allowed bulk actions on multiple letters simultaneously.
