bBox’s second meeting with Volksbank Karlsruhe

            Volksbank Karlsruhe believes in the bBox Project. It had a positive response to our work and as a consequence, we grew a nice relationship that promises constant feedback and consideration of ideas on both sides.

            bBox’s first visit to Volksbank Karlsruhe Headquarters in December 2010, was an important attempt to enter the world of banking, to meet the banker and understand the working style. We sure stepped back then into the beautiful modern building with curiosity, enthusiasm and interest to reach the most useful things for our project: familiarizing with banking processes, perceiving the bank clerks' needs and getting feedback about our own ideas.

          We had even more complex feelings in our hearts in a second meeting on Thursday, February, 24^th, when we were invited to present our outcome for this stage of the project.

         

          A very warm welcome from Mr. Gerhard J. Rastetter (CEO of Volksbank Karlsruhe) together with a large group – 17 members of Volksbank Karlsruhe –, created from the very beginning a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. Naturally, we followed the spirit and introduced our team and the bBox project to the new members of the excited audience.

          Next, my colleagues started a short presentation about the already developed bBox concepts based on the most feasible and innovative of our ideas. Curious and open to new, the bank clerks were challenged within the whole session to think or imagine how our concepts could bring a change in their every day work.  Each of the bBox ‘players’ described features, advantages and explained their own vision about a new kind of interaction –  both with the device and between bank clerks themselves.  
              

             But indeed really important and very interesting for our hosts was to actually visualize the features that had previously been explained. So, we arranged a live illustration of the concepts implemented on the tablet. Very easy, by using a digital camera, we could film the programmers running the bBox application and alternate between the different modes (customer and bank clerk mode).

             Since we could feel the bank clerks captivated, shortly after that, we started the ‘playing’ session. This way, each person could grab the tablet and practice the gestures described, perceive the features and navigate freely through the bBox application.

          

             But what about bBox concepts after all? Do they match the bankers’ actual needs? What is relevant for us, before building the final prototype, is which of the characteristics would actually make the interaction with the system easier and the work more pleasant and efficient. So, last but not least, we have kindly requested for feedback in a form of a questionnaire, related to the banker behavior and the work presented, so that we can improve and adjust the concepts to our clients needs.

            We closed the meeting feeling very content about the way we communicated and shared ideas. Everybody is now excited about the next steps in the bBox and curious if we are able to make ‘wishes’ come true, as Mr. Achim Michel would say.
              Thank you, Volksbank Karlsruhe, in the name of the bBox team, for contributing to Fiducia’s  innovative project. 

                                                                       Claudia Corches