Marcelo Gatti talks about UX Do you want to know more?

Marcelo Gatti came to Infocorp as a graphic designer, and since then 17 years have passed! In the beginning, I did everything: sales material, brochures, websites. Today he leads the UX/UI team, participating in all phases of product creation, from ideas to interfaces, to everything that involves UX and UI, and he is proud to see how the products and apps that his team designs are used by millions of people, making them love their banks.

Tell us about your work at Infocorp?

I started at Infocorp 17 years ago, I entered 2003, as a designer. He was the only designer in the company. I did everything... I designed interfaces, I designed HTML, I also worked in marketing making sales material, brochures. But then I became more aware of what it has to do with the interface and usability. Today I lead a team that participates in the process of creating a product, from start to finish. Everything that has to do with the UX/UI (user experience/user interface) design, up to the implementation of the UI. In addition to meeting with clients, I work a lot with project managers to coordinate tasks with different teams and with analysts to define requirements and functionalities. Also with the Marketing area, with regard to Infocorp branding, and sometimes with the HR team.

What is the current structure of Infocorp's design and UX team?

We are a team made up of UX/UI designers and frontend developers, and we contract supplier companies if the demand for work so requires. As a multidisciplinary team, together we exchange ideas and contribute to all projects.

Tell us about your training? How were you learning about UX?

I studied architecture until the fourth year, I even took the architecture trip, and at the same time I had started studying the Degree in Graphic Design at ORT. At one point I got to do both races together, but when I returned from the trip I had to make the decision. So I decided to finish my degree, and at the same time I started working in design, which was what I liked the most. As part of my career, I had multimedia design, and with that subject I became passionate about interfaces, although at that time they didn't have all the projection that they later came to have. And then I began to venture into interface design and user experience, and that path continued to this day.

How was the evolution of banks' digital channels since you started working on this topic 17 years ago until today?

At the time when I joined the company, Infocorp didn't have a defined niche market like we do now, when we are dedicated to the financial sector. At that time we were also dedicated to the health sector, the insurance sector, and others. But we already had Banco Santander Uruguay, as one of our first clients. And over time, more clients related to the financial industry began to appear, where we were part of its evolution. The biggest leap came when the use of smartphones began to be maximized. People began to feel that immediate desire to transfer money anytime, anywhere. Although we already had web banking, where people could make their transfers and payments, I think that was the biggest break. Over time, people no longer wanted to go to the branches, but to do everything on their own, and this year, with the pandemic, all this was further enhanced.

And what would you say is like the most challenging project you've had since working at Infocorp?

There were several challenging projects. In addition to working from here, I traveled several times to do consulting. For example, going to another country for two weeks and surveying an application, surveying a site and ending those two weeks with sketches to show the customer. Being there doing the whole process, from engaging in conversation with the customer to drawing drawings on paper and then moving them to digital, was interesting, but at the same time challenging. When I made those trips, I always carried large blocks, pencils and eraser and I drew drawings in front of the client to interpret the requirements, and that had a very good impact. After that, those drawings were transferred to wireframes, using vector drawing tools, to move from paper to something more like a final result. And after I had more or less approved the navigation flows, there we would put the art and make the sketches for them and presented them with that as well. We were doing the job in two weeks and the client had at least one tangible product in one or more sketches. It wasn't developed, but it could already be seen in images, and the customer valued that whole process a lot.

There were several of those... I remember one, for example, when the first iPad had just come out, we designed a super complex iPad application for a bank in Chile. I remember that was super challenging and we presented a lot of screens.

And more recent?

App X. We put together a multidisciplinary group, for hours throwing ideas away, to create the app of the future for banks. During those long meetings we loved each other and soon after we hated each other (laughs 😊), because we were all very passionate about what we were doing, and to capture the ideas, we drew screens on the blackboard to visualize what it would be like. And it also had an important challenge because at that time we started working fully with Adobe XD, which is an application that allows us not only to sketch but to interact between screens, to introduce micro interactions, in other words, to generate a much richer experience. You practically had the app running on your cell phone and it was actually a simulation. For me, it was a tremendous pride to have worked with that team, to have helped to bring out those ideas that were very good, and from then on, a stand was built that was all about that product, at an international event in Miami. You put a lot of heart, a lot of love into things, you go beyond work, and when you see it come true it's fantastic. That was the initial engine for the new app, which is App 7. Several ideas that we had there are now being taken and at some point others will be added.

Infocorp's claim is “Helping people love their bank”. What do you do every day in your work to achieve that?

Well, this claim, which if I remember correctly, must be from 2012... I designed the logo, which is the one that can be seen everywhere in the company. Ever since I first heard it, I loved it. Because it expresses what my team and my team work for every day, which is to focus on our clients' clients, the end users. For me, that phrase basically sums up what user-centered design is.

And what would you say are the trends or fundamental points of user-centered design today?

First you have to understand the users, and the tasks they are going to perform. Usability, that's a very important point. Also the responsive one, so that the interfaces look good on all devices. Accessibility is another factor, and a highlight is appreciation, which is how users feel when they navigate the interfaces. In one of my presentations, I used a slide at the beginning that showed a rich and colorful plate of hot food, with a text that read:”Users are hungry for a great experience”(users are hungry for a great experience) and this is because all users use super cool apps, so we can't help but live up to those apps. On the other hand, so that there is no friction in the use of our products, we use the principle of “follow the patterns”, which is to follow the patterns of what people use and know, such as social networks, and to make them feel that they are in comfortable and intuitive environments. Examples of this are the use of the hamburger menu, or the Tab Bar, which are types of navigation familiar to users. There is a book that I really like called “Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow” by Daniel Kahneman that deals with this topic. It basically talks about two mental systems, system 1 and 2. System 1 is the fast, the intuitive one... for example, if you are driving and you already know how to drive, you do everything from memory; and if you change cars, you won't have a problem. System 2 is the one that has to think, it's like being told to drive, but in a car with the gear lever on the roof, or on the left side of the seat. If we take the user out of that area of known patterns, you put him in system 2 and you make him uncomfortable. We must try to make the user do things without thinking much, that they are intuitive.

Let's talk a little about Marcelo on a more personal level, what are your hobbies, what do you like to do?

I am a lover of sports in general. I love watching sports and playing various sports. I have it as a routine because it is something that is also very good for my head. As a boy I was federated in handball, and I also played soccer and swimming in the ACJ. Then I played basketball for years, to this day. Even when I grew up I ended up federating in table tennis. And with the pandemic, I started playing tennis, which is a sport that I was always a fan of. And I love to play it! Personally, I enjoy being with my family, I am very familiar, I like to hang out with my mother, brother and family, see my nephews, and spend most of my time with my wife and 12-year-old son. And I have a friends and friends bar that, given the current situation, I see it much less than I would like.

A place in the world? An ideal place to spend holidays?

A place in the world is hard to say. I love to travel and luckily I had the opportunity to do the architectural trip and also work trips. And in the last few days I always had some weekend in between, so I remember incredible places I visited, such as Isla Culebra in Puerto Rico, or the mountains of the mountain range in Chile. Once I went to Panama and through the client who was the Ministry of Economy, they took us to visit an indigenous region on the other side of Panama City, which is an archipelago in the Caribbean called Guna Yala. The water is warm, divine! Another place that I love, that we have been to several times with my family is Florianópolis. On the other hand, last year, we went with my wife and son to New York, which is an amazing city, we walked 13 to 15 kilometers a day, my son who was 11 years old at the time kicked everything and was crazy, it's an incredible city.

Tell me a little about the prospects of someone coming to work at Infocorp today?

One of the things that I like about Infocorp, and it must be one of the most important things I'm here for, is the dynamism and adaptability that the company has always had. It is a company that never stayed the same, it was always venturing into different market niches, seeing the possibilities, until it found the current niche in the financial sector. It is a company that has always been very agile, and that allowed me to learn a lot. We invested a lot of money in making the products. This puts a lot of pressure on me because undoubtedly the interface is one of the most important parts of a product, but at the same time it is very challenging.

I remember when we made the web banking product, we started sketching it, thinking about it, we released some demos, the commercials went out to sell it and four projects were sold at the same time with a PPT. That's what's good about my work at Infocorp, that you always change, that you're always working on different things and that never lets you get bored 🙂

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