website usability: homepage

SINCE 1994, THE EXCLUSIVE MONTHLY REPORT ON INTERNET BANKING PRODUCTS & MARKETS
Number 100 & 101
October 27, 2003
STRATEGIES FOR
FINANCIAL
INSTITUTIONS
____________________________
Internet banking
Innovations
Epayments
Security
Self-service
Online marketing
Interactive lending
INSIDE
Financial Homepages
Website Usability
There’s no place like home(page) ......... 2
Homepage Survey
A look at 20 financial institutions ...... 4
Op Ed: Bonny Brown, Vividence
Customer Experience Counts ..........16
Case study in homepage design: ....18
Provident Bank WebCheck Analysis
Innovations.......................................30
Standard Life’s HateYourMortgage
Conference Calendar .......................31
Security Matters:
Fighting fraudulent emails ................32
Disturbing figures from the FTC ......35
Identity theft concerns mount.............36
WEBSITE USABILITY: HOMEPAGE
Don’t neglect your online lobby
S
ix or seven years ago, when few design standards for commercial
websites existed, a friend of mine launched a Web-design shop targeting
community banks, his particular area of expertise. I watched his
frustration mount as he lost deal after deal to website-template providers, such
as BankSites.com, that were charging a few hundred dollars, compared to my
friend’s reasonable $5,000 to $10,000 bids.
Today, few financial institutions would consider posting a hundred-dollar
website, or even a $5,000 one for that matter. Yet, many successful financial
institutions are still under-investing in their homepages. For the price of new
carpeting in a couple branches, most small- to mid-size financial institutions
could dramatically improve their virtual first impression.
To get an overall sense of the state-of-the-art, we reviewed the homepages of
the 20 largest U.S. retail banks. Overall, they are doing a good job of meeting
standard usability criteria (Ö pp. 4-15). For example, all but two have
prominent login links on their homepages, something that was virtually
unknown a few years ago. Also, all but two have ATM/branch locators and
more than half have an Apply Now link. The biggest missing piece: security.
Only nine of 20 banks link to a Security Area from the homepage.
However, once you venture outside the top 20, website design is more hit and
miss. As a real-life case study in website design, we put Provident Bank through
the homepage portion of our proprietary OBR WebCheck Analysis (Ö pp. 18-30).
While the bank’s current homepage scored low, the good news is that it could be
brought up to near state-of-the-art with a few hours of programming.
Another indicator of just how far we’ve come from the days of the $500 website,
large banks are spending six-figures or more on usability testing alone. Vividence,
which counts Citibank and Wells Fargo as clients, is marketing a new syndicated
study that analyzes the usage of 4,000 actual customers across ten banks. An
annual subscription to this sophisticated research costs thousands, but you can
get an exclusive sneak peek at their results inside (Ö pp. 16-17).
Finally, in pursuit of optimal usability and efficiency, don’t forget creativity. As
any direct marketer can tell you, sometimes it’s better to defy conventions to
make the sale. Case in point, UK-based Standard Life Bank’s innovative
<HateYourMortgage.com> website touting its Freestyle mortgage (Öpp. 30-31).
Jim Bruene, Editor & Founder
jim@netbanker.com
WWW
.ONLINE BANKING REPORT.COM
WEBSITE USABILITY
HOMEPAGE REVIEW: OBR LOOKS AT THE
20 LARGEST U.S. FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Across the board, homepages have dramatically improved this year. One of the biggest changes:
Wells Fargo, which has often succumbed to “kitchen sink” design (everything but the kitchen sink
dropped on the homepage), shows great restraint with a superb new design (see below).
After (Oct. 8, 2003)
Before (Feb. 19, 2003)
I
n early October, we reviewed the homepages of the
20 largest retail banks in the United States. Overall,
they are pretty solid. According to our totally
subjective grading system, all but one (BB&T), scored
an A or B (Table 3 below).
Table 3
Overall Grade Homepage
top 20 U.S. retail banks
Grade
A
B
C
Total
Num
4
15
1
20
%
25%
70%
5%
100%
to account login on their homepage, although only
two allow direct login. The other 17 provide a link to a
login page. All but two banks have an ATM and/or
branch locator on the home page.
On the other hand, surprisingly less than half had a link
to Security from the homepage and just over half included
a link to account application/sign-up forms. Finally, only
three banks featured a homepage link to a rates page. >
Table 4
Content Links from Home Page
% of top-20 banks with link
Those scoring As:
•
Citibank
•
National City
•
Washington Mutual
•
Well Fargo
Content/Functionality
Most top-20 banks do a great job of linking to key
content areas and functions (see Table 4 right). For
example, all but one top-20 bank has a prominent link
page 4
ONLINE BANKING REPORT
© Oct. 27, 2003
Privacy
About Us
Careers
Location
Login
Contact Us
Search
Site Map
Apply
Help
Security
Spanish
Rates
95%
90%
90%
90%
90%
85%
75%
75%
60%
50%
45%
40%
15%
Number 100 & 101
PROVIDENT BANK
Case Study: Analysis of Provident Bank’s Homepage
For a real-life example on how to analyze and improve a homepage, we selected
Provident Bank (Cincinnati, OH; $17.6 billion, 500,000 customers) more or less
at random from the list of banks with assets of $10 billion to $50 billion.
Table of Contents
About OBR WebCheck
Following is our three-part analysis of Provident Bank’s
homepage (as of Oct. 21, 2003):
1. Website layout
2. Usability analysis
3. Usability scorecard
p. 23
pp. 24-26
pp. 27-29
Summary
Provident Bank’s homepage meets most of the key
usability guidelines such as left and top navigation; good
color scheme; and hyperlinks to account access, customer
service, and privacy. However, a large number of small
improvements could make it much better, for example,
reorganizing navigation, making links easier to read, and
eliminating unnecessary graphics.
The most important areas for improvement are:
• Reducing the clutter so customers can focus on key
site functions such as sales and service (see #10, p. 22)
Online Banking Report has developed a
custom 200-point analysis to help
financial institutions make their websites
more user-friendly and profitable. OBR’s
Website Analyst Chris Young and
Founding Editor Jim Bruene will
personally review your site and document
it strengths and weaknesses in a 60 to 75page custom report. Cost is $2,500 to
$10,000 depending on the size and scope.
To maintain the highest quality standards
(and our sanity), we do a maximum of one
review per month. We are currently
booked through year-end, but are taking
reservations for 2004.See the enclosed
flyer for more details.
Contact: Chris Young, (206) 517-5021
chris@onlinebankingreport.com
• Putting prime real estate to better use (see # 9, p. 22)
• Adding more functions to the navigation such as Help, Security, and Privacy (see #3, p. 20)
page 18
ONLINE BANKING REPORT
© Oct. 27, 2003
Number 100 & 101
PROVIDENT BANK
Detailed Layout
z1
z2
z4
z3
z5
z6
z8
z9
z7
10
z
11
z
12
z
14
z
13
z
Homepage Reference Diagram, Source: Provident Bank, 7/03
window title is simple and effective for bookmarking the page. However, the “Cincinnati, OH” could
z1 The
be removed and replaced with a brief description of what the bank has to offer.
current statement Welcome to Provident Bank Online is adding little value. It’s obvious that visitors are at
z2 The
Provident Bank Online without needing to welcome them. This is a holdover from the early days. Instead,
use a short tagline placed by the company logo that conveys why the bank is unique or great.
z
Consider placing other functions, such as Help Center and About Us at the top of the page for quick
3 reference (see below). There is no need to say, Provident Locations. Locations or Branch/ATM Locator is
better.
Provident Locations | Contact Us | What’s New
Before
Help Center | Branch/ATM Locator | Site Map | Security/Privacy Policy |About Us | Contact Us
After
page 20
ONLINE BANKING REPORT
© Oct. 27, 2003
Number 100 & 101
INNOVATIONS
STANDARD LIFE BANK’S LOAN ORIGINATION GEM
<hateyourmortgage.com>
UK-based Standard Life
Bank developed this eyecatching site to market its
innovative FreeStyle
mortgage, a flexible loan
and savings account
similar to VirginOne, now
called, OneAccount
(OBR 98/99, p. 39).
Note: If you are looking at
this in black and white, you
should go check it out
online, the colors are vivid.
Maybe we’ve just looked at too many banking websites
and are craving something different, but we think
Standard Life Bank’s (Edinburgh, Scotland) mortgage
website is one of the best we’ve ever seen. Using
tongue-in-cheek humor, at which the British seem so
adept, Hate My Mortgage is a unique marketing effort
that works especially well online.
How it Works
On the first page, visitors can do only two things. Click
on Hate Your Mortgage or Love Your Mortgage. Heading
down the “hate” path, users can be entertained by:
• The mortgage rant contest where the winner
receives free mortgage payments for a year
(up to £12,000).
• Dear Mortgage Marge, an advice-column spoof
for those who hate their mortgage.
• Get rid of your mortgage, with an interactive
letter generator that produces a “Dear John” letter.
Standard Life has shown great restraint in limiting the
sites sales functions to tiny links on the bottom of the
interior pages. Three actions can be selected at the
lower right corner, Apply online, Request a call back, or Tell
a friend. However, the bank should consider making the
application link more noticeable, it’s too subtle.
page 30
The bank also posts a unique Flash mortgage brochure
with “pages” you turn by “pulling” with your mouse
(screenshot, p. 31), a mortgage calculator, and
mortgage trivia.
(Ö continued p. 31)
ONLINE BANKING REPORT
© Oct. 27, 2003
Number 100 & 101