New FNB website

[jh-01]

Hey guys,

Any thoughts on the new FNB website that went live yesterday? I think
it's got some really interesting ux around needs-based navigation and
the like...

J

[Amy]

I really like the My Menu functionality
A

[Vlad Nedelcu]

it seems to me they only went half way on this.
they had the best ux intentions, but it does not seem fully thought through in some way.
seems incomplete to me

But that's just me.

--
Vlad Nedelcu
Sex is like pizza. I refuse to have either until I have a healthy tossed salad

[Ironic Buddha]

Hi all

New on this forum, so sory if the analysis seems that of a n00b

Vlad is quite correct that their implementation is incomplete. Their 'For Me' menu uses a nice inductive interface with pretty icons.

The rest of the menus reverts to a standard deductive/text based interface, and then go into a inductive mode again.

I personally find that on a landscape oriented laptop screen the 4 horizontal areas are a lot of overhead. 

On the positive, I think that the inductive approach combined with search, will mean that infrequent visitors will benefit from the re-design. As a non-customer I'd be interested to know what their internet banking experience is like in comparison with the site.

Carlo

m: +27 83 292 6632
t: twitter.com/ironicbuddha
w: http://scrumisscrum.wordpress.com

[AJKock]

I actually experienced it yesterday.

I think it is important to note that there is a difference between
first impression and your eventual experience when your remark on the
UX of a website.

At first glance, yes you might not like something (because it is
different, not what you used to, don't like the new colour, etc.), but
after actually working with it for a while you might realise that you
get to things a lot easier (simpler, faster, etc.) and that your
overall experience has been an improvement (or not) on the original
experience.

So here are my immediate first impressions:

Cons:
Needs cookie to know that I have already seen the message and it
doesn't need to tell me it is new every time. I eventually saw the
"Don't tell me again", but seriously how many times do you want to
tell someone it is new? It is a good idea to get the user's attention
before he says "WTF?!!", but it can become an irritation on the 2nd,
3rd time. Show it once and go away.

There is no HOME, oh wait it is on the right.

Boxes for username + password too light on laptop screen.

Apply Online Now: For what? Loan? New Account?

Terms and Conditions Verify payments Login problems Register Security
Centre: How easy was that to read? Why is Register hidden away among
the other options?

Too many clicks before info displayed. I wanted to know about the
address for cellphone banking. It took 3 clicks but if I clicked the
first option I saw (related to my search) it would have been 5. I was
navigating as a person user, why was I shown options from Business
point of view in the ICON menu? It makes you think that the original
split of personal vs business vs Private, etc. was irrelevant.
After making a choice between three products I couldn't go back to
check out the others. (Manage my income)
I do not like the search. It doesn't work like conventional search. I
typed in "Best Savings Options" and it started giving me what I
thought was predictive text, but actually those were the only options
and it by default choose the first option when I clicked ENTER.

Pros:
Pleasantly different from other banking sites; meaning not the same
boring stuff they are trying to sell to me without even knowing who I
am.
Menu ICONS pull me immediately which I think is good, as it shows me
actions related to "me".
People are searching for: I like the fact that the term is also
clickable and not just for show.
Content nicely spaced which makes reading relatively easy.
I like the step by step explanation of each product (Why? Cost?
Qualify? How? etc.)


Okay, that is the longest I have ever spent time on a Banking
website. :) Will give my eventual experience remarks later.

@Carlo Internet Banking is a separate website so it is still the
boring same.

[supermonkey]

Who designed it?

We have some people from FNB on the forum as far as I can remember -
maybe they can give us some insight to how/why the decisions were
made / designed - how the testing went etc.

I remember 3 people from FNB on the HFI course of which one did online
banking - but not sure if they do public front-end as well. (Maria -
you there?)

or was JH01 involved? if so - would be really nice to cover it as a
mini case study as the result of UCD? expecially after this thread.

I'm finding the site sort of strange to get to grips to; but don't
really know why. I'll try to explain with my personal journey of the
site but take it with a pinch of salt...

The needs based nav compared to task based or other, is sort of
interesting and I can understand why they did it.
It's like a sly sort of marketing nav to create the need in your mind
- and then almost like a wizard in the way you drill down from very
high need to a solution.

In my mind it's a good concept if done correctly, but feels like it's
not sitting nicely for someone like me who's not an existing customer
- at first glance.

Personally I would first want to become a customer before I want to do
stuff and they didn't create a need or means for me to become a
customer - or gave me reasons I should.
It's almost like they need to funnel users into existing customers or
wanna be customers - or at least differentiate because there's clearly
different needs involved.

The needs based options seemed to only kick in strong on the FOR ME
option - but then after browsing a bit I found it switches convention
- which can be ok guess as long as they follow though with answering
my need.

The nav felt like it dropped me as soon as I chose I want to borrow or
bank. (after identifying my need)
It started giving me options which didn't seem like it was fulfilling
my newly created need off the bat. It would've been nice if they kept
asking me questions until they had something which would be a solution
for me wanting to borrow money - and why it will suite me.

for instance: it defaults to FOR ME with all the needs FOR ME could
have. I decided I want to BORROW and then it switched to options like
SMALLER PURCHASES and FOR DAY TO DAY PURCHASES. I wasn't sure. I could
want to borrow for R100 which is smaller I guess but maybe I want to
do that day to day. Needed some clarification.

The tab still said FOR ME and the way I orientate myself is FOR ME >
SMALLER PURCHASES. huh? What happened to I want to BORROW? maybe it
just needs a FOR, but then it would read FOR ME > FOR SMALLER
PURCHASES. In that case it needs the BORROW in between to read FOR ME
> BORROW > FOR SMALLER PURCHASES. I was wondering why all the other
options had the FOR but not the first option. anyhow - this is just
labeling issues that didn't sit intuitively.

Anyhow - I decided that DAY TO DAY would be something to look at - and
when I clicked on it (by this stage i'm thinking it sounds odd to
borrow small amounts on a daily basis. sort of like being a beggar or
asking parents money for the school tuck shop. I already felt knee
deep in debt) It confirmed FOR ME > BORROW FOR DAY TO DAY PURCHASES.
at last some sort of orientation about what I'm drilling into - but
they left me hanging in the previous step.

Then I had the choice to choose some stuff of which ONE ACCOUNT is an
option. I didn't know what that was and didn't want to make a choice
based on my initial need they made me choose. I don't think they're
answering my need in a concise, easy to understand way. At this stage
they either need to tell me to look below to see more detail - or
explain the reasoning inside of the "wizard" like nav control. I got
the feeling that they're not clearly defining the nav as simply a way
to get to stuff below and they're expecting the nav to do more than
just be a navigation control - or at least they created that
expectation in my mind.

That "restart your navigation" thing is interesting. Haven't seen that
before. Odd wording tho. Restart makes me think of vista taking
10minutes to boot and made me think twice about clicking on it.. was
it going to reboot my navigation? how? why? Feels like it was put
there to quick fix the odd orientation going on. In case I just give
up half way through and feel really stuck and as a last resort take a
deep breath and reboot my navigation to get the hell back to the
start. I think it needs a crumb trail to let me know what I've chosen
along the way and allow me to know what I'm going back to. This would
help if I just wanted to explore to see what options will be behind
door 2 and by accident go too far into the wrong option (without
having to REBOOT my navigation). They're expecting me to remember some
of the choices I made and make the connection myself.

My browser didn't like the site. Firefox 3. but then again on vista
anything is possible. Just made me wonder how IE6 will cope. The back
button didn't work and because it's secure my HP's security sign-on
kept asking me to swipe my finger with every click. It also didn't
want to load SMALLER PURCHASES at all. again - could be vista or my
3G.

conclusion...

Initially liked it - had a pleasant fresh smell to it. but it quickly
wore off as I started struggling with finding some simple answers. I
think it can be a simple layout thing. the blue band should have been
behind the nav / wizard thing or higher up - to not give me the
impression that the page is divided or disjointed.

The animations kept fighting for my small attention span - but my
attention was solely focused on getting answers from the nav - as it
felt like it needed to give me answers. I only later realised that it
was actually giving me all sorts of stuff below the nav and even in
the page title. Maybe - after the homepage I just started ignoring
whatever was happening below the nav cause I thought it would just be
similar marketing splurb - which it is - but it's also where the most
important stuff are.

I'm tending to agree with Vlad here - good intension but somehow
doesn't feel like it was completed all the way through.
It feels disjointed to me. too many things happening - expecting me to
explore all over after every click even though it's promising me
answers in the nav.
lots of stuff fighting for my attention.

I'm not an FNB client - and this didn't really swing me - even though
it looks nicer than MY banking site.

It's got a few nice things going.

That search ticker which tells you what people are searching for is
odd but entertaining. it's out of context in my mind and just creates
more noise though.

AJK's comments included - apply for what? (at the top of the page next
to search). if I look to the left and follow left to right > apply
for "how they can help me"?
or... if I follow the big orange arrow pointing to the search -
"apply" to search the site?
I guess it's "apply" to do online banking - because it's grouped with
the log-on. They should make the "online banking" label a bit bigger
then - or group everything to do with it in a more visible way. The
home button loses it's purpose where they put it. The MY MENU should
then take over the homepage button role - or at least be the first or
last tab. I liked the my menu idea - but didn't really know what to do
with it.
What does the automatic help do? It told me it was enabled - I clicked
on it and it become disabled. hmmm.

it's clean and trusting visually.

Banks have to deal with a huge amount of psychology to swing a client
(similar to GP's I guess) and apparently they have a really hard time
cross selling products to existing customers - but that's a consumer
behavior / marketing thing I guess. I can imagine that this was some
of the thinking that went into this design and why many financial
institutions are adapting the NEEDS based navigation to simplify for
the user.
Banks, IMO are tough designs to do - because of the many hats you have
to wear and having to be very conservative in your approach. so still
kudos to whoever did it - it's good step in making things different -
but just feels a little unpolished - most likely due to time and
budget as always.

my rambling Saturday morning 2 cents.

[Noto Modungwa]

Here's one of the guys behind the project http://www.andyhadfield.com/2009/07/new-fnbcoza.html -  rationale behind some of the decisions.

--
___
Noto Modungwa
no...@notomodungwa.com
twitter.com/notomodungwa

[Phil]

I think the navigation is a tad weird and it seems to mess with my
back button. and I think the big, heavy turquoise glassy chunks are
going to get tired very fast.

But the intention is good, if you read Andy's blog. And getting as
far as he has in a behemoth bank environment should not be sniffed at.

Provided he keeps bashing away and doesn't run out of steam, it might
be great ina couple more years.

--phil--

On Jul 26, 12:42 pm, Noto Modungwa <n...@ardentsolutions.co.za> wrote:
> Here's one of the guys behind the projecthttp://www.andyhadfield.com/2009/07/new-fnbcoza.html-  rationale behind

> n...@notomodungwa.com
> twitter.com/notomodungwa

[darryl.hebbes]

The UI changes granted are a new direction but still don't address the
current user base, the new changes only attract new business.

I bookmarked the Online Banking two years ago and never see the
homepage... only to get new products, which.

I only visit their homepage when I need new products, and how often
does one do that?