Mr eel
Banking Web Apps Suck
In my dealings with various banking institutions I’ve had a chance to use various web forms and applications to communicate with said money-sucking-scum-bags.
I’ve not found a single one with what I would consider a good web experience. Badly worded, confusingly set-out, requesting all sorts of extraneous detail and just plain broken (i.e. it won’t work in anything other than Internet Exploder). Just for kicks I thought I might critique one particular banking web app, since it’s the one I’m forced to use most often.
I’m looking at you Bank SA! It’s pretty rare for me to go into a bank branch to do any banking. I prefer to do it via the net. Generally much quicker. Not without pain however. Bank SA’s net-banking is totally arse. Let me count the ways…
It Opens in a Pop-up
Way to go! Security conscious indeed. If the site is in a pop-up, there is no way for customers to verify that they are actually at their bank’s website by looking at the URL, since it’s hidden. This is practically screaming out for a phishing attack. Malicious so-and-sos can easily fool folk into entering financial details it to a faked bank site and the users are unlikely to be suspicious of the pop-up. After all, it’s what the bank uses all the time.
It’s a Java Applet
Do I really have to explain this one? Ok, Java applets in browsers are slow, ugly, require a huge plugin and are themselves generally larger than an equivalent app made with plain HTML. Plus as I use a Mac, the interface for Bank SA’s fancy java web-app is b0rked. Scrambled controls mashed all over the screen. Lovely.
Tacked On Features
There are a lot of features that have obviously been tacked on. For example, adding the details for a third-party account — I may want to regularly transfer money to a particular account. This is done via a pop-up. Yay! Another window! This should be integrated into the Java applet, but you see, it is big and nasty and they’re afraid to touch it incase they break it. Using um… HTML would make this a bajillion times easier. As an added bonus, you are asked to log out of the system after you have added an account. Otherwise… it won’t turn up in the applet! HA HA HA HA HA *sob*.
Drop-down Menus
Most of the functions in the app are hidden in drop-down menus. I don’t think this is a bad decision actually. There are a lot of options and drop-downs are a good way to keep them on-page without cluttering things up. Since this is an app, people are likely to use it frequently. Familiarity means you can make somethings a little less obvious. The problems come in when you consider the fact that the drop-downs are actually attached to buttons. That is so brain-dead I… See? I’m lost for words.
Generally Crap Design
This really deserves a post all of it’s own. In fact I think I could do more than one. Ha. Anyhow, a quick run-down; confusing use of widgets, un-clear labeling, badly organised options (un-related stuff bunched together) and an essentially crap, messy and plain un-professional app.
What about credibility? If this app was my first contact with the Bank I honestly wouldn’t deal with them. It screams ‘rickety and un-reliable’.
So, I’ve been thinking… what would the ideal Banking web-app be like?
Comments