Wachovia Redesign: An Exploration of Challenges 2003

Wachovia.com RedesignAn Exploration of Redesign Challenges

ASIST IA SummitMarch 22, 2003

Samantha Bailey, VP Information ArchitectureWachovia Corporation

whoami

• Samantha Bailey, VP Information Architecture, Wachovia Corporation (2 yrs)

• Former Argonaut (5 years)• Generalist by choice, taxonomy &

CV fanatic by nature• MILS, University of Michigan, 1996

Overview

• Origins of the “site dilemma”• The battle for the homepage• Access to online banking• UCD methodology…user-

centered site?

Background

•Consolidation (Sun Trust)•Merger vs. acquisition &“Merger of

equals” •The new Wachovia would dominate

retail banking on east coast, 1/3 business market, significant wealth clientele

What does this have to do with web design?

The Site “Dilemma”

•Merge two robust, fully branded websites (with loyal customer bases)

• 24-month, multi-product, multi-state conversion (9/01-8/03)

• Geographically agnostic medium• Maintain channel parity with

branches and call centers• Minimize customer impact

The Legacy Websites

First union.com, 13K pages, Vignette, drop-down nav, no default

Wachovia.com, 3K pages, static HTML, tabbed nav, default to personal finance

Options

•“Ostrich” (keep both legacy sites)•“Two-step” (move to legacy blue)•“Compromise” (split logo)•“White Lightening” (new brand)

Profound impacts on IA dev (time, flexibility)

Shifting Ground

•eCommerce group’s role: lead or follow?

•Channel parity•National vs. regional brand

campaigns•A new approach to consumer

deposits emerged, with an 11/22/02 launch date

The Site Solution

•Maintain both legacy sites 9/1/02-11/22/02

•Move line of business content to “surviving” platform, branded legacy Wachovia, with pre-11/22 conversions

•Launch a new, fully branded and redesigned Wachovia.com website 11/22/02 (deposits)

Site Solution Rationale

• Wachovia.Com surviving domain name

• Maximum promotion of brand with minimum confusion

• Customer experience consistent with LOB conversion(s)

• Mirrors LOB conversion communications

The Battle for the Homepage•Does anyone use “public space” on

a banking website?•LOB assumption flatly: NO

• “My content must be on the homepage or it won’t be seen!”

At what point in the IA development process should the homepage be designed?

The Battle for the Homepage

82% of Site visitors 68% of Site visitors

The majority of site visitors hit the public space at some point in their experience

23% remain in public space55% hit both public & authenticated space22% remain in authenticated areas only

17% remain in public space62% hit both public & authenticated space

21% remain in authenticated areas only

Most Use Homepage As Gateway to Authenticated Space but Nearly a Quarter Spend Entire Experience in Public Space

PHEW!

But how to get our business partners to believe the research?

Ways to “Segment” Users

Small businessIndividual CorporateAligned with Bank Offerings

Banking Behavior TransactorsSavers/Investors Borrowers

Product “Ownership” LendingChecking Investment

Demographic Emerging WealthAffluents Women Teens

Generic Needs Make MoneyMoney Management Borrow Money

Life Event New BabyBuying a House Retirement

A Relatively Simple User Segmentation Scheme Can Be Hypothesized

Non-bank customers

Online banking customer

Bank customer/no online banking

Press/PR

Women Spanish-language

Teens

PersonalFinance Small Business

Prospective Employees

Investors

Wealth CorporateCollege

“Life Event”

The key question remains… what is the optimal

segmentation approach for redesigning the public space?

Considerations

•Industry standards and trends •The new Wachovia mission•Retail dominates in #’s•CIB/Commercial dominates in $

Discovery Process

• Competitive analysis • Nielsen//Net Ratings• Stakeholder interviews• Personas & Scenarios

Initial Wireframes

•Sifter•Portal•Emphasize personal finance while

representing all•Tabbed default to personal finance

(see wireframe deck)

Usability Testing

•Lo-fi tested completion of task from each homepage

•Surprise gender split: sifter/portal

•Business considerations•Legacy issues

Inconclusive Results

•"A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes that he has got the biggest piece." - Ludwig Erhard

vs.•A compromise leaves everyone

equally dissatisfied.

So We Made the Decision With A Coin Toss

•Selected emphasis on personal finance

•Customer volume•Demand for corporate

presence on homepage•Wealth Management continues

to be an issue

(just kidding)

http://wachovia.com/

The Online Banking Systems

• Wachovia: Corillion, integrated banking & billpay, 560,000 customers

Geographically staggered system conversion in a geographically agnostic medium.

First union: C2 & Matilda, 2,500,000 customers

Retail Scenario: Pre 11/02

You can now access your accounts at Wachovia.

com

New Wachovia look and feel

FTU System – C2

Sally Smith is a legacy FTU Florida customer with Online Banking and visits firstunion.com to access her account information

Steve Brown is a legacy FTU customer from Delaware with Online Banking and visits firstunion.com to access his account information

FTU System – C2

Wachovia - Corillian

David Williams is a legacy Wachovia Florida customer with Online Banking and visits wachovia.com to access his account information

Melissa Baker is a legacy Wachovia customer from North Carolina with Online Banking and visits wachovia.com to access her account information

Retail Scenario: Post 11/02

•The back-end complexities remain the same (until 8/03)

•The “luxury” of having two sites with unique logins vanishes.

•Users will have to be challenged…but how?

Challenge With a Zip Code?

Challenge With a Query?

Who Is Who?

Challenge with a zip code? Snow birds and

other multi-state householders

Identify their originating branch?

Second-guessing and mass confusion in user testing

“Gateway”

“Gateway” Pros & Cons

•Crafted each element on page after extensive usability testing for “least confusion”

•Opted to leave legacy bank labels off because legacy FTU customers chose “Wachovia” labeled login

•Trouble-shooting vs. How-do-I?

Sore SpotsCategorization issues:• Personal Finance vs. Investments• Small Business affinities• Corporate vs. Commercial• Contact Us ~ Depth, Directory

• Labeling issues:• Wealth Management • Login

• Interface issues:• “children” links on “menu” pages•

Lessons Learned

•The nature of buy-in

•Relationship between IA, marketing, interface

•Documentation (and the nature of stamina)

Feedback

• Bank Monitor: “ The design of the public homepage is effective in that it presents users with a snapshot of the main sections of the new site and provides key links to areas within each section in an organized and non-congestive fashion. ”

Feedback

• “ Within the first few moments of traversing this new site, I was hit by a plethora of usability no-no's. Take this services login page for instance. This [collection] of form fields is so confusing that the designers had to add a "How to use this page" help file in the middle of the page....here's a clue, if you have to explain how to do a login...then I'm thinking the page probably needs a tad more work. Multiple logins on the same page? Requesting the user choose the services for which they're logging into? WTF...why not have the services assigned to the login? Wow, how incredibly useful...specially if people decide to bookmark this login page. (insert eye roll)” -Dan Beauchamp, RedCricket

http://www.wachovia.com/

https://www.firstunion.com/NASApp/perimeterauthentication/PerimeterServlet?action=presentLogin&url=%2FNASApp%2FNavApp%2FTitanium%3Faction=returnHome

Feedback

• “I was just browsing your site and wanted to drop you a line to say what a great job you and your team did on the redesign of the Wachovia site. I am a Wachovia customer and as an information architect I was very interested to see how the site would change [for good or bad]. I love the new look and the deviation from a standard site navigation on the home page, I think, was a great idea. It is very similar to the BBC approach. If you need any user feedback at this point I would love to participate. Again, great job.” -Jeremy Miller

UCD Process UC Site?

Issue Positives Negatives

Site Solution • delivered on time, under budget

• rigorous UCD methodology (a first)

• authenticated space not as consistent

• “sore spots” & post launch to-dos

Homepage Treatment

• Positive customer feedback

• Positive business unit reception

• Login issues

Gateway Approach

• 80% active users logged in within first month following conversion

• Continues to be a top call center question cluster

Conclusion

• Questions?

• Contact information: •

[email protected], [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]




References

• All wireframes developed by Wachovia Corp Customer Interaction Group (Samantha Bailey, David Barbin, Courtney Crowell, Michelle Downie)

• Wachovia web graphic designs by Wachovia Corp Interactive Design Group (Max Nelson, Brian Williams, Ben Rubeck)

• Slides 8-11, images created by Kevin Hill (Modem Media)

• Slide 20, images created by Kristen Zaks (Accenture)• Slide 29, Bank Monitor magazine, Dec 2002• Slide 30, RedCricket (Dan Beauchamp’s blog)

http://www.redcricket.com/txt/archive/archive112002.htm • Slide 31, from email to Samantha Bailey 2/5/2003 by

[email protected]


Wachovia Redesign: An Exploration of Challenges 2003

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