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Jonathan Dominguez

Prof. Anna Voisard

ENGL21007-A

10/31/2016

The Best Design Money Can Buy

One of the main objectives of an online page is to get people’s attention so that the owner

of the page can benefit from it. For banks in New York that is extremely important especially in

such a competitive atmosphere. TD Bank and Chase are very popular banks however; they’re

both competitors who are always trying to find better ideas that will give them the upper hand.

Living in a modern society which is more and more dependent on online resources it is important

to have an effective and amazing online website. For that reason both try their best and spend a

lot of money to create their unique site.

The company TD Bank (www.tdbank.com) has been opened for about 150 years and

according to Bankrate it is one of the biggest banks in America. This is their online homepage

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where we can clearly notice the effective use of the design principle which is contrast. By using a

white background the rest of the colors used in text and links more noticeable. Their page also

uses proximity really well the text describing the elements are positioned close and accurately so

that they can be easily identified. Once you’re on TD Banks homepage you can notice that they

have a white margin and their content is in the center. There header has there logo as well as

their phrase in the left upper corner and in the far right they have common links referring to the

company such as “About us” which has basic information of the company. Underneath the

header they have their global navigation bar which has 3 links which open up other options

related to that link when the pointer is on top of the link. Below that we have a background

image and on the right they have a white square that includes the options to log in to the banking

account. If we scroll down we can see their audience segmentation content buckets which are 3

background images that have their own link included in front of them. Following down we have

their audience segmentation bar which includes multiple links that have a light green icon and

right below they have a grey text. Finally we reach their footer which has the standard

information that must be included in an online page which is feedback, copyright, privacy

information, terms of use, and security.

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The Chase (www.chase.com) online homepage uses a white background with their text

color light blue and grey. To me there use of colors and content makes this homepage look more

professional. To start of the first thing you notice once you’re on Chase’s homepage is that they

use the entire screen and that their header isn’t the commonly used one. They compressed their

global navigation bar and their audience segmentation bar to 2 links which will display these

options once you have the pointer on top of the icon. Once we scroll down the header changes to

a background blue rectangle that has the Chase logo in the center and follows you as you keep

going down. As we scroll down we can see their audience segmentation bar which has grey icons

and blue text. Following down we see their audience segmentation content buckets which

include 3 content links with an image on top. Next we see their News & Stories segment which

is a section which has 12 links with an image on top that have some kind of relevance to the

company. And finally we see their footer which includes their social media and other standard

content requirements such as feedback, copyright and privacy information.

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There are several differences between TD and Chase online pages. One noticeable

difference between this two is the use of the screen. Chase’s homepage uses the entire screen for

their content as for TD bank’s homepage have a white margin that centers their content in the

middle. In my opinion using the screen entirely makes Chase’s homepage feel more professional

however, seeing it in my laptops big screen made me feel a little overwhelmed. In the other hand

centering the content with white margins made TD Bank’s homepage more comfortable and

smooth.

Another difference between these pages is there headers. TD Bank’s header is standard it

has there logo and links to the basic information of their company. Following the header we have

their global navigation bar which has 3 main links that have many sub options when you leave

the mouse pointing on top of. Chases header is far more interesting because it includes all the

links from the segmentation bar and the global navigation bar compressed into 2 icons in the far

left corner. To me this makes the header much more interactive and elaborate.

We can also see that they differ on the content that they include and the space they use

for it. If you scroll down right after the audience segmentation bar Chase’s homepage includes an

entire section for information that has some relevance with the company or economics in

general. The headers titled News & Stories which includes 12 links each one with an image

related to the link and if that not enough there is also a link to open up more content. As for TD

Bank’s homepage they don’t have such content in their page. In my opinion I think that

including more contain that is a little related to the what the company does is unnecessary and a

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waste of space. Personally if I enter any online website I would like to see content that is strictly

related to the main point not news that has almost nothing to do with it. By omitting unnecessary

content TD Bank’s homepage is more compacted and the important information is easily

accessible.

It is very difficult to choose which is better between TD Bank’s and Chase’s homepage.

They both have features that make them attractive and unique. I think it mostly depends on the

audience that their focusing their attention the most. In the case of TD Bank I think their concise

and use less space so that the audience won’t get so overwhelmed and can access their

information much easier. To me Chase’s homepage takes up the entire screen so that they can

give it a sense of distinction from the rest as well as a more professional look. Overall I preferred

TD Bank’s homepage because of the fact that they didn’t use the entire screen for their content

as well as their concise content.

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