I really enjoyed the WAMU presentation. They concentrated on getting an online account up and running, and Rick Starbuck’s presentation about how they did it and what they went through was helpful (and reassuring).
I’ll note-form some of my takeaways (my comments in italics):
- To do good design we need to use the tools our customers use. So common sense. And so neglected. I wonder how culturally we ensure that this is done?
- We need to be wary of features that don’t add value… and too many features can reduce value. Man, that’s a hard lesson to learn. I’d like to hear more about this, and its implications.
- Ask your customers, not subject matter experts, etc. Get as close to the customer as possible. We’re at a big of a disadvantage here because we don’t have the flexibility to blow everything up or turn everything upside down. I wonder what our clients would tell us about our basic design if we asked them. I think we’ll need to optimize just the main content of our site for now…
- Serve the majority – don’t try to be all things to everyone. Yeah. Who are we trying to serve? Are we losing something by trying to be everything to everyone.
- Lawyers are literal – show them, don’t tell them. I think this applies to more than lawyers.
- Start with “no one cares”. Yes, yes, yes. Maybe I’m over sensitive about this, but I’ve worked for FIs for 12 years and I still think that what we do is boring. Not frivolous. But boring. We need to create the hook to get people in and engaged.
- Metrics is still an art. At some point you still have to make a judgement call.
One thing I really appreciated was the comments regarding getting the online application as short as possible. Long forms are a disincentive to completing forms. That has direct application for what we’re doing this year.
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