I’m banking on a makeover
UK banks really have not got to grips with usability and good visual design. There have been one or two nice looking banking shopfronts online but when it comes to functionality and interfaces, it’s all very late 80s. Gordon Gecko could walk back on to Wall Street and the branding would be sadly famliar.
I want banks to add value — to help me manage my finances more effectively. It’s also in their interests for me to be flush. I want data and graphs and representations of spending patterns.
Jenni and myself often have philosophical chats about brand, the social web and how to enable ours lives more so here is a free idea for all you banks — tagging.
Imagine if you could tag all your bank transactions. All my food for the week is tagged with, erm, food — imaginative I know. At the end of the month I can get a breakdown on how much I spend at the supermarché. Other online bank account holders who have also tagged their transactions with food get added to the mix to show me what I’m spending compared to Elvis Presley and such like. Banking needn’t be boring.
Enable me to build a profile about my life: the size of my family unit, how many rooms wehave, who supplies my electricity. Capture data for my benefit (not yours–though it really is win-win). Allow bank customers to see what they are spending compared to others in their town, in their industry, their demographoic, their world. Show us how you can save us money and make us money without harming ourselves or each other. Now that’s responsible banking.
Joshua wrote this on 06.08.09 – 8 comments
It's filed in the NixonMcInnes box
On August 6th, 2009 at 2:02 pm, Nigel (@nijay) responded:
Would be great if banks could automate things like this… there a twitter app that does this (http://tweetwhatyouspend.com/) but it requires that you tweet what you’ve bought at the point of sale with a hash tag to put it into the right category (food, entertainment etc)…
As banks have this information automatically, I agree, it could be a great feature. They wouldn’t be able to track cash spending, but how much cash do people use nowadays anyway….
On August 6th, 2009 at 2:03 pm, Glenn responded:
I was discussing this exact thing a couple of months ago in the office.
Banks are not doing nearly enough to cater for their customers online. They have taken their inhouse tools and let the customers access them, which is great for checking statements and making transactions but completly lacks anything that is more useful to the customer than it is to the banks.
I have been told that there are a couple of American banks with really good online offerings, so perhaps it will filter over.
Whichever bank first begins to “get” the online space will get my money.
On August 6th, 2009 at 7:22 pm, Jenni responded:
egg and smile seemed to offer a fresh approach to banking when they launched, but seem to have stagnated since. I’d love to see a bank tapping into the kind of ideas that drive great social experiences like Dopplr.
I suppose it’s all about embracing the idea that data can be de-coupled from an individual and their single little window on the world and be collected together to help everyone see where they fit in the bigger picture.
I want to see how my spending compares to other people like me and if I’m spending less I’d like to share how I’ve managed it. If I were to be shown that my utility bills are higher than other people living as part of a family of 4 in a Victorian terrace in Brighton I’d then be able to switch – and I’d feel pretty pleased with my bank for helping me out.
I’ve already designed this interface in my head – so if there’s any banks out there listening, just give us a call- we’d love to help you socialise :)
On August 7th, 2009 at 11:43 am, Will McInnes responded:
That would be amazing.
From my own work I know that several major brands are planning moves in this direction, but for me I wonder if we also need to support the person-centred part of it.
What I mean is, is it best that this is provided top-down by the service providers, or can consumers also own and participate in this with their own tools?
I think it will come down to who owns the data, and
how accessible it is, but in the same way that people are beginning to measure their own energy useage at home with their own devices, at the edges of the network, I wonder if the same will happen in financial services?
No particular way is best. Top down can be clumsy and ill suited and shoe-horn us all into the same box. Bottom up is all well and good but only really works if you can access the core stuff (the data, the services).
So we need both, IMO. We need the big boys and girls, the brands and service providers to come towards the middle ground, AND we need people to take emotional and physical ownership of their useage, their behaviour and their data, ideally enabled by useful stuff – apps, tools, whatever.
It could/will/might be wonderful.
On August 7th, 2009 at 1:42 pm, Nic responded:
I work for a major bank but in the professional investor space (not the retail banking side).
We have just completed a project to provide daily factsheets based upon data held in a database. One click and Mr Fund Manager has all the information he needs about a fund. Another click and Mr IFA has a recent document to show his clients. Voila!
Before that, we were creating factsheets manually and quarterly! We’re now saving $500k a year across Europe.
So, in short, it is happening, but it’ll be an extra cost for banks to do it for you and me. After all, Mr Fund Manager invests billions!
Tell me where to sign up and I’m there. Brilliant idea.
On August 7th, 2009 at 2:07 pm, Joshua responded:
surely our banks should be investing us so that we all have more money in accounts, customer loyality et al?
On August 13th, 2009 at 12:29 pm, Jim Byford responded:
Reading Jenni’s comment – take a look at mint.com and wesabe.com both of which do what you describe. I’ve spent some time in the last couple of years working on exactly this with a big US bank and they’re getting there.. However, back in dear old Blighty and as a FirstDirect customer since launch, I’d love to see them provide these tools. Perhaps I should tell them :-)
On August 13th, 2009 at 3:26 pm, mattyk responded:
I can’t wait for my online banking experience to improve. Its so frustrating at the moment!
There was a great article about this in .net magazine a few months back where they got a few designers to have a go at it.