Comparing the User-Interface Design of Banking Websites

Comparing the User-Interface Design of Banking Websites A Survey on the Sri Lankan Banking Sector R A K Ranawaka Productivity and Management Development Division National Institute of Business Management Colombo 07, Sri Lanka [email protected] Abstract—This paper reveals the results of a survey covering all licensed banking sector organizations in Sri Lanka in order to compare the user-interface design of their websites and proposes a methodology to compare the design elements of these websites. The sample selected for this survey comprised of 23 Licensed Commercial Banks (LCB), 31 Registered Finance Companies (RFC) and 14 Licensed Special Banks (LSB) recognized by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka as institutions permitted to accept public deposits under the Sri Lanka Banking Act and the Finance Companies Act. Based on the Raypot and Jaworski’s 7C model for the analysis of user-interface design elements in e-commerce applications, a ten factor checklist was developed in order to compare the design elements of the sites and rank the sites with regard to the design elements used in designing the user interface of each site analyzed. Availability of each factor in a website was given an availability score of 1. The total score was named as the UserInterface Component Availability Rank (UCAR). The Average Availability Score (AAS) values were calculated for all factors with regard to the three institutional categories. Results showed that the LCBs were superior in the usage of design elements in comparison to RFCs and LSBs. It was revealed that community and customization elements were totally ignored by almost all the bank websites revived, whereas the ecommerce activities were also not popularly used by the reviewed financial institutions.

Keywords—7C model, banking websites, e-commerce, userinterface

I.

INTRODUCTION

The banking sector in Sri Lanka currently experiences substantial growth, with increases in the asset base, loans and advances portfolio, investment and deposit mobilization. The array of financial products and services and delivery channels broadened with the introduction of new schemes and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based products and services such as internet and mobile phone banking [1]. These developments in the banking industry were supported by a massive 55.7 % growth in the Internet & e-mail sector during the year 2007 [1]. Sri Lanka’s Networked Readiness Index for ICTs according to the Global Information

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Technology Report 2007-2008 was 3.58 in comparison to 5.78 of Denmark (the highest) and 2.40 of Chad (the lowest) [2]. Sri Lanka currently has an estimated 771,700 Internet users as of March 2008 and an Internet penetration rate of 3.7% [3]. With rapid growth of the internet and the globalization of the market, most enterprises are trying to attract and win customers in the highly competitive electronic market [4]. These developments may have motivated the Sri Lankan banking sector too to use Internet technology in order to market their products and also to facilitate their respective customers to conduct banking transactions over the Internet. Commercial use of the internet for service provision has deeply changed the environment where human-computer interaction takes place. Web interfaces are now integrated in overall service provision, and are designed for a huge and diversified set of potential users, in an uncontrolled context [5]. Design of a banking website plays a major role in delivering excellent customer service and customer satisfaction. Layout, navigation mechanisms, graphic appeal and clarity could be highly influential in delivering a better service to users through a website. The role of the web interface developer is also seen as critical where; the web interface designer’s understanding on the user needs would affect the inclusion of user interface elements in a productive manner [6]. The factors such as, functionality, usability, reliability and efficiency have been used by researchers to evaluate the quality of ecommerce websites [7].Value fidelity of the graphics used on the user interface, motion on a dynamic web interface, ability to create greater attention span are some other important qualitative aspects of user-interface development in ecommerce sites[8]. Objective of this study was to compare the usage of different user-interface design elements in the banking sector websites in Sri Lanka. This study was conducted as a survey covering all licensed commercial banks, licensed financial companies and licensed special banks in Sri Lanka.

ICIAFS08

A model introduced by Raypot and Jaworski (2002) for the understanding of the role played by seven user-interface design elements in e-commerce applications, which is popularly known as the 7C Framework was used in this study as a framework to analyze the design of bank websites. Elements in the 7C framework include context (how the site is designed), content (what information are presented), community (how users communicate with each other), communication (how the site communicate with the users), connection (how the site is related to the other sites), and commerce (e-commerce functionalities) [9]. Based on the 7C model, a ten factor checklist was developed by the author in order to compare the design elements of the sites and rank the sites with regard to the design elements used in designing the user interface of each site analyzed. Results showed that the Licensed Commercial Banks (LCB) were superior in the usage of design elements in comparison to Registered Finance Companies (RFC) and Licensed Special Banks (LSB). The survey also revealed that community and customization elements were not given adequate weightage by almost all the bank websites revived. The e-commerce enabledness was also observed as weak in the study. II.

TABLE I THE FORMAT USED TO COLLECT DATA AND THE USERINTERFACE COMPONENT AVAILABILITY RANK (UCAR) User Interface Component Context

Linking between pages (C1.1) Aesthetics (Colour/graphics/ani mation) (C1.2) Content Offer mix Information (C2.1) Promotional Messages (C2.2) Evidence of Regular updating (C 2.3) Community Interactive user-to user communications (C 3) Customization Ability of Tailoring and Personalization (C 4) Communication Communication between site and user (C5) Connection Availability of links to other sites (C6) Commerce Ability of performing banking transactions online (C 7) User-Interface Component Availability Rank (UCAR)

METHODOLOGY

The sample selected for this survey comprised of all the licensed banks and financial institutions in Sri Lanka and recognized by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka as institutions permitted to accept public deposits under the Sri Lanka Banking Act and the Finance companies Act. Therefore all the approved banks in Sri Lanka’s bank population were covered by this survey. The selected banks were divided into three categories namely; Licensed Commercial Banks (LCB), Registered Finance Companies (RFC) and Licensed Specialized Banks (LSB). Twenty three (23) LCBs, thirty one (31) RFCs and Fourteen (14) LSBs were included in the survey. Altogether a total of 68 banking institutions legally operating in Sri Lanka were used in this survey. TABLE I shows the scorecard format that was used to collect data with regard to the bank websites. As shown in the same table 10 sub components were used with regard to the 7 Cs. Availability of each sub component in a website was given an availability score of 1. According to this scorecard, a maximum total of 10 points would have been awarded to websites which had the presence of all 10 components. The total score was named as the User-Interface Component Availability Rank (UCAR). UCAR values were calculated for all the websites evaluated and the Average Availability Score (AAS) values were calculated for all sub components with regard to the three institutional categories; LCB, RFC and LSB.

Sub Component

Availability score 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10

In order to facilitate a systematic analysis and interpretation, the UCAR values ranging from 0 to 10 were placed on a scale with corresponding qualitative interpretations. The scale and the relevant qualitative interpretations are given in TABLE II. It should be noted that financial institutions which were listed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka but did not possess a website were also included in the survey. However the sub components for these banks were given zero scores, adding up to a UCAR of 0. The same procedure was applied to the international banks and financial institutions who were listed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka as banks authorized to operate in Sri Lanka, but whom never had websites aiming their Sri Lankan customers. Search engines www.google.lk and www.yahoo.com were used to locate the websites. Websites of all banks subjected to the survey were finally accessed on 12th July 2008 for the reconfirmation of the collected data.

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TABLE II THE SCALE USED TO CATEGORIZE USER-INTERFACE COMPONENT AVAILABILITY RANK (UCAR) VALUES AND CORRESPONDING QUALITATIVE INTERPRETATIONS UCAR Value Range 0 – 1.99

2.0 – 3.99

4.0 – 5.99

6.0 – 7.99

8.0 – 10

Interpretation Term Very Poor

Inadequate

Moderate

Good

Excellent

III.

TABLE III USER-INTERFACE COMPONENT AVAILABILITY RANK (UCAR) AND AVERAGE AVAILABILITY SCORE (AAS) VALUES FOR 7C SUB COMPONENTS OF LICENSED COMMERCIAL BANKS (LCB) User Interface Component

Description of interpretations Availability of the userinterface components is very poor, averaging less than 2 components available User-interface components are inadequately available, averaging less than 4 but more than 2 components. User-interface components are moderately available, averaging less than 6 but more than 4 components. User-interface components are adequately available, averaging less than 8 but more than 6 components. User-interface components are available at a very high level, averaging less than 10 but more than 8 components.

FINDINGS

Sub Component

Context

Linking between pages (C1.1) Aesthetics (Colour/graphics/anima tion) (C1.2) Content Offer mix Information (C2.1) Promotional Messages (C2.2) Evidence of Regular updating (C 2.3) Community Interactive user-to user communications (C 3) Customization Ability of Tailoring and Personalization (C 4) Communication Communication between site and user (C5) Connection Availability of links to other sites (C6) Commerce Ability of performing banking transactions online (C 7) User-Interface Component Availability Rank (UCAR) average for LCBs

AAS (out of 1.0) 0.74 0.74 0.70 0.74 0.74 0.04 0.04 0.70 0.74 0.65

5.83

Findings of the survey are presented below according to the three categories of banks. B. Registered Finance Companies (RFC) A. Licensed Commercial Banks (LCB) Licensed Commercial Banks (LCB) were comparatively strong with regard to the User-Interface Component Availability Rank (UCAR). Table III shows the results obtained with regard to the 23 LCBs evaluated. 15 LCBs out of the total 23 (65.21%) evaluated websites received a UCAR of 8 or above. In the mean time 05 out of 23 evaluated sites (21.73%) never had a web presence targeting their Sri Lankan customers. Most of the banks belonged to this category were foreign banks who had a limited operation in Sri Lanka. However the average value obtained for UCAR for the LCBs were 5.83 showing a moderate ranking for the LCB sector. Content, context, communication, connection and commerce components had comparatively higher AAS values (0.65 – 0.74) while while community and customization factors had a minimal AAS value of 0.04.

Table IV shows the results obtained with regard to the 31 RFCs evaluated. None of the RFCs out of the total 31 (0.0%) evaluated websites received a UCAR of 8 or above. 10 out of 31 evaluated sites (32.26%) never had a web presence targeting their customers. However the average value obtained for UCAR for the RFCs were 3.58 showing a low ranking for the RFC sector. AAS values were comparatively high in context, content (offer mix information only) and communication components ranging from 0.65 to 0.68. However it was observed that community and customization parts obtained a 0.00 AAS rank, while connection, commerce and a major proportion of the content component (promotional massages and evidence of regular updating) had very low AAS ranks (0.03 – 0.32).

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TABLE IV USER-INTERFACE COMPONENT AVAILABILITY RANK (UCAR) AND AVERAGE AVAILABILITY SCORE (AAS) VALUES FOR 7C SUB COMPONENTS OF REGISTERED FINANCE COMPANIES (RFC) User Interface Component Context

Sub Component

Linking between pages (C1.1) Aesthetics (Colour/graphics/anima tion) (C1.2) Content Offer mix Information (C2.1) Promotional Messages (C2.2) Evidence of Regular updating (C 2.3) Community Interactive user-to user communications (C 3) Customization Ability of Tailoring and Personalization (C 4) Communication Communication between site and user (C5) Connection Availability of links to other sites (C6) Commerce Ability of performing banking transactions online (C 7) User-Interface Component Availability Rank (UCAR) average for RFCs

commerce component was observed very weak rating a AAS score of 0.14. TABLE V USER-INTERFACE COMPONENT AVAILABILITY RANK (UCAR) AND AVERAGE AVAILABILITY SCORE (AAS) VALUES FOR 7C SUB COMPONENTS OF LICENSED SPECIALIZED BANKS (LSB)

AAS (out of 1.0) 0.68

User Interface Component Context

0.68

Linking between pages (C1.1) Aesthetics (Colour/graphics/anima tion) (C1.2) Content Offer mix Information (C2.1) Promotional Messages (C2.2) Evidence of Regular updating (C 2.3) Community Interactive user-to user communications (C 3) Customization Ability of Tailoring and Personalization (C 4) Communication Communication between site and user (C5) Connection Availability of links to other sites (C6) Commerce Ability of performing banking transactions online (C 7) User-Interface Component Availability Rank (UCAR) average for LSBs

0.68 0.32 0.23 0.00 0.00 0.65 0.32 0.03

3.58

C. Licensed Special Banks (LSB) Table V shows the results obtained with regard to the 14 LSBs evaluated. Only 01 of the LSBs out of the total 14 (07.14%) evaluated websites received a UCAR of 8 or above. 06 of the LSBs out of the total 14 (42.85%) evaluated websites received a UCAR of 6-7. Four (04) out of 14 evaluated sites (28.54%) never had a web presence targeting their customers. In the mean time the average value obtained for UCAR for the RFCs were 4.29 showing a low to moderate ranking for the LSB sector. Community and customization components were not present in any of the evaluated LSB websites rating AAS scores of 0.00. The context and offer mix information sub component of the content component had comparatively higher AAS values of 0.71. Promotional massages, evidence of regular updating, communication and commerce features had moderate AAS scores ranging from 0. 43 – 0.57. The

Sub Component

AAS (out of 1.0) 0.71 0.71 0.71 0.43 0.43 0.00 0.00 0.57 0.57 0.14

4.29

Table VI shows the average AAS values (with regard to all banking institutions) obtained by each sub component of the 7 Cs. The table shows that the community and customization factors are given a very low priority in comparison to other features of the user interfaces. These two factors recorded a AAS Industry Average of 0.01. However C 1.1 (linking between pages), C 1.2 (Aesthetics) and C 2.1 (offer mix information) had average industry values 0.71, 0.71 and 0.69 respectively. Ability of performing banking transactions online (C 7) was recorded at 0.26 which was a lower rate. Connection, communication and content (promotional massages, evidence of regular updating) factors were observed as moderate (0.57 – 0.43) in the industry average AAS scores.

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TABLE VI AVERAGE AVAILABILITY SCORE (AAS) VALUES FOR 7C SUB COMPONENTS OF ALL BANKING INSTITUTIONS

User Interface Component Context

Content

Community Customization Communication Connection Commerce

Sub Component Linking between pages (C1.1) Aesthetics (Colour/graphics/ani mation) (C1.2) Offer mix Information (C2.1) Promotional Messages (C2.2) Evidence of Regular updating (C 2.3) Interactive user-to user communications (C 3) Ability of Tailoring and Personalization (C 4) Communication between site and user (C5) Availability of links to other sites (C6) Ability of performing banking transactions online (C 7) IV.

AAS Industry Average (out of 1.0) 0.71 0.71 0.69 0.48 0.44 0.01 0.01 0.65 0.51 0.26

DISCUSSION

Maintaining a website for e-commerce purposes seems to be a popular option for the Sri Lankan financial institutions. 72% of the financial institutions evaluated in this survey had some kind of web presence, at least having one sub component of the 7Cs incorporated in their respective websites. Most of these websites had very sophisticated structures with many features present where few of the sites had a very simple structure. However it is noteworthy that out of the 68 financial institutions evaluated in this survey, 19 institutions (28%) did not have a web presence targeting the Sri Lankan customers. The severe competition currently prevailing in the Sri Lankan Banking scenario might have motivated the banking institutions to reach their existing and prospective customers through websites. A vast variation had been observed between banking institutions with regard to the usage of different userinterface components in their websites. This variation ranged from a UCAR value of 0 (no web presence) to 8 (80% of the user-interface components are available). Taken as a whole, when all three banking institution-sectors were taken together, the mean UCAR value obtained was 4.34, which falls in the lower side of the moderate range according to TABLE II. This

figure provides with a national-level evaluation for Sri Lanka’s banking sector, which could be interpreted as “having a moderate web presence where the user-interface components of the websites are moderately available, averaging 4.34 userinterface components per site”. This demonstrates that Sri Lanka as a nation is yet to achieve better standards in its ebusiness activities in the banking sector. It was surprising to observe that even some Licensed Specialized Banks (LSB), did not have a website at least to present themselves on the Internet. The industry AAS values were calculated for each sub component in the intention to examine the web-presence of the banking industry with regard to each sub component. Industry AAS values obtained for Context and offer mix information component of the Content were high. This meant that the websites of the banking institutions did possess the primary needs of a website such as linking between pages, usage of aesthetics and containing information regarding their own product range. However the usage of promotional messages was observed as moderate. Similarly, the evidence of regular updating, and the availability of links to other sites were observed as moderate where the industry AAS value was between 0.51 and 0.44. In addition, the communication part was also observed as moderately strong in the industry analysis. The industry AAS value for the communication component was calculated as 0.65. Another important factor was the Commerce component, where the site’s ability of performing banking transactions over the internet was evaluated. The industry AAS vale was calculated as low as 0.26, meaning a very high proportion of the banking websites were not having the ability of performing banking transactions online. Reasons for this low figure also may be the weaknesses in the information infrastructure, security reasons, the low information technology literacy rates and the low internet penetration rates in Sri Lanka. It also may be the substantial investment involved in maintaining of a ecommerce website. A saliently visible scenario in almost all the websites were the absence of the two important sub components; community and customization. Evidence of interactive user–to-user communication facilitated by the websites was not available at all in 67 out of the 68 sites observed. Incorporating the community sub component (i.e. web-logs or discussion groups) into a banking website may have been looked as a less-important factor in web designing. This also would have been considered as a threat to the website’s credibility, popularity and security by the designers. However if a banking institution could promote and maintain a social networking tool incorporated to its website, it could be a factor that would attract more users to the website.

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Customization also would have been considered as a technically too complex task by the designers. Customization has two components; tailoring (the sites ability to tailor itself) and personalization (the sites ability to be tailored by each user, which was not reflected in almost all the sites examined. It is the opinion of the author that more customization efforts would have been exercised in a situation where high internet penetration levels are present and the proportion of the bank customers who use the web-based banking services are at a comparatively higher level. When the three types of financial institutions were compared for their user-interface component availability, the best status was observed from the Licensed Commercial Banks (LCB). The UCAR calculated for the LSBs was 5.83. Although the highest among the three banking institution categories, this value still lies in the upper range of the moderate limits being interpreted as “user-interface components moderately available, averaging to 5.83 userinterface components per site”. However it is noteworthy that more than 65% of the LCBs had a UCAR equal to 8. This may be a result of the heavy competition among the commercial banks and the increased usage of internet by their customers. In contrast to this, the Registered Financial Companies (RFC) do possess an inadequate UCAR of 3.58 which shows that the said companies have not taken enough effort to provide their websites with most of the user-interface components discussed in this paper. This was interpreted as “having an inadequate web presence where the user-interface components of the websites were inadequately available, averaging 3.58 userinterface components per site”. It is also noteworthy that a higher proportion of the RFCs are smaller in the

organizational size, which could be taken into the category of medium-scale enterprises. The third category of financial institutions, the Licensed Specialized Banks (LSB) comprise mostly of development banks that possess a UCAR of 4.29. This value still belonged to the moderate category. This was interpreted as “having a moderate web presence where the user-interface components of the websites were moderately available, averaging 4.29 user-interface components per site”. One reason that these bankers are not enthusiastic to provide with much user-interface components in their websites may be because a higher proportion of their customer base comprise of rural Sri Lankans whom do not have regular access to Internet or whom could not afford Internet. It is noteworthy that 5 of the 14 banks in this category were purely operating limited to a particular geographic region of Sri Lanka, catering to a considerable proportion of rural customers. V.

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REFERENCES [1]

Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Jul. 2008: http://www.cbsl.gov.lk

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CONCLUSION

This brief survey helped to compare the user interface design among 68 banking institutions in Sri Lanka comprised of commercial banks, financial companies and specialized banks. The survey revealed that the components presented in the Raypot and Jaworski’s model for user-interface design are not adequately being used in the websites of all three types of banking institutions evaluated in this survey. Inadequate and deficient user interfaces in banking websites may prevent the users from obtaining the real benefits of ICTs. Further research on this topic could explore into the actual functionality of these websites and the correlation between customer (web user) satisfaction and web-interface design.

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