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Hello Bank Prototype

Bank of the West Examples

The Challenge

Create a high-fidelity, interactive prototype as part of a new brand exploration.

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The visual design was intended to make an emotional appeal, emphasizing the liberating nature of an online-only banking experience.

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The experience should underscore this feeling, with easy, un-rushed interactions and a sleek, modern feel.

Video of first prototype, showing transitions and interactions

My Role

When I joined in 2015, Bank of the West was looking into launching an online-only bank. The design team was exploring how the brand would be expressed and what resonated most with potential customers.

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The visual design was fairly complete, and I was asked to bring it to life for a series of research studies.

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I collaborated with the Visual Designer to determine the interactive features that were important to the experience.

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Sticky navigation, float label fields and parallax effects were fairly new then, so they were an important part of a fresh, contemporary presentation. We wanted to ensure they weren't gratuitous additions, so I took a fairly subtle approach.

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I spent time fine-tuning the timing and movement of each interaction, so even the most basic inputs contributed to a smooth, easy feeling.

Account offerings, featuring CD term selection and rate display

Video of first prototype, showing rate selection detail

It was important to provide a seamless transition as the user moved from exploration to research and decision stages.

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We wanted to avoid the feeling of 'swimming through pages' found on so many financial sites.

Video of first prototype, showing transition from Product page to a two-stage Apply Now page

The Result

Our studies showed that the primary motivator for potential customers was a higher rate on their deposits, so the brand focus shifted to emphasize rates over convenience.

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I continued to evolve several elements, such as the rates widget; the next iteration accounted for deposit amount. It was featured in a new prototype, which was built responsive using Axure's Adaptive Views feature.

Video of second prototype, showing improved rate selection

Plans for an online-only bank were ultimately shelved due to a poor interest rate environment. Many of the ideas developed here found their way into a major redesign of the Bank of the West site.

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This experience was a great opportunity to push my Axure skills to a new level. I went on to work closely with the Usability Team, building many more prototypes for several high-profile usability tests.

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