Bank of America App
With a schedule filled with classes, part-time job shifts, clubs, chores, and studying, I often find it hard to carve out time to do run errands around Providence. Going to the bank to perform deposit checks and check my balance proves rather cumbersome: it takes me fifteen minutes to walk to a Bank of America branch, another fifteen minutes to wait in line, and another fifteen minutes to walk back to campus. Fortunately, Bank of America has a mobile app that aims to make these minute tasks easier. However, the app comes across as really intimidating to those who, like myself, are not as financially apt. I will examine the successes and deficiencies of the app’s user interface and propose new solutions.
Online banking is, surprisingly, not a recent invention. In 1983, the Nottingham Building Society initiated the first Internet banking service in the United Kingdom. The facilities used were not very robust and were inefficient. In 1994, the Stanford Federal Credit Union developed the first Internet banking service in the United States. Although online banking predates the prevalence of social media, some banking mobile apps are more challenging to use.
The Bank of America app installed on my iPhone is extremely robust. With the app, I could check my balances, deposit checks, get rewards, and even order new credit cards. Erica, the AI assistant, aids with navigating the numerous in-app financial transactions. The designers and developers of the app clok into consideration the breadth of users’ needs and condensed it into a single mobile app. The app could service those who just need to deposit and withdraw cash and those who need to manage credit card bills and debt. Unfortunately, the plethora of services packed into a single app intimidates first-time users. Upon entering the home page for the first time, one is confronted with tiny numbers, a lot of buttons, and even a full-text contract at the bottom of a page. The app ranks low in terms of learnability given how many options are presented all at once, making it disorienting for first-time users. As a casual Bank of America app users, I’ve slowly gotten accustomed to the overwhelming amount of information on a single page. Though not second nature, I could check my bank balance with ease. However, I still need to look up online tutorials to figure out how to order a new credit card. The app becomes easier to use, yet a casual user still experiences a learning curve to do more than check account balances.
The designers of the Bank of America were confronted with numerous obstacles and limitations when crafting the app. The contract at the bottom of the home page indicates that there was an abundance of legal considerations. The designers must also face privacy and security issues (solved with an ironic solution in the form of a finger scan) given the prevalence of online theft. Although not an element of production the designers could fix, the users of the Bank of America app could range from people in their early teens to middle-aged finance professionals to those managing their retirement funds. By taking into consideration the breadth of users, the designers thought that cramming almost all of the services one could find in a brick-and-mortar branch into a phone screen would address their needs.
Though simple, my proposal strives to make the home page less intimidating. After the app scans my fingerprint, I’m taken to a landing page which details my account information and has three options, my accounts, dashboard, and options. Instead of going through the landing page, I go to the Dashboard to check my history of deposits and withdrawal. This is a big mistake since the dashboard page presents the same information in a different layout. I propose that the Bank of America app should omit the aforementioned options tabs and present the information on my accounts and dashboard on a single page, which would become the landing page. Clicking on an account option would lead the user to a record of the account activity. By removing superfluous options, I hope that new users would be less intimidated by the amount of in-app options.
