The TSB site is very dated indeed (see below), coyly inhabiting the left hand side of my browser window.

It is pretty much a rebrand of the old Lloyds website, introduced when Lloyds TSB split. The Lloyds arm of the bank had an overhaul, and it looks much better now, while the TSB site was left, like an older, neglected child. It promptly crashed on launch.

The TSB internet banking site is much better in design so it’s surely a matter of time until the TSB site proper is upgraded. 

UI

As you can see above, the TSB site is pretty bad. A list of turn-offs include: 

  • A main image of no relevance (on the face of it) that links to the incredible page pictured below, with one embedded video, an ocean of whitespace and a bit of HTML.
  • A whole mess of linking, including
    • Anchor text, underlined and not.
    • Hyperlinked images that include words (ok, with appropriate alt text but poorly delineated).
  • Poorly designed buttons.
  • Strange mix of font sizes.
  • A site that appears to exist entirely above the fold (not a bad thing) but then has a footer menu ‘hidden’ below the fold.

 

The Lloyds Bank website is of course much better (bad luck if you were moved over, though I believe you can move back again).

It’s a lot clearer, fills the window, and is fun to use, with dynamic menus that pop open on roll-over, all nice and sophisticated. There is still some font size inconsistency though, with tiny font on the centre image.

 

One can change the font size in the website’s top menu, but who will notice this feature?

Below I’ve enlarged it. Much better, but still not the best font choice. 

There are also little misalignments here and there, with imagery and text. 

Also, more importantly, even with the cleverly hidden content in those menus, the page is still three page heights and requires a bit of scrolling around. 

Wonga’s homepage fits nicely into the window, with only company details and awards/trust marks below the fold. The point I’m getting at here is it’s easy to digest, easy to comprehend in almost a glance, and ultimately sparks engagement with the user more than the Lloyds or TSB sites. 

The Lloyds site, despite being bigger than Wonga’s site in the window, is poorer at conveying the brand’s core messaging.

We’ll look at that now.

Copywriting

Wonga is good. Not exemplary, but certainly good. Here are some examples:

Social proof

No extraneous copy

This is honest and to the point, though perhaps the formatting could be improved.

Simple yet effective

Only two words here, but the questions marks are used well, and this button launches an explanatory pop-over video. Compare that to the video experience on TSB, earlier.

Guarantee

Persuasive, and launches a bit of Javascript popping out a longer guarantee and information.

Rhetorical questions, key facts, lists

This is again reassuring and doesn’t use too many words to sell a service.

Well-defined sub pages

TSB website has sub headers such as ‘Money Planner’. I wouldn’t know what this is until clicking through.

These Wonga sub pages, such as ‘Getting your cash’ and ‘repaying’ are clear as crystal.

Lloyds is good, too.

Perhaps just as good as Wonga, considering its market.

Plainly straightforward anchor text

Clearly different sub pages

TSB

Unsurprisingly not up to the same standards, though it’s not bad, just perhaps not as clear and crisp. Here are a couple of examples:

Here’s a garbled bit of text inviting one to register for a personal bank account.

And here’s a header for what should perhaps be called ‘Our heritage’, something better than ‘Why we exist’.

Should banks change radically?

I think they should. The public’s distrust, the public’s complete disregard for investment bank greed, means that any retail bank that did adopt a Wonga-like friendly approach would have some success.

I don’t think this would be at odds with a feeling of safety or security, nor do I think it has to signify the same, easy to gain, difficult to get rid of, loan culture that Wonga stands for.

Simply put, Wonga, because of its more needy audience, has to be sure nothing stands in the way of its customers using the service.

Nor do I think banks have a more complex proposition than Wonga. They have more products, but this means being more ruthless when it comes down to getting that messaging, mission statement and navigation correct on the homepage. From there, the subpages will present the same challenges as the home page should.

Pie in the sky perhaps, but firstdirect has certainly seen some success differentiating it’s brand (as the unexpected bank).

Legacy systems

Of course, sites like Wonga are relatively new. Most banking websites are badly designed and based on old legacy systems, which slows down iteration.

Great degrees of complexity

There is also a difference in scale between Wonga and TSB. Five million that banked with Lloyds became TSB. Only one million use Wonga, and though this is the same order of magnitude, the sums of money involved for TSB are likely not (ie. Much higher).

Many banks are investing

Profitable businesses based largely on tech will recognise the need to invest and innovate in tech. 

Retail banks should be more transparent, they need to change and they are doing so, they’ve just had a lot on their plates recently.