Consumer Banking Services
Bank of America
In 1982 Bank of America anchored publishing giant Times Mirror’s Videotex Field Trial of consumer information services to the home with a huge site of consumer banking information.
Challenges
In January of 1982 I was brought to Bank of America’s headquarters offices in San Francisco to lead a 5-person production staff in the creation of a 2000+ page banking-oriented consumer information site for the Times Mirror Videotex Field Trial in southern California.
We needed to
- Organize & guide a viable design process, based on templates
- Train a novice staff in this large production effort
- Create a consistent-and-interesting stylesheet across multiple content areas
- Design an easy-to-use interface that worked with available functionality
- Reinforce Bank of America’s entrerprise branding identity
- Integrate the site into Times Mirror’s technical and publishing platform
- Introduce and implement quality control in the production effort for the interactive site
- Advocate and educate enterprise stakeholders
As the ‘knowledgeable’ contractor/consultant’, I helped train and guide the operations of the small BofA production team.
Solutions
This information retrieval service was primarily textual information that was leveraged from existing informational brochures in the areas of Consumer-Oriented Information.
Our 2000+ page database encompassed the usual suspects in the consumer financial arena:
Family-oriented Financial Services
Ways to Save
Local Banking (branch location maps)
Around the House
Home Services
Energy
Automotive
Family
Retirement
Travel
Deliverables
I created layout templates, navigation structure and production process.
- Content was gleaned from existing Bank of America consumer brochures
- Each section was color-themed.
- We illustrated the magazine with a common ‘family’ of images.
- Messages were richly animated.
- Pages needed to be concise in order to display efficiently.
My Role on the Team
In practical terms, I was the only person on our small 5-person team who actually had dirt-under-the-fingernails experience with the issues surrounding the design, production, and maintenance of a large financial publishing database which was hosted out-of-house (at Times Mirror).
Deb was a delight: Highly competent, positive, and fun (Here she is, posing charmingly with a gigantic mushroom that I’d found on a hike in the Muir Woods). As the go-to administrative assistant, she handled much of the content entry and construction of the thousands of pages in our site.
My Lesson: Although I had actually managed staff in time-sensitive production situations before (Somerville Cable : 1975), Deb really confirmed the value of knowledge and still among those who handle content.
Some things can’t be automated.
Gerritt was BofA’s competent and graceful team manager for the project. (And here he is, doing the prop thing with Mister Mushroom). Gerritt went on to manage both this trial and other BofA interactive digital ventures to come…
My Lesson: Outsider comes in to lead & guide & educate the in-house team – even though he’s not on staff. At a financial institution, no less. This could’ve been a recipe for disaster, but Gerritt handled the environment with skill and – in my opinion – the right balance of limitations and freedom.
Don’t underestimate the value of a well-regulated playpen.
Pat was the team’s organizational champion and angel. We didn’t see her on a daily basis, but she was present – especially when needed.
Small teams are effective and efficient.
Value-Added
Bank of America also wanted to test the water for interactive online banking services, such as Bill Payment and Funds Transfer.
As well as direct marketing to seniors.
Cutting edge stuff for … early 1982.
the Deliverables
I created high-end advertising pages for Bank of America consumer banking products.
I designed the layout and structure for their transactional screens, providing an attractive and understandable interface for what was at that time a “cutting edge” application.
We provided practical support for local banking, such as customized maps with directions to local Bank of America branches.
We also introduced then-new concepts, such as electronic funds transfer and Automated Teller Machines.
Because the interactive capability of the service was primarily passive, much of my mandate was to spice the presentation up with illustrations and richly animated graphics.
the Takeaway
As the consultant “interactive expert”, my task was to create a manageable, easily updatable site which was graphically sophisticated (or at least accessible and entertaining). An aspect of the agenda was also to bring BofA team staffers up to speed on the skills & knowledge necessary to maintain the site.
When I left San Francisco in May of 1982, Bank of America had:
- An interactive site of over 2000 pages
- A sitewide Stylesheet, set of Design Templates and Clip Art
- A rudimentary transactional banking service
- A suite of animated advertisements
- A smoothly-operating content update and production system
- A a trained staff who were now able to manage and update the site.
Not bad for the technical limitations of the time – and a short 5-month deadline.
Animated Screen Display … and Advertising
These videos of the Bank of America Videotex Field Trial were recorded in 1982, displayed on the “browsers” of that time. Notice how the pictures draw slowly element-by-element on the screen (limitations of the technology). Built-in animation was a big part of the “user experience” of early interactive products.
All of these animations and illustrations were less than 3000 bytes
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