Making banking fun : A study on how to make interaction with mobile banks a more pleasurable experience

Abstract

More and more brick and mortar bank offices are closing their doors as the banks are moving their business online. The online bank, or Netbank, is becoming the most frequently used communication channel between the banks and their customers. Online retail banking has become a prerequisite for the organization of personal economy, and is today considered a commodity. Recently, we have also seen a shift in the banks’ focus with renewed efforts to create success in the mobile banking area. Almost all major banks have released or are developing mobile phone apps. Most of this development has been task oriented with no or little emphasis on transcending the boundaries of common usability. In most cases none or little effort has been made in making the user experience with online or mobile banking pleasurable, in addition to making it effective.

This thesis looks into the possibility and reasons for making this user experience more pleasurable and enjoyable as well as it unveils the danger of negatively influencing the attitude of the customers by not providing good experiences in the meeting point between customer and the online bank service. It looks into security considerations suggesting diverse service offerings based on different risk levels as enablers for better user experiences with the most common retail bank services. It further uses social media and cultural probe together with expert evaluation as sources for input in designing better services, and finally suggests a new set of guidelines including new heuristics to help ensure that the users’ interaction with online and mobile bank services are experienced as pleasurable, enjoyable and even fun.

These guidelines are then tested in a prototype for a bank app specific to the Apple iPad platform.