HSBC

HSBC

digital case study

Global usability research for online banking

Brief

With an international reputation for usability research and interpreting findings into effective user-centred content architectures and user interface designs, Nucleus was approached by the global headquarters of HSBC during 2006 to help with improvements to its global online business banking service, HSBCnet.

Solution

Nucleus undertook a programme of one-to-one customer usability research in the UK, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, USA and Canada, to identify usability and design issues with B2B customers. This culminated in a detailed report of findings and a set of usability and design recommendations to address the issues raised. To test the recommendations, we built a prototype and conducted further customer research to validate our conclusions. A Design Standard was then created which has subsequently been implemented globally.

Results

Our recommendations and user interface designs were fully implemented and rolled out across the world by HSBC’s in-house team. HSBCnet was well received by its customers, and achieved a number of industry awards, including: Global Finance – Best Corporate / Institutional Bank 2008; Greenwich Associates – ‘Best of Breed’ online banking platform 2008.