SAN FRANCISCO-Wells Fargo & Co. has unveiled sweeping changes to its website, following two years of research and feedback from customers. In redesigning WellsFargo.com, the San Francisco bank aimed to ensure the site's navigation experience is just as easy to tap as click. The makeover includes more white space, fewer link farms and added imagery.
This initiative follows a growing list of retail banks that are de-cluttering their websites to simplify navigation on tablets, a form factor that continues to capture market share from PCs.
"We made sure the site worked well for the tablet experience as well as desktops," Shannon Lundgren, vice president for product management of digital sales and service, told Bank Technology News, an affiliate of Credit Union Journal. "We are taking away potential clutter and providing a lot more white space and simplicity."
More than 60 million monthly online visitors come to WellsFargo.com. The bank, which offers an iPad app, does not publicly report its traffic numbers by device type.
Today, almost one-in-10 consumers bank on tablets industry wide, according to data published in January by Javelin Strategy & Research. Meanwhile, one-in-four tablet users worldwide is expected to pay bills via tablets by 2017, according to a report published in January by Juniper Research.
More Financial Content
Beyond a crisper design, the new WellsFargo.com includes more financial-related content that translates bank talk into English, an approach rivals like JPMorgan Chase have taken recent steps toward. "We want to make it easier for people to understand financial topics and help people get what they want," said Lundgren. "Customers really need guidance today, especially after 2008."
The content is meant to mirror the consultative service approach from the bank's 6,200 stores and help customers find articles and products suited to their financial goals. To that end, among the most visible changes to the new site is a section on the homepage known as the "needs-based area," a running carousel meant to serve as a resource hub for people's pivotal life events, such as retirement and going to college.
Each need area contains one-click/touch access to relevant educational content and products to consider.
