Case Study
US Community Banks
The Projects
Our banking web projects, community banks in the USA were very complex and usually took at least six months to complete, with a few exceptions. These were carried out in partnership with a team of several people.
From the initial documentation and design phase to implementation, content editing, testing and further maintenance, we were involved in all work phases, sometimes taking over the management of the projects, attending weekly online meetings with our partners and the banks involved.
In order to bring the best results we collaborated closely with all of the parties involved throughout the projects using communication tools like Zoom, GoToMeeting, Skype, Screencast and project management platforms like Wrike and Asana, Google sheets etc. paying close attention to specifications and deadlines.
Challenges & Solutions
When you are creating a website for a large company, which is also a multi-page bank, a well thought-out structure is exceptionally important. The sitemap and the navigation based on it is a major focus within the layout. In most of the cases we have created complex, prototype-like wireframes in adaptive view from mobile to desktop in Axure to illustrate the logic of the site and the layout of the content. These were followed by multiple high fidelity drafts for all devices in several versions until signoff.
DNN Skins (templates) and containers (reusable components) were developed with bootstrap but with extra customization involved since each project had its particular needs based on specific design requirements and Photoshop drafts. We elaborated an in-house custom-bootstrap grid variant to develop the structure of the sites and often used custom scripts for enhanced website features. Besides the page templates we’ve created well though out reusable pre-styled website components for ease of page-building/editing. We enhanced basic DNN search with improved search suggestions. On some of the banking sites we’ve integrated Google Custom Search also developed by us. Few examples: First Bank of Virginia & County National Bank
Security, Data Accuracy, Good SEO is Key When it Comes to Banks
We had to implement their login panel forms without any errors and risks. For certain banking tasks and functionalities we wrote custom scripts or integrated licensed third party ones. (e.g. Calculators) When we adopted another developer’s code, we always made sure it does not contain bugs, and can be integrated without conflict errors. In addition we adjusted the css accordingly to match the website’s style. (e.g. jQuery Unslider integration in a news scroll on cfbank.com)
We entered a lot of content into the pages and, especially in the case of the tables, we had to be really careful about the accuracy of the data, not to misinform the customers. We created complex tables to organize the key banking information, such as rates, account comparisons etc. in an easy to understand way which looks good on mobile phones, too an can be well interpreted even on small screens.
Community banks in the USA put a high accent on SEO and accessibility so we had to pay close attention to that aspect as well, while building the websites. We performed rigorous pre- and post-launch tasks. Besides the speed optimization and device re-testing process we did several accessibility/SEO tests to make sure no possible errors remain unsolved.
Other Aspects
We also contributed to these projects by creating multiple users and roles, setting up mail SMTP clients, building and testing forms, Google Map configurations and integrations for the banks.
We’ve installed, configured various third-party DNN modules, being in charge also for their maintenance by periodical upgrades, tests, debugging requests.
We often created Style guide pages and trained the banking staff related to page/image editing tasks, to help them keep things organized, SEO and accessibility compliant after project handoff as well.
