Chinese Banks Homepage Usability

This study assesses the usability of homepages of three leading Chinese retail banks from a user’s perspective:

• Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ( 中国工商银行 hereafter ICBC, http://www.icbc.com.cn)
• China Construction Bank ( 中国建设银行 CCB, http://www.ccb.cn)
• Agricultural Bank of China ( 中国农业银行 ABChina, http://www.abchina.com).

For comparison, three western banks are selected, one each a leading retail bank from Australia, the UK, and the USA.

The homepages of the three Chinese banks provide a wealth of information but found to have

• Excessive flashing advertisements, scrolling texts and moving graphics
• Weak navigation support and in-site search function
• Inconsistent branch homepages derived from inconsistent branch operations
• Poor interactive application generating negative user experiences, and
• Lack of content to assist potential customers starting a business.

However one bank does have an effective forum to provide online customer support.

The study recommends the following areas for the Chinese banks to improve the usability of their homepages:

• Reduce flashing and moving graphics
• Enhance search and navigation functions
• Improve interactive applications
• Establish web design guidelines
• Increase business banking content, and
• Standardise branch operations.