Why An Accelerated Timeline is Bad for Your Website Re-Design

The Declaration of Acceleration

We often get requests for "accelerated timelines" when we design and develop credit union websites. More often than not, its less of a request and more of a declaration by the client, "We have an accelerated timeline" they'll say. "We need the site to go live in 2 months". This has happened to us multiple times in recent years, and I am always disappointed when I hear it. Not because it means we'll have to work faster or harder or more diligently to produce the site; we already work to the fullest extent of our ability with as much swiftness as possible with every project we take on, but because it means that it is very possible that the client won't get the best result in the end. We never rush through a project because in our eyes, quality is more important than an accelerated delivery. It is very difficult to attain both.

A Customer Experience Gone Bad Because of Poor Vendor Integration

First lets clear the air... I am officially admitting that I am a credit union traitor. I use a big bank. I have been a "customer" of TD Bank for almost 10 years. TD Bank is their fourth brand identity since I became a customer of the Franklin Lamoille Bank of Vermont in 2000. Then it was "Banknorth", then "TD Banknorth", and now "TD Bank". Maybe the reason their rates are so poor is because they've spent millions of dollars on re-branding the institution two times in the past three years.

Based on my terrible experience with them today, its blatantly obvious that not only have they switched brand identities, but they have also changed some of their processing systems to become "America's most convenient bank". Its also obvious that I know more about the inconveniences that those systems can create than some of the call center operators do.

I went online today to go through the 2 minute process of ordering deposit slips for my personal checking account. That 2 minute process became a 45 minute one. I went to the online banking site, logged in, and then found the "re-order" checks link. I selected the account I wanted to order for, and was blasted with a popup window that said "ERROR" in bright red text... "NO HISTORY FOR THIS ACCOUNT". I looked up in the left corner... I saw a logo that said "Harland Clarke". I thought "oh great."

Consistency is More Important than Creativity

What Really Matters for Credit Union Websites: REVISITED - Part Four

OK, now we are getting down to the nitty gritty of website design for credit unions. Just a pre-cursor to this article... I'm never one to discourage creativity, but always enforce how it is used on a website. The original article speaks for itself and is just as relevant now as it was when written.

An Open Letter to the NCUA: Please Design a New Logo

To whom it may concern at the NCUA:

It has become blatantly clear to the designers at L9 that your insurance logo is not suitable for its required use. Let me explain... As the design director at L9, a web development and design CUSO, I see your blue insurance logo a lot. It's not the aesthetics that don't work. In fact that NCUA blue is pretty snazzy. The real problem is that unless we place an extremely huge (I mean just gigantic) version of your logo on our client's website pages, it's not legible. Now that would not really be a big concern, except for the fact that it is one of your compliance requirements for it to be readable. This often scares CU's into blatantly destroying the presentation of their web pages by including an oversized blue blob on their sites.