Designing Web interfaces for RBS: towards simplicity and ease of use

The share of financial Internet transactions is steadily growing every year. This fact gives a significant stimulus to the development of remote banking services (RBS). The abundance of data and technical terms, a complex sequence of actions in conducting banking operations in real time can puzzle even the advanced user. In that regard, the task of designing easier versions of existing web interfaces of RBS is becoming more relevant than ever.

Why is it important?

Currently, the most significant issues are the development of a web interface that allows to capture and retain the widest possible range of consumers of online banking services - from housewives to small business managers. For this reason, the most popular products are services that provide management of the family budget or enterprise finances, including support for issuing debit cards for employees or holding salary statements. Maintaining a simple and user-friendly interface without sacrificing functionality is a significant part of the design process.

How does it work?

Execution of the Internet bank transactions is reduced to three stages:

• selecting the necessary transaction from the list, for example, repaying the loan or replenishing the account;
• partial completion of the corresponding form (the payment details are filled in automatically by the user's name or the name of the payee);
• automated confirmation of the transaction via a SMS or an electronic signature.

Each stage is accompanied by detailed tips, resulting from the interaction of the client application with various instant messaging information systems. For example, when making a money transfer to a legal entity at the stages of filling in details or confirming a payment order, interaction with the bank's monitoring service of counterparties can be carried out. The user will receive an corresponding alert in real time, if the receiving payment organization is in the bank's black list.

An example of a transition between the steps of selecting a transaction and filling out a payment form

Payment confirmation stage

A comprehensive approach to design allows you to implement a web interface that combines convenience and functionality. The user's activity with the payment form can suggest supporting various types of transaction servicing. These include payments on invoice details, money transfers to individuals, as well as between the client's own accounts. It is common in this case to use tabs in the interface to switch between forms of different types. Additional convenience can be obtained by caching (temporary saving) data on the current tab (details, amount of payment or its purpose). Thus, work is carried out with several payment forms at the same time, for example, when in the process of filling in details for a money transfer to a friend (an individual) there is an urgent need to repay a bank loan (payment to an organization).

Due to the high degree of automation and ease of interaction with the interactive interface, the main time costs for performing online operations are now primarily related to the operation of external services and services of the RBS system. As a result, the time the user spends on working with the interface, including, for instance, analyzing the current state of the banking system, filling in the payment details and confirming it, can be no more than 2-3 minutes.

What do we get?

The use of modern technologies and development platforms when planning interfaces of RBS systems allows to automate the operational processes of banking services online to the fullest, for example, when making payment orders or submitting applications for opening a deposit or a credit line.
It is especially worth noting the relevance of supporting various platforms and devices. The fact that our company has our own mobile development department allows to conduct high-quality design of multiplatform client applications for Internet banks in the shortest time possible and without involving third-party developers.

The current level of competence of our company's specialists in the field of front-end application development gives us an opportunity to create high quality web interfaces with a high degree of integration with heterogeneous online services within short timeframes - from services of two-factor authorization using text messages to crypto applications providing real-time transaction approval with the use of a secure electronic digital signature (EDS).

The SimbirSoft team work was highly appreciated by the General Director of SKB-Lab Alexander Klepinin: "Having started with a little refinement, now we are working with a dedicated center in such areas as front-end development, development of mobile applications (iOS, Android), testing. We are pleasantly surprised that SimbirSoft has concentrated expertise in solving a variety of software development tasks and, if the question arises, we immediately know that our partners have a solution."