Allegheny Valley Bank
Comprehensive Strategy, Responsive Website Redesign
Allegheny Valley Bank came to us seeking much more than a fresh look. Amidst a rapidly changing market, they needed help understanding their users’ needs, perceptions and online behaviors, rebuilding content architecture, and adding high-value content that would support their brand promise.
Our goal was to create both an intuitive design and an experience as smooth and effortless as sitting in a chair and talking to a banker – one who anticipates all your questions and has your best interest at heart.
Identifying Project Goals
15 years ago if you needed to withdraw or transfer funds, you went to the bank. Today, 51% of smartphone owners use mobile banking. It’s safe to say the banking industry is changing- and will continue to change- at an incredible pace.
One of the biggest project goals for AVB was to create a website that supports both the current and future needs of their AVB customers. The site needed to prompt prospective customers to research products, think about their needs, and learn about potential options.
Prototyping & Wireframing
Banking decisions can be overwhelming and complicated. AVB wanted to change that for their customers. Due to the nature of the industry, it was clear early on that the website would house a lot of information. Our challenge was to streamline that content so users could easily identify and consume the information crucial to them.
Our User-Experience team developed several iterations of homepage and internal wireframes that would increase engagement with high value content including tools, comparison charts, and product information.
Designed to Drive Action
The design of the site needed to support AVB’s positioning as a friendly, approachable community bank that could compete with the larger national banks.
Our designers got to work crafting a design that projected the new brand identity: fresh, innovative, bold, inviting and most of all – trustworthy. The homepage now drives action for personal, business, and wealth management customers. Site visitors can access their online bank account, enroll for online banking, explore business services, and more.
In order to maximize the site’s flexibility and facilitate ongoing site-updates, we created multiple internal designs that include comparison tables, responsive grid-layouts for products and services, and custom employee sections.
From Our User-Experience Lead
"When we met the staff of AVB, we liked them, as people. They made us want to start learning how to take better care of our money. They changed our opinion of what a bank could be, and we wanted to make that experience happen for people who visited their website."
-Susanna, Blue Archer User-Experience Lead
Custom Comparison Tables
Due to the breadth of service options, site-users would naturally compare products to find the right fit. In order to cater to their decision-making process, we developed simple comparison tables where users can compare products like Free Checking and Interest Checking side-by-side.
Using the content management system, AVB can easily define attributes for each product and then specify the pages that the tables appear on throughout the site.
AVB Feedback
"From branding and strategy through design, population, testing and site launch, the team at Blue Archer did a great job! In the early stages of the project, Amber and Susanna did an excellent job of learning about who we are, how we define ourselves in the market, what our goals are, and most importantly - how to reach these goals via our websites. The team at Blue Archer was invaluable to me as a one person marketing department tackling a project of this magnitude!"
- Marsha, AVB Marketing
Conclusion
Complete with fresh content, custom product comparison tables, and system integration with dozens of calculators including mortgage loan calculators, retirement planners, life insurance calculators and more, the Allegheny Valley Bank website was a crucial extension of the bank's growing capabilities. Several years after the completion of the website, AVB merged with New Standard Bank, and as a result the AVB website is no longer active.
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