Designing and building a user interface for an on-line banking service: a case study

Abstract

This paper describes the design and construction of a consistent user interface. The client was a major Belgian bank, the product an on-line banking service that needed upgrading. The user interface itself is not discussed, the focus is on design techniques and problems. The technique discussed in greatest detail is a 'style guide’, a design document that specifies the user interface standards. The main problem was to get the style guide accepted by the technicians. The purpose of the paper is to show how user interface design takes place in a real-life, commercial setting with deadlines imposed by the market. A final section estimates the costs and benefits of paying more attention to user interface design.

Keywords:

• User interface design
• Style guide.