Week 3 Assignment Part Two

After examining my web browsing habit, I come to realize that my daily encounter with Internet is quite confined to websites for utility purpose such as Google.com and Bing.com, a fact that I am actually proud of as an indication of not wasting too much time on purposeless web surfing. Therefore, my selection for websites to comment on are www.bankofamerica.com and www.fidelity.com, the two websites that I have to deal with often to manage the family finance.

Being probably the most representative of the ecommerce presence by the financial institutions in the U.S. , these two websites share as many characteristics as differences.  What makes them both effective is the brand building as a conscientious effort in displaying their theme colors, logo and marketing messages in an coordinated way on their sites. Besides the necessity to come back to visit their website, both websites offer a wealth of information and knowledge in financial planning and asset management, well organized in the form of navigation bars and sections that are prominently and logically presented on their sites.

However, I found that in respect of aesthetics Bank of America website is a better site where the content area is centered across the screen and the layouts of sections are even and proportional. It resembles the look and feel of a traditional brick and mortar bank building exuding soundness and trustworthiness. Fidelity's website is oddly aligned all the way to the left of the screen and scattered with bits of information here and there which makes it hard to distinguish the relationship among the various contents. The font sizes on Fidelity's website are quite small and do not correspond to their sections' logical relevance and hierarchy

With the inclusion of friendly human images on its website, Fidelity does a better job at creating a welcoming experience for its website users. It has the around the corner small town credit union's look and feel that endears itself to the potential customers, as compared to Bank of America whose website seems be very impersonal and imposing.

What I find amusing is the straightforwardness of both websites in splashing the 'open an account with us' all across their main web pages. It is what they do for business and they did a fine job in putting the solicitation as the forefront of their websites.