K.I.S.S. in Mobile Banking

Sorry it has been a week since my last post, but family comes first and I took some time to unplug last week - including a trip to Chicago - ahhh the windy city. If you haven't experienced the Taste of Chicago or fireworks while dining at Riva's on the Navy Pier I highly recommend both.

Back to business, as I strolled down Michigan Avenue I happened upon one of Apple's flagship stores. Ok - sorry that's a lie - the truth is that I wanted to play with the new iPhone so I ran there and back while my wife was getting ready for dinner.

Anyway, the whole way there my mind was reeling:
* Will iPhone users be able to seamlessly work through our traditional online banking site?
* How will this "thing" impact mobile banking?
* How will Rich UX, WAP, and SMS vendors be affected?

After getting the hang of the navigation my first visit was to our corporate site and I quickly realized that the iPhone is not a replacement for the home computer. Our site rendered perfectly, the touch screen worked beautifully and the unit itself is absolutely amazing but the fact is you're still working on a 480x320 screen (i.e. when held landscape.)

My next visits were to BofA mobile and ING mobile, and that's where memories of the old business school adage of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Silly) came flooding back to mind. When you visit the BofA site you're presented a clean and simple page where navigation is easy and you can quickly accomplish the task at hand. However, ING has chosen to incorporate much more "branding," and the truth is that it's just not as user-friendly. It looks great, but we must remember that the mobile user will likely be punching in key strokes one-handed while performing any number of other tasks.

P.S. The iPhone does live up to the hype. It looks cool and is unbelievably functional. Plus, I can't tell you the number of times on this trip alone that I felt like Batman loading up my utility belt with a personal phone, blackberry, camera, and iPod to head out for the day.