Palm Banking: User Interface Design Prototype

Project

The project deals with mobile banking (m-banking) targeted for users with portable devices. Palm Banking currently offers wireless financial services for mobile retail customers based on the Palm organizer. The user experience is designed for professionals on the move, supporting them to efficiently manage their assets and invest in stock quotes.

No functional implementation is available today, except for the user interface, the online demo including a simulation and the prototype below. The Palm Banking demo is built with tiny HTML pages optimized for handheld displays and gives you a taste, of how to do your bank business wireless in the near future.

The past user interface design and development efforts for the Palm Banking project are divided into three parts:

• Analysis of the design derived from an existing Internet banking solution.
• Design of an improved and redesigned system addressing major usability issues.
• Evaluation of the redesigned application together with potential users.

With its seamless integration of functions and information, the solution is unmatched compared with most available Internet or e-banking implementations (e.g. custody accounting, trading and market data). Simplicity is key for the success of this service yet the design sports many advanced features often missing in Web-based banking (i.e. object renaming).

Plans are to convert the GUI of the Palm Banking suite into powerful PQAs (Palm Query Applications). Today the wireless home banking solution features modules for:

• accounts
• portfolio (custody accounts)
• stock exchange orders (trading)
• stock quotes (market data)
• news
• charts
• payments

Download

Download all reports for Palm Banking as PDF documents.

	Palm Banking: Analysis Report (20 pages, 124 kB)
	Palm Banking: Design Report (29 pages, 205 kB)
	Palm Banking: Evaluation Report (28 pages, 308 kB)

Future Plans

In the future support for the Palm OS 3.5 is planned, especially the use of color. In parallel Web clipping applications (PQAs) for the Palm VII are in the works and maybe even a light WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) version for mobile phones. User-centered design will be key for further developments.

Version History

Palm Banking 3.3.2 is the most current version based on the findings from the intensive evaluations. Version 2.x and 3.x are not yet fully documented, nevertheless three usability tests in the UBS laboratory have been conducted with these advanced designs so far. The following table shows the progress and status of the project.

Version	Date	Remarks
0.9	October 1998	GUI specification, first paper & pencil prototypes. See analysis report for more information.
1.0	December 1998	Redesign of the Web like approach, field test with two users. See design report for more information.
1.0	February 1999	Evaluation with seven users, lo-fi usability testing including one test in the UBS Usability Lab. See evaluation report for more information.
1.0.1, 1.1	March 1999	Designs based on the evaluation results. Main page for navigation purposes with and without disclosure triangles.
1.2, 1.3	Spring 1999	Limit reminder for stocks added. Many stock exchange order improvements.
2.0 - 2.2	Summer 1999	Setup assistant to configure the program's preferences. Payments included with cross links to account part.
3.0.1	July 1999	Small usability improvements. Auto-fill for entry fields and limit reminder waking up the Palm device.
3.1, 3.2	August 1999	Application modules instead of one fat application, new Banking category introduced.
3.3.2	December 1999	Improved user experience based on three usability tests since version 1.0. Wizard for account transfer and stock exchange orders.
-	May 2000	Limited demo version of Web-based solution available (with simulator).
3.5	June 2000	Advanced quote list management, color support and more.
-	July 2000	Paper & pencil design study of WAP implementation (not fully completed).
4.0	Summer 2000	Use of the Palm VII wireless Web clipping technology (not fully completed).
-	Summer 2001	Part of the Usability Case Study Library of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech. Visit the HCI center and select m-Banking from the Case Study Library.

The Palm Creator ID PABA for the online banking client was registered on 11 November 1998. The goal of the prototype was to access accounts and portfolios, to transfer money, to buy and sell stocks and to view financial information.

The GUI layouts of all mentioned version are made with the Palm OS Constructor for Mac and are available as resource project files (.rsrc). Check out the programming resources if you are interested.