The State Of Japanese Banking Site Design, 2007

As part of a study that evaluated 12 major Japanese sites, Forrester recently used its Web Site Review methodology to evaluate the user experience at the Web sites of four major banks: Mizuho Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Resona Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. Japan's bank sites delivered unsatisfactory experiences by not adequately helping users to recover from input errors, hiding privacy and security information, and failing to provide clear menu categories. Despite these flaws, Japanese banking Web sites exhibited some best practices like effective page layouts with easily recognizable buttons and links. However, to defend against aggressive newcomers that want to cherry pick their best customers, Japan's big four banks will need to abandon their "one-size-fits-all" approach and tailor online experiences to the needs of their most important customers.