The New Scotia OnLine

For a bank, Scotiabank's online presence leaves a lot to be desired. Although it provides you with all the information you need, appearance wise it seems:

• cluttered 
• old fashioned
• the colour does nothing to take away from the dreary impression you receive upon entering
• and the sheer amount of links are unappealing and a bit overwhelming.

It doesn't reflect the attitude or image that the bank has tried so hard to create over the past few years as being accessible and somewhere you'd want to bank.

But how would you make something like a bank appear not only accessible and professional looking but appealing and less stodgy while getting across the information necessary in a clear and concise manner keeping with an already established theme?

And how would you reveal this makeover to consumers who are used to the old website and are not comfortable with change when it comes to the institution that handles their money?

By using colour effectively and making the most of videos and white space as seen on the microsite for The New Scotia Online.

(A microsite is a miniwebsite that is an offshoot of the parent website. In this case, scotiabank.com)

The design itself is deceptively simple, a white background with a few images and a colour scheme similar to the one on the main site.

Why is the microsite effective?
Use of colour -- Although there isn't a lot of colour on the page, what's there makes the important aspects stand out while keeping the colour scheme that the user has become accustomed too from the old website but in a way that's much cleaner and appealing to look at.
The menu - it scrolls with the page so you never have to scroll back up to get to a new section and when you click on one of the headings, it jumps right to it easily and quickly making it more convenient for the user.
The videos -- the fact that they open up in their own little screen is great as you can get a look at what you can expect along with a quick view of how it would work and each bit is broken into manageable sections so you can get only the information you want without having to worry about forwarding through information that you might not find necessary at the moment.

As well, you have the option to turn the sound on and off and to close out of the video whenever you chose. And the fact that you can watch the video without sound and not lose anything makes it perfect in certain environments when you want to see the video but sound is unavailable.

One of the major aspects of the website that makes it effective however is the fact that it gives users a taste of what the final product will look like while informing them of new features and aspects of the website but in a way that it can't be mistaken for the finished product.