Paytrust- new redesign not all it could be

See my 2007 review of Paytrust

Paytrust has has been one of the most popular online bill management systems. However, the long awaited redesign of its website seems to have abandoned creating a good user experience for a more modern design. This may be due to little or no usability testing. Our advice to Paytrust-- reach out to users and apply good usability practices.

What were they thinking?

We believe that the website has lost touch with users. We liken this to when Coca Cola Corp. decided to discontinue the traditional coca cola. We definitely believe that when a company has a good website and great service like Paytrust, that it must resist the temptation to change the design. The rule should be to add value and services that build on that good experience and not to diminish it.

What Paytrust had going for it

We delighted in the old website?s simple and intuitive design and powerful features (no paper- all bills delivered and stored on line). This was especially useful in managing my late mother's bill paying when she no longer could. Now we find ourselves getting aggravated. The ease and delight of using the service are gone. I guess we liked those older icons and miss seeing the check book when we actually paid someone.

In our opinion the old Paytrust website was very usable because it possesed the following characteristics:

a) Learnability- site was easy to learn and you could get some work done with it right away;

b) Efficiency-once you learned it, you became more productive;

c) Memorability- you didn't forgot it, even if you did not use it everyday;

d) Errors-a low error rate and users were able to recover from any error; and

e) Satisfaction- users liked the site or device.

Every website should be striving to achieve the above. These free web usability resources will help you do that.

The New Site- what you see is not exactly what you get

The home page of Paytrust has not really changed much from the original. Same secure sign-in, awards and accolades in the lower left hand corner, and a list of what you'll get if you sign up. There's only one problem here, especially with the links like:

SmartBalance?. Balance your checkbook with a click!
Comprehensive Reporting. Organize your finances.

The SmartBalance and SmartBills features are included in the new website, but they don't resemble the examples (pictures) of the old site! Take a look at the new website by going to the Paytrust Profile and ScreenShot and you will see what we mean.

This might be a temporary problem. However, new users who enroll and see the older site's features used in the above examples could get confused. In any case, we don't think they truly would know what they are getting until they sign up.

Usability wise- what's right and wrong?

1) Paytrust's stronget point is that it allows bills to be delivered and stored online in a secure manner. Users can also download the data into popular money management software like Quicken, MS Money or CVS files.

2) The home page of Paytrust is friendly and clearcut. New users can easily find out what the service does and does differently from regular bill payment services. Users who are exploring the service can easily get back to the home page simply by clicking the PayTrust logo in the upper left hand side of each page.

3) Once you click on "Secure Sign in" and get into the service, however, the usability issues crop up. First of all, the page that appears is login. Security is important and users should actually see a "Secure Sign in" landing page to be reassured.

4) The actual "Log in" page is confusing thanks to the horizontal rules that separate "login" from a "lost password" section. The horizontal rules make users pause. The problem is that the "Log in" button is in the forgot password section. Eliminating the horizontal rules would simplify what should be a very easy task.

5) When you login in, your are taken to a "My Bills" page. This is quite logical. In a sense this is the "home page" when you are using the service. Of course you can return there by clicking on Bills & Payments in the left hand navigation provided. Many users, however, expect a clickable logo that can take them back to the "My Bills" page. The logo is not clickable.

6) We tried to find out the last time we paid our utility bill. You do this under "Payment Records" in the left menu. When you click this you get a list of all of your payments in reverse chronological order. That's fine if you don't pay a lot of bills, however we do.

To run a report on a specific payee, you have to click "Customize Report". However, instead of a dropdown menu that used to be available in the old site, we have a long list of payees to sort through. We pay about 50+ payees and these are not even arranged in alphabetical order on the website! This makes what was once a simple process an ordeal. Restoring the drop down menu and or alphabetizing the list of payees would be very useful.

7) The label "Funding Accounts" made us pause. This is really the Bank where your checking account resides. We wondered why on earth they just didn't call it that. We clicked to add a new "Funding Account." The downloadable form refers to the funding account as a "Bank." We'd change "Funding Account" to "Checking Accounts" or "Bank Accounts."

8) The SmartBalance Feature worked very nicely. It seems to update itself automatically. Now that's a powerful feature. We really liked that.

9) We wanted to change our "Account Profile". We thought this might be under "Administration" so clicked on it. Instead of an Administration page, we got a page entitled "Personal Profile." We suggest changing "Administration" on the left menu to "Personal Profile" or "Account Profile".

10) Finally, the label "Exit Bill Center" in the left hand menu should be replaced by "Log off Paytrust." Users don't have a clue about a Bill Center or Bills Center, unless they associate the url in the browser with it.

Conclusions

We're not going to discontinue our service, at least not right away. However, if Paytrust is not responsive, we'll be on the lookout of other services that provide a better experience. We'd prefer that Paytrust take steps to improve the site.

We recommend reestablishing contact with users via usability checkups and testing. We also think it is a good idea to reconcile the old pages and their look with the new pages. Finally, we suggest involving Paytrust founder Edward G. McLaughlin in the process.

Please feel free to comment. We hope that this review helps Paytrust to improve its site and service and that you can apply this to your own website.

Comments

[Paytrust BILL PAYER]

I couldn't agree with you more. I have been a Paytrust user for five years. Until the redesign of their website, I found the site to be very easy to use. Also, I only had to call twice in the past five years and when I did, I had no problems getting through. Since the resdesign of the website, it takes so long for pages to load, what used to take minutes, now takes hours. I waited on hold for two hours to try to reach a customer support person before I hung up, and the new design just doesn't make any sense. For example, I used to send a check to a payee by filling in the check and the amount and recording the check number in my account register. Now I get a confirmation number and a list and. . . too much of a hassle. This service was supposed to make my life easier. It is so time consuming now, it's just not worth it. I cancelled my service today.

[Tom Russo]

Thanks for your comment. We emailed Paytrust's original founder but so far no response. We'll be sending a letter with the hope that they will get their act together. BTW, what new service did you sign up for?

[Jenna]

I also have been a Paytrust client for five years (since August 1999, shortly after they originally went online) and I am SO FRUSTRATED with the "upgraded" service. Besides all of the above usability issues, I am stunned by the fact that I no longer have control over 60% of the email notifications Paytrust sends me. I'm not receiving 3 of 4 email a week from them that they have told me I cannot opt out of. :( Unfortunately, I can't find a comparable service that does paper bill presentment, yearly record CDs, multiple checking accounts, etc.

[Tom Russo]

Thanks for your comment. Metavante Corp. that owns Paytrust has contacted me. They are very serious about improving the website and making it useful. I will bring this to their attention.

[Nowell Outlaw]

Hello -

I have had major problems with getting issues resolved with Paytrust/Metavante over the past two months or so. I've been a user of the site for at least 5 years. The smartbalance feature stopped working with my bank - every time I called support I got answers like, it's your browswer, we'll get back to you, etc - which never happened. Finally I sent an email to their EVP on their website and wow! the problem got fixed in 48 hours (no it wasn't a browser issue).

With the new web site there appear to be numerous bugs hanging around.

1) if you're working with bills to pay - select more than one - then schedule a new date for
one of the items, but make a mistake then the system erases any previous dates you had setup.

2) Recurring payments. If you have an automatic payment and make an adjustment to it, the
system triggers the next recurring payment when that payment is saved. So if you had a payment
for 5/31, but wanted to change to 5/26, then save the payment you now see your original payment,
plus a 6/31 payment in the payment box.

3) smartbalance & outbox - unless it's a recurring payment, the system doesn't calculate the
smartbalance for you correctly. Bills that you schedule in your outbox don't appear in the
smartbalance detail until they are actually sent via paytrust. This is a regresssion from
past functionality. You should maybe have a user defined setting for smart balance to show
either this way, or the old way - that way if people like the new way they can have it as well.

Recurring items are also being 'double displayed' they are in smartbalance (sent) list, and in
payment outbox.

4) Smart Balance Formatting - the window has added space and it's hard to see everything on
the screen... It used to be smaller 'single space' type.

5) Update this information (for smartbalance...) this isn't really clear to the user - maybe
a button that says "to update your balance click here.."

6) smart balance - used to have your balance, then outstanding transactions, then your actual
balance (with all items in your outbox!).. Now you have to jump up/down the screen to figure it
out.

7) Recurring payments display in smart balance as 'sent on', however even before they have been
sent - makes you think you've done something like 'prepaid your mortgage'.

8) Inbox - to get back to the main screen should be easier... maybe just a link on the left called
'home'.

9) email notifications - too much information... even if we don't send something we get an email
that says daily activity we really don't need. Shouldn't this be optional to send or not? And
if nothing happens why send you an email saying nothing happened today.

10) Reports - these used to work, now they don't. Create a report from 4/1/04 to 5/19/04 - system
gives you 1/1/04 to 5/19/04...