A while back I wrote a throwaway post about my bank’s website and its somewhat sexist imagery. It failed to create a tidal wave across Twitter.
However, it did garner a couple of responses (which I’ve removed):
Comments on my Natwest post that leave some personal details
It might seem quite comic that anyone could mistake my site for Natwest, but it also raises some interesting issues:
- it’s quite easy to get a high search engine ranking for a popular term. Often this post will appear on the front page of a Google search for natwest online.
- lots of people don’t get the basic structure of web sites, pages, URIs, logging in, blogs etc.
- consequently people accept what they see on their screen as what they were searching for
- people trust Google
- the post uses the imagery from the Natwest website. Consistent imagery therefore perhaps creates trust
- one of my recent Natwest online search engine referrals visited seven pages, presumably in an effort to find something Natwest related. The illusion lasts.
- phishing works
What this means for people who make web pages
The web isn’t simple for a lot of people.
If you’re making something for a deep and broad audience you have to make sure it won’t break. What appears to be self-evident probably isn’t. Explain everything.