A website and brand, for a truly-global, Africa-focused institution
A dynamic, pan-African bank, Ghana International Bank (GHIB) is an institution with a mandate to finance international trade and serve as an intermediary for the flow of funds to and from Ghana.
The bank has long been a key player in trade finance, corporate lending, capital markets, and correspondent banking in Africa, while maintaining a focus on nurturing long-term relationships to promote Africa on a global stage.
A longstanding client of nearly two decades, GHIB turned to Fin to support them as they set out on a journey to become a truly digital-first bank.
We were tasked with completely rethinking their digital user experience, (starting with their website), whilst seeking opportunities to still enhance its strong reputation for providing top-class, personal
customer support.
Our brief was to replace a long-serving website with a modern and secure alternative. This goal included a need to enable the bank to offer its clients a 100% digital experience, which would complement their already high standards of one-to-one customer support.
There was also a longer-term intention to refresh the existing GHIB brand and a knowledge that whatever we built now would have to work with the visual identity of its eventual successor.
Wireframe Process
This was an opportunity to overhaul things or move forward with a gentle evolution, depending on what was actually required.
GHIB readily agreed with our recommendation that we carry out our tried-and-tested approach to digital delivery, instigating a series of interviews to really understand what the bank needed, what GHIB customers wanted, and what the staff felt would enhance the experience for everyone.
We worked closely with all departments, carrying out a programme which began with our in-depth strategic review, progressing efficiently through to the delivery of the end product, in the following phases.
We also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to use the website project to act as a catalyst for the desired brand refresh.
To this end, we explored a logo refresh alongside the development of the website’s user interface and used new page designs to act as a catalyst for an evolution in the brand. These unformalised ideas were generated with Atomic design principles at their core, so they would easily be incorporated into a formal, wider exploration of the brand. (A project that Fin is also supporting.)
Wireframes for responsive design
Responsive design
Preview of some final design pages
Our interrogation identified the following key objectives and aspirations for the site:
Our stakeholder interviews quickly revealed that customers were finding it hard to navigate the site and find the information they were looking for. It was also revealed that the existing site was time-consuming to update.
At the centre of the user experience, we built a dedicated customer support section containing all the information any customer could need. We also made sure that customer support contact details were available on every page so that regardless of the purpose of a user’s visit, they could always find help with a real person if they were struggling.
Similarly, the site’s CMS was developed with useability in mind. Common resources could be updated and distributed across pages from a single module. Client-side user journeys in the CMS were simplified to enable users to update and evolve their pages, and account for a broad range of sophistication among the site’s ultimate users.
We enabled each service department to present an experience that was tailored to their users’ needs, rather than a slavishly follow set of rigid page templates. In spite of the significant differences in client-side user needs, the customer experience for any user traversing the whole site reinforces commonalities, building familiarity, rather than highlighting jarring differences.
Visually, the design celebrates GHIB’s African roots, while positioning it firmly with an unmistakeably European footprint. All facets of GHIB’s journey are represented, contrasting photography that is recognisably London, with images from Ghana and other countries right across Africa.
The sense of place is bolstered with reportage-style imagery of the GHIB teams, at work in the Accra and London offices. An addition that was particularly important to GHIB’s customer service proposition.
See the new Ghana Bank website at: www.ghanabank.co.uk
Final website module elements
Derick Dickson – GHIB Manager – Testimonial
“We’ve received really great service from Fin. The consultants are only a phone call or email away and response times have been really quick. Our experience has been one of support and a great deal of technical assistance.
“We received what we wanted, according to our agreed requirements. Fin understood our requirements well and went on to help us stay within scope.
“One of the biggest assets Fin has is its ability to adapt. Being a small Bank with very specific business needs, Fin not only showed patience but also was able to accommodate various changes across the project. We required several significant changes mid-project, which would have been way easier had these been accounted for at the start. We have received specific directional advice that Fin was under no obligation to provide us with.
“It’s really important to engage and work with vendors that have your best interests at heart”.
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