/ About PlainsCapital Bank
PlainsCapital Bank is a regional bank headquartered in Dallas, Texas. PlainsCapital combines the resources of a large bank (sixth-largest bank in Texas by deposit share) with the personalized service of a small community bank.
0%
Increase of new visitors totalling in 1,882,000 users annually
3:47
3x Increase in average session per user on site
/ Challenge
PlainsCapital started as a single-branch community bank in Lubbock, Texas in 1988. Since then, it has grown into one of the largest banks in the state, with more than 60 locations. While this growth has been tremendous for business, it also presented some distinct marketing challenges.
Here are a few of the challenges this project presented:
Brand personality: PlainsCapital’s business was built on personalized service and long-term, meaningful customer relationships. The bank needed to convey their size and regional prominence without losing the personal feel that defined their brand from day one.
Separate lines of business: PlainsCapital has three distinct lines of business, all of which are critically important: personal, business and wealth management. The site needed to create a seamless user experience for all three, allowing visitors to easily find what they need while also educating them on the bank’s other offerings.
Large, complex sitemap: The full sitemap counted well over 200 pages, with multiple layers of services geared toward different customer personas.
Technical requirements: ADA compliance, financial industry regulations, unique hosting setup, multiple third-party plugins for on-site functionality, the need for fast and easy location searching, and more. Creating the PlainsCapital website required across-the-board technical expertise that went far beyond coding the site and maintaining WordPress.
/ Solution
Navigation and user experience: Navigation was the first big piece of the PlainsCapital website puzzle. The Shatterproof team worked side-by-side with the PlainsCapital marketing department and leadership to develop a site architecture that would create the most intuitive user experience.
But ease of use was not the only objective for the site architecture. Strategic design and content elements were included to educate visitors on other relevant offerings they may not be aware of, including offerings from different departments.
This included a unique user experience that allows users to explore relevant products and services based on seven “life journey” stages – ranging from “managing money on your own for the first time” all the way through “retirement.”
Brand voice and personality Creating the perfect brand personality for PlainsCapital meant balancing the size and rapid growth of the bank with the personalized, one-on-one approach that set them apart from competitors.
From a visual perspective, this was achieved through a clean, modern and approachable design. Likewise, the language throughout the site is both personable and professional. Instead of the dreaded “business jargon,” users find messaging that is informative and conversational.
Technical requirements: The client needed the most strict and stringent ADA compliance requirements of WCAG 2.2 AAA – most online tools do not go past AA and is difficult to automate and requires the coordination and thoughtfulness between both design and development. The site is hosted on a unique, financial industry grade server setup that required personalized deployment procedures and permissions at different levels of servers in order to meet the strict security and stabilitiy requirements.
