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KEYWORDS:
security; privacy; ebanking usability; website usability; South Africa
Online banking is a critical service offered by financial institutions to their clientele to facilitate easier and faster access to financial services and transactions. Banks currently spend huge amounts of money on development and maintenance of websites and backend systems that offer online banking facilities to clients. Here we address the effect of moderating factors on online banking usability assessment in South Africa. Using statistical analysis techniques that included t-tests, ANOVA and correlation, we investigated whether there are statistically significant mean differences in system usability scale (SUS) scores based on a variety of moderating factors in South Africa. Findings based on a sample of 540 respondents show that SUS scores differ significantly based on factors such as age, experience and income, whereas factors such as gender, use frequency and employment did not affect the mean SUS scores. Given the individual SUS scores for a variety of users based on different demographics, the financial institutions might improve service usability to target specific user groups and realise their return on investment in digital banking channels. Therefore improving service usability might go a long way in encouraging online banking adoption in South Africa.
Significance:
* The overall assessment of online banking service by users based on a SUS measurement tool was investigated.
* The effect of moderating variables on the mean SUS scores of different user groups was established.
* An insight into areas of improvement with regard to usability based on demographic information of users is provided.
Introduction
Online banking is a critical service offered by financial institutions to their clientele to facilitate easier and faster access to financial services and transactions. The service also allows banks to reduce client in-branch visits, thereby combating operational costs. Banks currently spend huge amounts of money on the development and maintenance of websites that offer online banking facilities to clients. To that end, there is a need to address both the security and privacy of the customers' financial and personal information while at the same time providing a system that users can actually use and enjoy. Usability of the channels that provide online banking is significantly important; the main channel is the website user interface, which is usually accessible through...