Paytrust's 2004 redesigned website traded in a more intuitive and user friendly design for one that is more text oriented. We think that Paytrust really had lost touch with its users.

On April 12, 2004, I reviewed Paytrust in a blog post entitled "Paytrust- new redesign not all it could be." I am republishing that review since very little has changed with Paytrust. This original review can be used in conjunction with our 2007 review of Paytrust's Bill Management Service.

Paytrust 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 possessed the following characteristics:

1. Learnability- site was easy to learn and you could get some work done with it right away,
2. Efficiency-once you learned it, you became more productive,
3. Memorability- you didn't forget it, even if you did not use it everyday,
4. Errors-a low error rate and users were able to recover from any error, and
5. Satisfaction- users liked the site or device.

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!
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 strongest 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 clear. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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."
9. The SmartBalance Feature worked very nicely. It seems to update itself automatically. Now that's a powerful feature. We really liked that,
10. 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".
11. 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.

Please feel free to comment. We hope that this review helps Paytrust to improve its site and service.