Why is latest version of smartphone app approval so tortuous?

Irish Steve

Sorry, the Vanilla package has been changed yet again, and is screwing up the page formatting, so there's no paragraphs being formatted. I've tried 2 times to correct it, the edit page is good, but when it posts, there's no pagination at all. Yes, another programmer that doesn't check the work they release, it's a all too common problem. I've had the misfortune to have to navigate the latest incarnation of the second factor authentication system this evening, and whoever approved it needs to be kicked out for dereliction of duty, on Android, it's non intuitive, and requires an excessive amount of user interaction to complete what should be very simple. I was booking an NCT appointment via the web browser, so not exactly a rare or risky site, but that's only incidental. On completing the input of the card details, I then get a pop up message that tells me that I am getting another page. The BOI app then launches, and is asking for my PIN number, which is new, and didn't used to be the case, up till now, there was an option to look for the validation message without having to log in to the app, but, without actually informing customers of a fundamental change to supposed second factor authentication, it now wanted my PIN in order to continue. On entering that, I then get the expected swipe to authenticate option, so effectively this is no longer second factor authenticaion, it's a 3 stage authentication, and I've not seen anything anywhere that requires this level of checking and proving that the user really is the user. On completing the swipe. I then get a message to return to the vendor site, which is the next problem, as the new version has NO option to close the BOI application in order to return to the site that the payment is being made to. Fortunately, I know my way round the Android (8) operating system, so I was able to get back to a previous level screen, and force the BOI app to minimise in order to return to the browser screen to complete the transaction by returning to the NCT site, where it is looking for a reply to confirm that I had approved the transaction on the banking site. My 15 year old grand daughter could have coded a more user friendly interface, with less than 12 months coding experience, I've used some of the code she's written as a school project, and with close on 50 years of computer programming experience, I think I am well able to judge when someone has written good code, and when they've written a spiders web of (bluntly) garbage, and this latest version of the authentiction option of the smartphone app very much qualifies in this latter category. The new system is now not intuitive, and requires too many stages to get a transaction approved, and it requires the urgent addition of a way to exit from the BOI app without having to resort to the Android operating system level in order to get out of the BOI app. I also would mention that as a separate issue outside of authentication, if I have specifically made a selection to exit from the BOI app, by selecting my user icon and then specifically choosing "log out", I then really don't want or need to be asked to make yet another entry to confirm that I really do want to exit from the app, in that I have had to make specific entries to get to the exit in the first place, I've not arrived at the exit by accident from another page. If you really must have that final exit option, then I would respectfully suggest a tick box with the prompt "Don't ask for this step in future", so if I put a tick in the relevant box, when I select Exit from the first drop down, I will get to exit. Plenty of other software vendors have this option, so it should not require much coding effort to get this working. I am forced to ask why there is not a user panel that includes pensioner age users to check and approve changes that are being made, I can assure you that if this latest update had come by me for approval, the response would have been a resounding "NO, you have to be joking", with an appropriate list of reasons why it got that response. The programmers need to be told in very clear language that there is a very significant difference between working code and a friendly user interface, and achieving the correct balance between these 2 objectives requires a specific skill set, and experience, and unfortunately, it's a skill set that only develops with exerience over time, and many web developers never truly achieve this combination of skills, with the result that adversely impacts the user experience. To be fair, this level of problem is not unique to Bank of Ireland, there are plenty of other sites and platforms where similar problems are very visible, solving it requires that the management of the organisation recognise the specific skills that are required, and do whatever is required to ensure that they retain the people with those skills, but that costs, but the end result is happy users, so the relevant management have some decisions to make about how they intend to move forward.

Bank of Ireland: Eve

Hi Irish Steve, thanks for your post here on Boards.ie.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel this way.

We appreciate you sharing your feedback on this with us here. Please be assured we will pass it along to the relevant team.

Thanks again, Eve