Designing the homepage around the top task

Context

The truist.com homepage is the most visited page at one of the largest banks in the U.S. It has to work for two very different audiences at once: prospects discovering Truist for the first time, and existing clients who arrive with one thing in mind.

In 2023, the page was designed primarily for the first audience. Sign-in existed, but as a button in the top-right corner of the header, while the page itself led with a lifestyle hero and brand messaging.

Problem

Three independent sources told the same story. Site analytics showed that a large share of homepage visitors were existing clients trying to sign in. Our top-task benchmarking program in research confirmed that signing in was the single highest-priority task for people arriving at truist.com. And voice-of-client feedback surfaced a steady stream of confusion and complaints from clients who couldn’t immediately see how to get to their accounts.

The homepage was optimized for the audience that visited least, and the friction fell on the audience that visited most.

Approach

Part of a larger system. The redesign was done as part of the move to standardized archetype templates — in this case the segment homepage template — rather than as a one-off page project. That meant the solution had to work as a pattern, not just as a page.

Research-led. Several research rounds shaped the concept. Prototypes were tested against the top-task benchmark so we could measure whether each iteration actually made the top task easier, not just whether people liked it.

Add, don’t subtract. The winning direction exposed the username and password fields in a persistent module on the right side of the hero, alongside the lifestyle image rather than in place of it. Nothing was removed: the brand story, the promotional space, and the paths to open a new account all stayed. Clients got a direct route; prospects kept theirs.

Validated in market. The new homepage was A/B tested against the existing one before full rollout.

What we shipped

• A redesigned truist.com homepage with sign-in exposed in the hero
• The segment homepage archetype template, now used across segments
• A research and test loop — top-task benchmark plus A/B test — that later page work could reuse

Outcome

• Client confusion and complaints about signing in dropped significantly after launch
• Clearer pathways for both audiences — signing in for clients, opening an account for prospects
• A reusable pattern: the top-task-first hero became the standard for segment homepages

Related

One system from first click to funded account — the design system and page architecture this homepage redesign was built on.