The new American Express home page with tutorial-based banner

After you've logged in/out, it serves up different banners with a refreshed creative direction

American Express just relaunched their home page and I’ll commend them for communicating it right. The first time you arrive, the main banner is focused around literally pointing out the new features AND they ask you to tell them “how it works for you.” The highlights are:

• Simpler Navigation so it’s easier to find what you’re looking for
• Quick & easy access to your account login
• Realtime news feed so you don’t miss any offers or updates

Once you’ve logged in/out once, they remember and the banner is rotated out to show a banner focused on a marketing message. The conventional thing that is missing from this setup is a way to scroll through banners; as of now it appears they only load one per page view. The creative direction is distinct from the previous design because the banners are “graphical,” using large swatches of color, large type, and isolated photos. I’ll miss the aspirational direction of the old banners, which were large photos that blended the sky into the background.

Give me a few days or weeks or months and I’ll give you the update you’ve been waiting seven years for.

All hope is not lost. You can email me at kit [the "at" symbol] kithughes.com. I put @ in brackets because robots like to eat email addresses and send me bad stuff. You’re smart; you’ll figure out how to send me an e-mail.