New Change Sciences Research Shows the Web Designs of ShareBuilder, Ameritrade and Scottrade Make It Easier for Investors to Get Started Online

Business Wire, April 29, 2004

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

IRVINGTON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 2004

Change Sciences Group, Inc. released its 2004 Q1 report on the user-friendliness of ten leading brokerage web sites. The research compares the ease-of-use of online brokerage web sites from a new customer's perspective.

Sites were judged on four main areas:

-- Providing enough company background information to inspire

investor trust

-- Assisting new investors in defining their goals and investor

risk type

-- Defining and comparing investment categories and types

-- Providing concise brokerage product information and

comparisons

The sites reviewed included two full-service brokerages, four discount brokerages, and four virtual brokerages.

While web-based investing has seen relatively little growth over the past two years, the financial portfolios brought to brokerages by laterally-moving investors are on the rise, as middle-aged investors (35-54) and seniors (55 ) shift their increasingly substantial portfolios from traditional full-service and discount brokerage firms to online-only discount brokerages. Investing sites that improve the usability of their web sites will capitalize on these market changes.

Virtual providers ShareBuilder and Ameritrade led the pack in ease-of-use according to the 2004 Q1 report, due to streamlined, intuitive design practices and easy to find investor information resources.

"Establishing trust with the potential investor should be a primary goal of online brokerage sites, and making it easy for the customer to learn about his investing options is a great way to accomplish that," said Steve Ellis, Change Sciences founder and partner. "Sites such as ShareBuilder and Ameritrade, that excel at providing investor education resources, are in a great position to convert site visitors to customers."

Some of the pitfalls customers were likely to encounter included awkward navigation, poor support for comparing product types, and poor support for defining investment categories and investment types.

The overall site rankings are as follows:

1. ShareBuilder

2. Ameritrade

3. Scottrade

4. E*Trade Financial

5. Firstrade

6. TD Waterhouse

7. Charles Schwab

8. Morgan Stanley

9. T. Rowe Price

10. Fidelity

For more information on this and other Change Sciences research, please visit:

http://www.changesciences.com/research.html

Change Sciences Usability Benchmarking Reports are based on its Typifi(TM) benchmarking process. Typifi allows for the empirical comparison of sites across key usability metrics. Our usability benchmarking reports show site owners how their sites compare with those of competitors, in terms of how a customer would use it, thought-by-thought and keystroke-by-keystroke. Sites that are easy to use attract and retain more customers. These sites also project a positive brand image. Using Typifi, Change Sciences' analysts can identify and document web design best practices, allowing site owners to make changes that matter to the bottom line.

Change Sciences was founded in January 2000 with the idea that companies can optimize key business processes by basing decisions about technological change in how people use technology while they live, work, and play.