Okay, I rant about this one all the time and I’ve sent Citibank a million emails about it, but I find it one of the most offensive customer experience issues in my daily web usage. I’m thinking of closing my account because of it. What is causing my outrage?

The above screen appears on the Citibank website EVERY TIME a customer tries to do anything beyond looking at their balances. Today, I added a new payee to my billpay. Well, before I could pay the new payee, I have to give Citibank my ATM number and my mother’s maiden name. I have no problem with a little extra security, but asking for the ATM number makes no sense. What does it have to do with their website? I’m not at an ATM machine. I often don’t even have my ATM with me when I log into my account. It’s in my wallet downstairs while I’m in my office or buried deep inside my suitcase. So I have to get up and get my wallet just to access my account. Crazy, but true. I have accounts at Wachovia, Sovereign, Key, Northern Federal, Vanguard, Fidelity, and ING Direct. I have never been asked for my ATM number at any of these financial institutions — except for Citibank.

The FIX: Stop annoying customers and use a customer-selected image or other security measure that real people would remember (better yet recall in the case of the customer-selected image), instead of asking for information that a) no one memorizes and b) is often not readily available.

I mentioned that I have emailed Citibank several times about this screen. What was their response? They were kind enough to tell me that that’s the way it is and it was for my security. Security is great, but if you are regularly keeping out the owner of the account, then that’s too secure.

I love trying new restaurants. After reading or hearing about a restaurant, I google it to see what other folks are saying about the food, how much it costs, what’s currently on the menu, etc. I’m sure you do the same.

Today, I checked out Govinda’s Vegetarian Restaurant in Philadelphia. The website is not cutting edge, but it provided the basic info (address, menu, hours, location, etc) that I needed. But then I went to the menu page…

The first UX no-no was that the menu is only available as a pdf download. That’s great if a customer wants to print it out, but I just wanted to check out what Govinda’s serves for dinner and I didn’t want to download a document or worry about having an updated version of Adobe to read it.

The FIX: Put the menu in plain HTML text. It makes it easier for your customers to read AND gives search engines something to index. Sure search engines can index a pdf, but that’s probably not the part of your site that you want popping up at the top of a search for your restaurant.

Next UX no-no was the ads. I have no problem with businesses having ads on their site, but why put them front and center on your pages when your primary business isn’t selling ads? Do you want customers coming to your restaurant or clicking on ads that send them away from your site? You probably want customer coming to your restaurant.

The FIX: If you want to have ads on your site, make sure they are placed so they don’t distract from your real goal: selling your services.