This presentation takes a look at how credit card disclosure statements can be improved to be more readable... and the role research has played in making it possible!

1. “Too Long; Didn’t Read”
How research can be used to improve dull bank documents
By Sean J. Jordan
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2. I listen to a lot of podcasts every week.
Many are fun and informative.
One of my favorites is NPR’s Planet Money.
And on a recent show, they described a very
interesting dilemma…

3. Banks are obligated to issue legal
disclosures to credit card customers.
Many consumers don’t read these notices
because they’re too long, written in legalese
and have too much fine print.
But what if these
statements could be
improved to actually
become readable?
Perhaps even so much that a fourth grader could read them?

4. On the podcast (listen to
the show here) the
reporters talk to a lawyer
who writes legal documents
to explain why the status
quo is beneficial to banks.
They also have three
children in the fourth grade Photo Credit: Jess Jiang/NPR
read over a sample
document to try to decipher
its meaning.
As it turns out, there’s a purpose for the legalese…
…without it, the bank is not legally protected.

5. But the reporters also interview a
communications expert named Dr.
Susan Kleimann.
Dr. Kleimann helps corporations and
other large organizations to improve
their written documents to ensure that
they’re clear and readable.
And she doesn’t just make decisions based on intuition…
She uses qualitative and quantitative research to
understand the perspectives minds of the end users!

6. According to the podcast, Kleimann
used focus groups to tackle the
issue of credit card disclosure
statements.
She would hand participants
samples of these legal documents
and ask them to decipher them.
And then, she would ask for
suggestions on how they could be
made more readable and clear.

7. From this research,
she developed a
different sort of
document.
It used a simple
framework in a
table to share
information.
(And, as Planet
Money found, it
could be better
understood by a
fourth grader!)

8. Despite popular conception, most banks really do want
their customers to understand their policies.
If nothing else, it cuts down on customer service costs.
But at the same time, Kleimann’s work shows
that banks don’t have to hide behind legalese.
By simply considering the reader, they can improve their
documents dramatically, and create a document a
consumer might actually read through!

9. For more information, visit the following sites:
NPR’s Planet Money Podcast
Kleimann Communication
Group