The Financial Brand today published a list of 50 “spectacular websites” from banks and credit unions. While their methodology wasn’t disclosed (see note 1), the winners appear to share one major trait, stunning homepage visuals. The first 20 are especially notable. (BTW, I would have put Citibank and Square in the top 20.)

We’ve already written about ten of the top 20: Salem Five (#1), Simple (#5), PNC Virtual Wallet (#7), USAA (#10), Mango (#12), Perkstreet (#14), Virgin Money (#15), Mint (#16), Movenbank (#18) and Comerica (#19).

But I wasn’t familiar with most of the other top-20, and as a huge admirer of Mr. Pilcher’s tastes in all things financial, I can’t wait to visit the others and report back.

Let’s start with the one that first caught my eye in the screenshot rundown:
Logix Federal Credit Union (Burbank, CA; $3.5 bil; 110,000 members), which for 75 years (until last July) was known as Lockheed Aircraft FCU (screenshot #1).

Observations:

• The CU, which has the challenge of getting members to accept its new name, has adopted this cute orange robot (Robix) as its brand ambassador and has developed a number of contests and promotions around it. It’s a great way to send a youthful, innovative vibe that fits well with the CU’s North Hollywood location. And it makes for an engaging graphic image. Weber Marketing provided the name change and rebranding package. Extractable did the website design.
• The website uses a nonstandard primary navigation bar running across the middle of the page. The design uses different background colors above and below the nav bar which helps draw attention to the navigation. The primary nav bar reverts back to the top after leaving the homepage.
• Secondary navigation pops up in a megamenu below the main nav bar. This works pretty well, though some of the choices were below the fold on my 12-inch laptop, making them hard to get to. But users who are annoyed by megamenu popups can click on the primary items (Banking, Loans, Investments & Insurance, Business) and find all the secondary nav items on a single page arranged in standard HTML format. 
• There are four versions of the homepage, which I discovered with a page refresh. The second version includes a closeup shot of the robot and features a different promotion in the top-right promotion area (see second screenshot below).
• Headline copy is cute and concise.
• The robot branding is carried to its Facebook page which has garnered about 1,500 likes.

Bottom line: The delightful robot image (high-tech, yet playful), orange color scheme, and ample use of white space are great attention-grabbers. Great work and very refreshing.

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Logix Federal Credit Union homepage #1 (11 March 2013)

Logix Federal Credit Union homepage #2
Note: The “Bright Futures” promotion for youth checking.

Logix Federal Credit Union homepage #3

Logix Federal Credit Union homepage #4

Logix Federal Credit Union Facebook page (link)

Note:
1. Update (3 PM, 11 March): Jeffry Pilcher, Editor (and owner) of The Financial Brand, told me that it is a collection of websites that he was fond of design-wise. And that the numbering is not a precise measure of their standing, but more a loose indicator, i.e., #2 is ahead of #40, but there is not necessarily a material difference between #2 and #12.