App users’ feelings and comfort are crucial for user experience. App owners face multiple UX design challenges that can’t be ignored. It would be best if you took care of all moves taken by the user as each improper action might lead to dissatisfaction and consequent churn. So, a user-centered UX design is a must.
It’s worth mentioning that the fintech domain has what it takes to grow and flourish in the near future. In this article, we explore some fintech UX design trends to follow for those who want to build or improve a fintech app. But first, let’s figure out what is specific for fintech app design.
What is it like to design a fintech app?
Fintech (Financial Technology) characterizes a market sector whose players create financial digital solutions and services. These solutions combine apps, APIs, and algorithms that aim to innovate and improve the financial services sector.
Development of UX / UI design has to be done in compliance with growing consumer demands. Also, providing a state-of-the-art user experience in fintech is challenging since managing your own finances is cumbersome work itself. Therefore, simplifying this process by offering a user-friendly and secure app must be put at the forefront during finance and banking software development services. Luckily, there are lots of opportunities available to ensure excellent fintech UX design. Here’s a list of five trends for UX design for fintech worth viewing and following.
- Personalization
In 2021, Capco, a business and technology management consultancy, published its study devoted to investments in upgrading online banking. The study revealed that 72 percent of consumers consider personalization to be crucial when they receive financial services.
Ensuring personalization requires adapting the experience to a specific user’s expectations and needs. The term personalization is sometimes confused with customization – enabling consumers to pick out the most suitable option (e.g., choosing the placing of widgets on the screen). Providing personalization requires foreseeing a user’s needs and automatically offering them a corresponding experience. Therefore, it takes a user less time and effort to get what they expect from an app. As a result, a user is attached to an app as they feel that it meets their particular needs.
Here are some real-life personalization examples we took from the digital banking space:
- Bank of Ireland has the purpose of turning into the ‘Netflix in banking’. For this very reason, the bank has adopted AI, ML, data science, and analytics. By using these technologies, the bank will precisely recommend the appropriate offerings to consumers considering changes in their lives.
- Santander Bank, one of the largest banks in Poland, implemented AI to create offers to meet the growing demands of existing and potential clients. The bank aims to provide exceptional financial services by adjusting to clients’ personal preferences.
- Subaio, a Danish software company that provides a white-label subscription management solution to banks, enables banks’ premium clients to evaluate, edit, and cancel their subscriptions by using a banking application. To provide this service, Subaio has partnered with Lunar, a subscription management provider.
- Gamification
The undeniable fact about finance is that it isn’t fun. Managing your own finances is bothersome and requires intellectual effort. That’s when gamification can lend a hand and make your app helpful in ensuring less stressful money management. Gamification can even contribute to ensuring a balanced approach to financial behavior and thoughtful decisions. Thanks to getting rewards for meaningful choices, consumers become more loyal to the fintech apps they use. Financial management turns into an exciting game in which a user enjoys achievements.
Monobank, the Ukrainian digital bank, has taken advantage of gamification technology. To receive rewards, consumers have to do different money management tasks. These might be spending on specific categories, making bank transactions, or splitting bills with acquaintances. This leads to high engagement among users as they strive to perform cumbersome tasks in return for virtual benefits.
Gamification components substantially impact the app’s retention rate. As of spring 2021, the Monobank application boasted 1.3 million daily active users. The mobile-only bank’s management said that there are around 100,000 new users of the app per month.
- Social media elements
Imagine how it would be great if your fintech application would be as simple in use as your favorite social network, providing the same UI/UX user flow. People are attached to social apps and are highly engaged when using them. Therefore, adopting some social media components when creating a fintech app is a win-win solution. Implementing patterns similar to social apps will enable your users to smoothly navigate through your application. But inspired by social apps, be careful while designing a fintech app as you risk losing sight of its main purpose.
Venmo, a peer-to-peer payment app, has taken advantage of social media elements. More than 90 percent of all the platform’s transactions can be seen by a user’s friends or network. These transactions get reactions by means of emojis and comments. In case a user wants to see what their fellow is doing or lately did, they get to the Venmo feed. This social network peculiarity not just makes the app popular among the youth but also leads to high user engagement. People visit the app a few times a week just to know what their acquaintances are doing.
- Biometric identification
Now it’s time to mention two categories of biometric technologies that can be effectively utilized in fintech to enhance apps’ or devices’ security. One of these technologies is physical. It relies on biological measurements or physical characteristics including fingerprints, facial recognition, and voice. They can be used to identify a person. The second category is behavioral. It analyzes a user’s behavior patterns that can’t be replicated. Actual customers and cybercriminals interact with apps differently. For example, an actual customer would enter data one key at a time, while criminals tend to copy/paste when completing a form.
Garanti BBVA, a Turkish financial services firm, has successfully adopted biometric technology. The bank’s adoption of iris recognition to authenticate customers has borne fruit: each month, around 847,000 the bank’s mobile app sessions utilizing the iris recognition login function are logged. The function also allows users to begin a transaction with just a glance at their smartphone’s camera.
- Data visualization
Fintech apps that provide their users with clear and informative graphics are in demand among consumers. Such a fintech app’s capability lets users have a complete picture of their earnings and spending. Data visualization has penetrated deep into fintech making it an obligatory component of a financial management app.
Advanced fintech apps offer an even more sophisticated data visualization experience. For example, thanks to ML algorithms, users can view predictive visualizations that allow for making data-driven decisions. Take for instance apps Acorns and Wealthfront. They provide users with visual representation helping to predict the value of their investments. Users can adjust their financial projections through simple touch interactions. Thanks to this ability, users keep investing using the app as they see a clear goal to achieve.
Conclusion
Trends are a fickle wind. But there are some key UX principles that can be traced in this article that apply to fintech and to lots of other domains. These principles include meeting the users’ needs and ensuring usability. The fintech domain is still unexplored and has enormous potential. Engage in something revolutionizing and begin following the fintech trends for UX design we discussed in our post.
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