UI/UX design is not as easy as pie. Readers can recall, for example, different interfaces of ATMs. Sometimes they are easy-to-use, but sometimes they are way too complicated. UI/UX is not only about how to locate objects on the screen. But it also about saving your time and granting you an understanding of everything from the very beginning of the interaction. People get used to comfortable and intuitive interfaces so quickly, as they quit on not user friendly. Why are some UI/UX designs pleasant, and some quite the opposite? In this article, we will try to solve this puzzle.
We would like to provide you with our digital banking expertise and tell you more about best practices in banking applications UI/UX design:
1. UX in banking
2. Banking UX trends: user centered design in banking
3. Why do you need UX in banking?
4. How to create best online banking interfaces
5. Future solution
6. Banking UI design. Step by step
7. Banking application UI: at the service of the viewer
8. UX design of new banking platform
1. UX design for banking
UI/UX design in banking is different from other industries. Fintech solutions must be safer and faster than random applications. UX design of the new banking platform is dealing with customers’ funds. So, while the interface of the finance application earns your client a valuable experience, the account should keep customers’ time and money, using cutting-edge digital development technology. However, technology must combine usability, helpfulness, and be friendly in use.
Perhaps, some banks still do not realize that a lot of people prefer to have an opportunity not to go to the branch. But we also need to understand that it is not so easy to perform transformations quickly, as it influences security. Nevertheless, we believe that most financial institutions are considering investing in fintech development. Our expertise in UI/UX design tells us that the faster a customer gets an account in a fintech product, the better chances to compete with competitors the bank gets in future.
2. Understanding banking UX trends. Creating user centered design in banking
To reach the best result in the UX design of a new banking platform, designers and developers have to understand the habits and preferences of the bank target audience. For a traditional financial institution, the banking app will bring new customers that prefer online. The users who already are on board should get an easy-to-use service to familiarize themselves with all features and benefits of fintech solutions.
“All users – even technically literate people – prefer a simple-to-use mobile banking app UI design,” UI/UX Designer at KindGeek Marta Savka says. A demanding user can – but not always want – to learn some tricky features of the product or find out how to work with the dashboard.
The natural values for most users are intuitive interface, simplicity, personalization, and aesthetic. Though online banking looks simpler than offline, mobile banking also can confuse a user by some complicated dashboard or functions. Here the UX best practices in banking come into the play.
To effectively upgrade the mobile banking app, organize the process correctly. After the request to add a new feature to the digital service was received, the designer team has to research to understand if there is a customers’ demand for it. If yes, to prove that the feature is useful, you can run the AB testing – to implement the solution only to the part of the users. After that, a development team collects feedback, makes updates on the feature requirements if needed, and launches the solution for every account.
But how do people use fintech service? What do people need from the financial application? How to develop a UX in the banking industry? First, start from the discovery.
3. UX in banking. Discovery phase
To develop a user-centered design in banking, the designer team must prepare preliminary research, which is somehow like onboarding into the client’s banking industry, Marta explains. After that, the mobile banking app UI design team interviews a client to understand business requirements and KPIs.
Among KPIs could be, for example, a goal to achieve a download rate of 100K of a new fintech product for the first six months. Of course, even the best UI/UX design in banking will not grant this result. But this objective will help the designers to understand the direction to move in.
4. Best online banking interfaces. Conduct research
You can find simple inspiration in searching for general customer information like what people do with their fintech service or how they interact with the app dashboard. For example, which features they use the most. You may be interested in what percentage of people make the following actions using fintech application:
Check account balance – 88%
Pay bills and transfer money – 58%
Transaction history – 43%
Branch and ATM map – 41%
Currency rate and calculator – 15%
Currency exchange – 7%
Contacts of the banks – 7%
Due to this, the development team could prioritize goals and already make the layout of the future solution. Moreover, this can be shown to the third party viewer to analyze the first impression and collect feedback.
At this stage, it is logical to conduct market research: to study competitors to figure out customers’ problems, pain points, and find solution statements. After that, the digital bank development team can start researching a target audience. As UI/UX designer Marta Savka comments, a financial institution needs to know, does the problem exist? That is why it can launch an interview series with potential users. You also have an option to do a field study. For example, they can make a direct observation to find out which problems have users and how a product can solve them.
5. Future solution
To remain effective, the future solution must require characteristics that meet both the business and stakeholder expectations. At this point, a development team creates Value Proposition Canvas – to understand if the required values of customers meet the value proposition of the banking application.
When you understand that everything is fine, you can create Personas, User Scenarios for every Persona, and User Journey Map, both “as is” and “to be” versions. The development team needs this to have a clear vision of what experience customers have and what experience you want to provide them with, notice Marta Savka from KindGeek.
6. Banking application UI. Design Prototyping
This should be done on the beginning of the design prototyping stage. Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments. You can find a definition that it is the art and science of organizing and labeling websites, intranets, online communities, and software to support usability and findability. The point is, UI design must be intuitive and support users in making things easy and fast.
The next step, important for both design and development, is user stories. The development team builds a user way through a product. The acceptance criteria must be set. After that, you can make a real clickable prototype to visualize the whole structure of the application interface, KindGeek the designer explains. This prototype is an express version of the future product. But it must be ready for the next step – prototype user testing.
7. Banking UI design. Visual design
That it is. To create cutting edge UI for banking, in this phase, designers form a mood board. Designers should feel the product and convey its mood through every detail, especially colors. They can increase brand recognition by up to 80%.
After that design concept is created and the team can move to the UI design step. It’s important to document design by creating a Design System, so all the teammates follow the same visual style. When work is finished, it is time for a new user testing.
8. UX best practices in banking
To provide users with an excellent UX design banking app, the development team uses a lot of UX artifacts and methods. At the same time, perform only those actions that can help the clients. Not to waste clients’ time and money on unnecessary options, Marta notes.
As KindGeek cares about the client, it also wants to implement the best solutions for the consumer. Following UX best practices in banking, we can conclude that the fintech application developer team must personalize the customer experience, make the account useful and helpful, strive for ease of use, and make the app transparent and safe. For example, HyperJar allows unprecedented budgeting customization, personalization with a network of mini-accounts, which grants users an intuitive finance-management that helps to balance spending and adjust habits to achieve financial goals. Moreover, the development team achieves high productivity of the app and easy navigation and makes the application “bulletproof” against malicious intentions and cyberattacks.
You may check other examples of such products on the KindGeek page.