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Fintech UX Design Principles and Best Practices: Crucial Things to Consider

The fintech industry is flourishing. According to Statista, it is currently valued at $4.7 trillion and is expected to reach $9.2 trillion by 2027. No wonder we see more and more financial technology apps on the market. And if you’re reading this, the odds are you want to create your own fintech solution. Is that right? If so, keep reading. This article describes one of the most challenging stages of the development process—fintech UX design. As a fintech development company, we know a thing or two about designing for fintech applications, and in the following paragraphs, we are going to share our expertise. Hopefully, this information will help you create a quality product that stands out from the competition. You will learn: What fintech user experience design is; What best practices to follow in app design; And what challenges you might face in the process. Without further ado, let’s dive right in! What is fintech UX design? Fintech UX designing refers to creating fintech products and services that provide meaningful experiences to users. The goal of user experience designers is to build a product/service that is user-friendly, enjoyable, accessible, easy to interact with, and has a straightforward interface and navigation. The design process encompasses various stages, including branding, functionality, usability, and, of course, the creation of visual elements. Having a quality user experience design is critical for fintech organizations and financial institutions. It helps: Ensure smooth onboarding. Fintech companies typically provide a wide range of complex financial products and services. Quality design in fintech is critical to help users through the onboarding process and ensure they understand a specific product. Increase trust and credibility. People often judge products by UX and UI design. If a fintech company offers a product with a professional and polished design, it increases trust and credibility among users, helping the organization close more sales. Improve user retention. As we just mentioned, fintech products can be complex. However, with professional UX designers, you will be able to clearly explain what you offer and how to use it, increasing user retention rates. If that’s clear, let’s move on to fintech design best practices that will help you create quality digital products. Fintech design best practices: how to enhance the quality of your fintech apps To ensure the best digital experience for users, follow these best practices when designing for your fintech company. #1 Break down registration steps The fintech industry is highly regulated by the government. For fintech users that means that they have to verify their identity before they can access financial products and payment services. In other words, they have to go through a long registration process. For instance, users of neobanks must undergo the Know Your Customer processes before they can use their banking services. What’s more, many organizations implement anti-money laundering checks and don’t allow users to receive or transfer money before these checks are done. According to Jessica Lascar, senior product designer at Cleo, it may take anything between a few minutes to several days before an account can actually be used. Given that users must provide lots of information to open their accounts, the registration form may look huge. And to not intimidate your potential customers with a massive registration form, ask your fintech UX designer to break down registration steps into small manageable chunks. That way, you will dramatically increase the likelihood of users completing the signing-up process. #2 Incorporate gamification As we already discussed in our article on gamification in e-learning, gamification refers to adding gaming elements and mechanics to non-gaming environments. Gamification is currently among the most prominent design trends in the fintech and finance industry, as it helps organizations engage users and enhance their financial experiences. For example, users of the mobile banking app ZA Bank can play a game called PowerDraw in which they can win up to 200% cashback for online purchases. Ukrainian organization Monobank also offers various games: for instance, in its Space Invader game you play as a cat that flies on a rocket into space, catches other cats, and evades coronavirus. While some organizations implement gamification to just help users “kill time,” others use game-like elements for educational purposes. The savings app Qapital, for example, allows users to make "Money Missions" to learn how to better manage their personal finances. You could also use gamification elements in your fintech application to increase user engagement, help users learn new information quickly or have a fun time. #3 Use appropriate keypads Using appropriate keypads is critical for fintech design. The thing is, many customers will access your application from mobile devices. Completing long forms on them requires constant switching between various keyboards (numeric, alphabetic, special characters, etc.), which is highly inconvenient. UX designers can dramatically simplify this process by telling mobile devices which keypads to use. That way, when a user enters, say, their mobile phone number, the numeric keyboard opens automatically, saving them the hassle of switching. That improves customer experience and helps users save time.