Fintech aims to provide users with an effortless experience in different areas of finance using tools like AI, blockchain, and data science.

Owing to this convenience and accessibility that it offers, it has become important in people’s everyday lives.

In this article, we’ll understand 5 key things to be mindful of when designing for fintech.

Designing for fintech

1. Frictionless user onboarding

Think about your visit to a bank or your insurance provider’s office. It wasn’t daunting now, was it?

You went in, the person at the office gave you all the information you needed, and you were out.

It is how we want a person’s UX in fintech products to be. Users generally experience both positive and negative emotions when they start using a new piece of software. And while they love the convenience of being able to carry out their financial activities online, they just as much dislike the hassle when it fails.

Hence, it is necessary to identify their emotions and design a fintech UX that appeals to them. It is where frictionless user onboarding comes into the picture

According to AITE, 5-15% of new customer applications are abandoned before the onboarding process is complete.

When users sign in to any software, it is generally to complete a series of tasks. However, they often meet with numerous fill-me-ups and piles of indigestible information.

A good design should help them focus on the task at hand and then on to the next steps with just the right amount of information.

When users have a positive experience carrying out a single task, it leaves a good first impression and thus creates an immediate emotional impact.

This one experience provides them with a positive context for the rest of the tasks, eventually leading to emotions of trust and reliability by the time they reach the end of the activity.

The last thing a user wants to do when using a fintech app is to enter the same information repeatedly. The absence of integrated information makes it arduous for them.

End-to-end integrated platforms, where the customers only have to enter their details once during the onboarding process, make the experience seamless.

Predictive analysis tools ,like heatmaps, can help understand where users spend the most time in the app and the errors they come across.

Facing a problem and not being able to find a solution for it right away can be a potential friction point for the users, especially when it involves sensitive financial information.

Using AI to answer their questions faster and solve their problems instantly can streamline their transactions better.

2. Scalable design

The fintech industry is rapidly growing. There are likely chances that there might arise a need to redesign the software as per the changing user needs, technology changes, or financial regulation changes.

Fintech UX must have the scope to evolve in future and be scalable. Using Design Systems or good style guides can make this possible.

3. Red route analysis

Red Route Analysis is an important exercise when designing UX in fintech. It aids in identifying the most frequently chosen paths by the users in the software.

Red routes are the foundational user journeys that make the software valuable by optimising the habitual and repetitive tasks carried out by users.

Let’s understand this with an example from mobile banking software.

When a customer uses a mobile banking app, the frequent red routes are bill payments, transferring funds, etc. When designing fintech UX, we keep these red routes in mind and build an Information Architecture accordingly.

Subsequently, the Wireframing process puts these functionalities on the screen for the final, iterative check-point to see how it spells out.

These red route matrices help reduce friction significantly for a successful customer experience.

4. Establish trust and reliability

User Persona plays a huge role when you are designing UX in fintech products.

In fintech, our key observations for user needs are financial security and familiar technology.

Most users are concerned about security and not very well-versed with technology. With money comes the concern for security since several user actions also involve third-party integrations.

Fintech software deals with several user-sensitive data to meet financial regulations and fulfil the software functionalities. This can be achieved by designing and developing additional security features like additional sign-ins, login sessions, notifications, etc.

Even though the burden of security in fintech lies more on the backend, a fintech designer is responsible to visualise and communicate it in a way that wins the user’s trust.

5. Data Visualisation

All Fintech software deals with data. Some of this needs to be presented to the users. But too much data can also be overwhelming – just the right amount presented with clarity fares well.

A good fintech design visualises data in a graphically meaningful way on dashboards as graphs or charts for users to extract information without having them interpret or analyse it.

Using Machine Learning algorithms, users can access predictive visualisations that can help them track their choices over time.

Sharing a basic example might help you understand this better. Think of data visualisation in personal finance software that displays the ratio of expenses and earnings.

This simple approach helps users assess their monthly income and expenses.

Conclusion

The fintech industry is onerous. But, we have the creativity to craft designs that, besides building trust and transparency, also win the users’ hearts.

As a fintech design agency we can build simple, flexible, and agile designs that provide comprehensive functionality. With this, we can elevate the UX of your product and help the business grow.

If you have a Fintech software that you wish to redesign or make one from scratch, call or email us, and we’d be delighted to discuss it further.