A fintech project requires designers to consider necessary financial regulations that can vary by state and country. These financial instruments are often detailed and comprehensive, so designers should read them carefully before starting a project. This article covers the basics of product design for the FinTech industry. These include modern practices designed to help you understand how user-friendly, compatible, fintech product design agency products are and designed to provide maximum customer service efficiency. Whether it’s a fintech startup developing a cryptocurrency product or a well-known multinational trying to revolutionize mobile banking, UXPin actively leverages the interactive components of its development systems.
What is the term fintech?
FinTech (Financial Technology) represents a part of the market that develops products and services of various financial technologies. These financial products include applications, APIs, and complex multi-step algorithms designed to innovate and improve the financial industry. FinTech products include digital banking, e-commerce tools (e-wallets), various payment services and investment services, crypto products industry.
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Key Fintech Design Challenges
Problem 1. Compatibility problems
Compliance with regulatory requirements is one of the challenges of FinTech design. If you are designing a product for multiple countries or a global audience, your strategy may differ in each market according to different regulations. For example, Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer regulations contain detailed protocols that affect staffing and user flows. These laws create additional complications related to user identification, privacy, fraud prevention, accessibility, and terrorism. States and countries regularly update these laws or introduce new laws to complicate matters. This means that UX designers have to rework designs to remain compatible, which can disrupt product plans and UX strategies.
Problem 2. To meet the desired expectations of customers
In addition to regulation, user experience developers must meet customer expectations of traditional banking and financial services. For example, many neo-banks do not have physical branches for their customers, so the application should provide customers with a full range of essential tools and functions that simulate the personal experience of interacting with the bank.
Problem 3. The possibilities of fintech product complexity
Another key challenge in creating fintech design is the complexity of products and how exactly UX designers create complete ecosystems. Traditional banks and financial services companies have different departments that work on products such as loans, checking, savings, mortgages, and loans. Design teams can develop a piecemeal product with proper communication and collaboration instead of a cohesive ecosystem with seamless customer service.
Problem 4. Security protocol
FinTech security protocols impact the UX workflow and how designers conduct, share, store and analyze research. UX teams must carefully adhere to various security protocols such as ISO-27001 and ISO-27002.
UX designers should also encourage users to use safe practices, such as using strong passwords, not revealing OTPs (one-time PINs), and paying attention to the text and email links.
Actionable App Design Tips for the FinTech Industry
Rule 1. Clean user interface design
A clean, minimalist user interface is essential for any digital product, but even more so for fintech projects, where you often need to make room for disclaimers, links, and other important information. Progressive disclosure is a popular strategy for developing complex user interfaces in fintech. UX designers use additional information “hidden” behind hints, drop-down menus, and UX templates to provide users with only essential and necessary informational content. An incremental approach to information disclosure enables designers to create clean user interfaces while providing users with the needed content.
Rule 2. Clarity of information
Financial products and services are complicated to understand because of long and complicated business terms that most people need help understanding. When developing fintech products, it’s essential to keep the language simple and articulate user expectations. It also helps build trust among users who need help understanding financial terms and meanings. For example, credit inquiries can affect a user’s credit score. UX designers must explain this and other important information on mobile screens, often in multiple points.
Rule 3. Availability
Accessibility is of the utmost importance for any digital product, but it is essential for designing products that are developed specifically for the FinTech industry.
Rule 4. Useful visual materials
Data visualization provides a valuable opportunity for users to absorb and understand information that is important to them quickly. UX designers can also use color to differentiate between numbers like revenue and expenses.
Rule 5. Use the appropriate keyboard
Users must switch between numbers, letters, and special characters to fill out forms on mobile devices. Fintech forms are usually longer and give users more space to fill out than other digital products. A UX designer can simplify this process by telling the mobile device which keyboard to use to fill out the form.
Rule 6: Use descriptive and helpful CTAs
There should be clarity about what happens when users click a CTA. For example, if someone is filling out a loan application, the call to action on the form should be “Apply” instead of the usual “Submit.”
Rule 7. Could you help me, don’t get in the way.
Unfortunately, digital products often hide features that allow customers to cancel or downgrade services. Some software may have specific rules for disabling paid services. Therefore, always ensure that your project complies with regulations and best practices.
Rule 8: Optimize your app for mobile devices
Many users (especially those under 30) want to complete their tasks on a mobile device using a modern mobile application. If your fintech product doesn’t have a mobile app, ensure your website is optimized for mobile users and offers the same desktop experience. If you’re using a mobile app, make sure it can perform the same tasks as desktop users. Many digital products limit what users can do with mobile apps, leading to frustration or side effects such as: not being able to go back to a previous version or cancel recurring payments.
Simplify long forms
Fintech products require collecting large amounts of personal data to comply with the law. These forms can take a long time to fill out and tire users. Here are some tips for simplifying long forms for fintech products. To set expectations, first, let users know how long it will take them to complete the form. Divide your paper into sections and stages (so users can quickly move back and forth when needed). Use the form completion indicator to show how much work the user needs to complete. Only ask for the information you need. Avoid redundant fields unrelated to your financial institution. Only use drop-down menus if at least three options are available. Allow the user to save their progress and return when they have time. Provide error alerts to users to direct them to fix them. Error messages should contain clear, practical instructions for users to resolve the current problem.
