App Development

Why UX Research is must in FinTech Industry

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Why UX Research is must in FinTech Industry

In the FinTech Industry, user experience (UX) is critical. The FinTech business has evolved dramatically in recent decades, and the advent of new interface technology has meant that the user experience has become an important aspect of consumer engagement. For many FinTech companies, ensuring that their potential consumers have a positive user experience, whether on a desktop or a mobile device, is critical to their success.

It’s simple: consumers will not become customers if they find your website or app obnoxious or bothersome. The correct user experience might mean the difference between success and failure in today’s competitive FinTech market. In this essay, I’ll deconstruct the user experience and explain why it’s so important.

If you were to ask a typical UX designer to pick their top five favourite types of projects to work on, “digital financial services platform” would almost certainly not be among them. Not even in the top twenty, let alone the top fifty.

Most designers are uninterested in learning about federal banking rules or accounting for the complex bureaucracy that frequently surrounds FinTech services. When you force a bunch of creatives to learn about the subtleties of tax audits or the intricacy of compliance rules, their eyes glaze away.

FinTech is not only unsexy, but it can be difficult to design for as well. Project specifications are frequently discussed. While designing for FinTech may seem hard or uninspiring, remember to approach it as a challenge, not an impossibility.

What is the meaning of user experience (UX)?

A potential customer’s engagement with your product or service is referred to as user experience in its broadest definition. This could be anything from the feel of a product to the complexity of a website’s purchasing and checkout process. Every color, element, and shape in a good user experience design is taken into account.

The ultimate goal of a successful user experience is to make things as simple and straightforward as possible for your users while avoiding unneeded stress. As a user, you may not realize it, but market research, product development, and design hours go into producing a smooth user experience that meets your wants and expectations.

What is the importance of user experience in FinTech?

FinTech has become a fiercely competitive sector. Smaller, more agile businesses are developing distinctive products, attracting funding, and competing directly with industry heavyweights. Investing applications, challenger banks, and peer-to-peer lending platforms are all on the rise.

These new businesses have the advantage of being digital natives, which means they aren’t hampered by old habits.This enables them to construct digital-first models without the need for physical places or face-to-face encounters.

The industry has advanced rapidly in a short period, and people have grown to expect fast, intuitive, and secure mobile and desktop experiences. If you don’t give it to your clients, they’ll vent their frustrations online and eventually go to someone who does.

What can FinTech companies do to improve the user experience?

Many of the ways we interact with businesses now would have been unthinkable even ten years ago. Humans, as much as businesses, must adapt quickly in this fast-changing world. We will go through a few of the ways FinTech companies are enhancing their user experience, as well as the relevance of this in attracting and maintaining consumers, in the sections below:

Moving to a mobile-first strategy

There’s no doubt that in the previous decade, there has been a massive movement toward mobile phones. Mobile banking surpassed branches and Internet banking as the preferred method of accessing the bank in 2015. People are expected to use mobile phones to communicate by 2020.

At the turn of the millennium, this revolution could not have been predicted. However, having a mobile app can only get you so far; if your app or website is difficult to use or appears old, people will abandon your company. Because of the rise of challenger banks like Monzo, established financial institutions have been compelled to invest millions in developing their applications to compete.

Design that is simple and intuitive

Customer happiness depends on the style and style of a website, computer application, or mobile app. The user experience must be designed around the demands of the customer, making all major trips that they may want to take as simple as possible. There are no two customers alike, therefore thorough research is required.

In today’s fast-paced world, with so many competitors, this isn’t something that can be decided on the spur of the moment and forgotten about – user experience must be dynamic to meet customers’ changing wants. As more businesses see the value of a positive user experience, the bar is being set even higher, and customer expectations are rising.

A customized experience

Because no two clients are the same, standardized messages will no longer suffice. Consumers are increasingly accustomed to a tailored experience, whether it’s an online retailer proposing things you might enjoy, a travel website informing you of the weather prediction in your destination before your vacation, or a tailored experience in a physical store.

Personalization has grown so prevalent that we hardly notice it, but it is an essential component of the user experience. Only giving a consumer what they want is preferable to offering it to them before they realize they want it. In FinTech, the greatest approach to cut through the noise is to provide customers exactly what they want, when they want it, and in a way that feels unique to them.

A self-service system

Because of mobile banking, bank branches are closing every week. So much so that the average British person hasn’t visited a bank in the last two years, with only 12 percent of respondents indicating they’ll go to their local branch. The message is clear: we anticipate everything to be digitized in the future.

And, in terms of cost and convenience, this is only a good thing. Financial institutions save time and money by allowing consumers to manage their accounts, apply for loans, and invest their money from the comfort of their own homes. Not only that but allowing customers to investigate products and services at their leisure will lead to more conversions in the long run.

These are just a few examples of how the financial business is changing due to user experience. Customers have never had it easier to switch providers, so recognizing and addressing their needs is critical to success.

What makes user research so important in the development process?

Pegalogics UI UX Designes

User research can help you develop products that are both useful and meaningful. Here are some more purposes why it must be a portion of the digital product development process:

The design, usability, and performance of a product are all improved as a result of research. It aids in a better understanding of the user’s demands, behaviors, and motivations, as well as the transformation of them into useful goods.

User research fills in any gaps in our understanding of users, including what they do and when they do it, why they do it, and how we might make things easier and more comfortable for them.

The original design and architecture of the digital product are based on user research.

Planning and implementing user research takes more time. Neglecting it, on the other hand, can result in a product that is entirely useless to users. Furthermore, if you don’t undertake user research and your product fails, you may not even know why it failed.

FinTech digital products user research

The user, not technology, comes first when it comes to product design. Keep this in mind when developing financial products or services that aim to help people manage their finances. Design is more than just making something look nice. It’s also about the user’s experience with the product or service, which user research can help with. To add real value and improve people’s lives, focus on empathy and understanding the headaches and problems that need to be solved. Regrettably, not all financial institutions and banks comprehend how certain financial conditions can have both beneficial and negative effects on people’s lives.

Examples of the value of user research

If you need to send money to your grandmother who lives in another country, for example. You inquire about her Swift and IBAN codes (international bank account number). Grandma may find it difficult to locate this information because she rarely visits her bank. When banks produce financial services based on their knowledge, this is the end consequence. They overlook that their users don’t have a lot of financial understanding and that they’ll have to call assistance to gain this information. It sounds tiresome and time-consuming to have to call support every time you need to perform a financial transaction.

Transferwise, on the other hand, is a FinTech application. You just ask Grandma to take a photograph of her card number and email it to you via Transferwise. You make a stress-free money transfer.

Simple, a mobile banking and budgeting app, is another example. The section “About” discusses the most vexing aspects of banking.

Financial software isn’t always the most interesting to use—it may be cold, drab, and corporate. Most complex products with a lot of flexibility and customization don’t come with enough training and education—and don’t get me started on documentation.

While legal requirements generally demand financial apps to act in a certain way, there are ways to make the experience for consumers more enjoyable and hassle-free while still keeping it professional and simple to use. Instead of following the drab status quo approach, financial apps can deliver a delightful and exciting user experience with the right context.

The customer has three key goals with Fisdom, an investment app meant to make investing easy for consumers without an education in the Indian stock exchange:

Resolve the high percentage of dropouts that happened before users began investing.

Look at ways to make the investment registration procedure better. Render the app more visually appealing—Fisdom isn’t just for commercial usage; it’s for anyone interested in investing.

Wisdom isn’t like most other investment applications or services. People typically invest in stocks, bonds, and a variety of other items based on…well, anything! It’s occasionally because they enjoy working for the company, and other times because they believe it will benefit them.

The process is reversed in this app. Users specify an investment objective, which is an amount they wish to accumulate over a specified period. The app then proposes several possibilities, and users can contribute monthly to that aim.

This investing strategy eliminates the difficulty of selecting individual investments, therefore the app must earn the user’s trust along the route. Users could theoretically lose a lot of money if they misinterpret even fundamental aspects.

Despite the abundance of options, the endeavor to make the app fun and engaging have to be considered throughout the entire process. This emphasized the importance of visual appeal and ease of use in establishing trust.

FinTech Apps Do Not Have to Be Uninteresting

During the comparative examination of competing for finance apps, it became evident that the majority of them had uninviting color palettes and experiences.

Competitor analysis reveals that financial apps aimed at the Indian market are unpolished and do not give the engaging experience that younger users want. The young mind often needs something attractive and engaging which can keep them busy all day long. Therefore, the FinTech apps should be that much eye-catching to entice their target audience.

Being overwhelmed with information when learning anything new can be daunting, which is why most users abandon their studies before they even begin.

It’s not about flat color palettes and non-skeuomorphic buttons when it comes to minimalism in design; it’s about how information is organized and the cognitive burden required to use the supplied features.

Hence, made a deliberate effort to keep things simple, both in terms of process and interaction, because investing is difficult enough. As a result, the visual style was drastically distinct from previous FinTech tools.