Why UX Is Critical in Fintech Solutions
Fintech solutions are just that; technological solutions to common problems people have in the financial industry. In 2021, just solving the issue is no longer enough. Fintech is a rapidly growing sector with more and more companies competing to be the Fintech solution of choice in their specific niche. They all offer a solution but the ones that deliver the smoothest, most intuitive, most enjoyable solution are the ones that will take hold and become major players.
Designing a Fintech solution that goes above and beyond just solving the problem while providing a great experience comes down to the user experience (UX) design of the product. UX design involves designing every aspect of the product that the user sees, from the functionality to the usability to the branding and more.
In the past, the solution itself was the most important piece. If a technology could deliver on its promise to help in some area of finance, that was enough. That is no longer the case. The solutions still need to deliver the goods and do what they are meant to do but UX design is increasingly important in Fintech. Here are a few reasons why UX is critical in Fintech solutions.
It Builds Trust in Your Customer Base
Trust between a business and a consumer is at the core of any relationship. This is even more important in the financial world where a business is dealing with one of the most valuable and sensitive areas of people’s lives: their finances. Solid UX design helps build this trust between the company and the consumer.
According to Liventus, putting the user first is at the core of the best Fintech solutions. A solution that does this with a good UX design that is easy and intuitive for the user to navigate demonstrates that the designers put the user first. This helps build trust because it shows that the designers had the users’ best interests in mind during the design process. Users will intuitively grasp this and, with that subconscious understanding, will have a reinforced sense that the company has the user’s best interests in mind.
The other reason this is important is that it shows competence, which is another key factor in building trust. A well-designed Fintech solution that puts UX first will make the user feel confident that the company is good at what it does. Conversely, a poorly designed solution can erode trust.
Users Are Quick to Abandon Solutions
In today’s fast-paced and technologically savvy climate, users don’t have the patience to stick with tech solutions and fight through UX issues. In a world where people regularly abandon websites that take longer than three seconds to load, a Fintech solution that is difficult to navigate will ever get off the ground.
A user’s journey through the product is so important. It must be clear from the home screen what the product is, what it does, and how it wants users to use it. Every step that follows the home screen should provide a clear and simple message indicating what the user should do next. If the UX doesn’t provide these things for users, they will quickly abandon the solution and move on to something else.
Fintech Solutions Can Be Complicated
UX makes what is complicated easier to use and understand. Fintech solutions can be incredibly complicated, another factor in the importance of good UX design. Fintech interacts with very technical and complicated financial fields. These fields can produce mountains of data. For some solutions, the temptation is to try and relate all this data to the user. That is usually a mistake.
Someone who uses a Fintech solution wants to understand the data without having to go through it with a fine-toothed comb. This is where UX design comes in. Instead of having reams of numbers and symbols for the user, visual graphics can rely on the same information in a much quicker and more efficient way.
This means that UX designers need to let charts, graphs, and infographics tell the story instead of the numbers. This can be hard for designers in the Fintech world, but the payoff will be big when it comes to ease of use and how much people enjoy using the product.
It Can Make Finance Fun
For most of us, finance isn’t fun. In fact, it can be quite intimidating to some and tedious to others. That is why UX designers in the Fintech sector need to amp up the fun factor when it comes to the solutions they design. This is especially important when it comes to consumer-facing Fintech solutions. The more fun they can make it, the better the chances are for success because fun equals adoption in much of the Fintech world.
One way UX designers can add a fun-factor to their design is with gamification. This is the process of turning an ordinary task into a game that mimics the style of a video game. Earning points, completing challenges, finding rewards, and leveling up are all gamification strategies that take a humdrum app and make it fun. Fintech solutions that can add these concepts into saving for college or trading stocks are something that people really want.
It Makes It Personal
The last reason on this list that demonstrates how important UX is in Fintech technology is that UX design can make the solution personal for the user by implementing local features. Fintech designers want to have their solutions used all around the globe. This can be a challenge, though, because so many aspects of finance are very different in different parts of the world.
UX design must consider everything from local financial institutions to local currency. If this can’t be done or is hard to figure out, the solution will have a hard time taking hold in different locales. Designing a UX that can be used around the globe is critical in our connected world today.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that UX design is one of the most important aspects of Fintech solutions in 2021. UX design helps these solutions build trust, keep users on the platform, simplify the solutions, provide fun, and make it localized. These are all important factors in Fintech adoption, which is what all designers are shooting for.
