Mobile banking guide: Key features to deliver best UX

Is it possible to remove friction and improve mobile banking usability in just a few days? Many believe it requires a significant amount of time and financial investment. But that's not true. You can instantly increase overall digital customer satisfaction by easing usage of 20 key features.

Best mobile banking effectively meets the needs of the user, while also being intuitive, user-friendly, and visually appealing. Key aspects of good mobile banking user interface design include:

• Functionality. A good fintech product should be able to effectively perform all of the functions that it was designed for, without any unnecessary features or complications.
• User experience. A good fintech product should be easy to use and understand, with a clear and intuitive user interface.
• Visual design. A good fintech product should have a visually appealing design that is consistent with the company's brand and aesthetic.
• Responsiveness. A good fintech product should be responsive and adaptable to different devices and platforms, so that users can access it on their preferred devices.
• Accessibility. A good fintech product should be accessible to users with disabilities, and should comply with relevant accessibility guidelines and standards.

By using Pareto law, we can say that approximately 80% of customers use only 20% of all the functionality a financial app offers. It means that improving key user scenarios can give you a rapid, significant increase in overall user satisfaction. Moreover, this can be done in considerably less time using fewer financial resources.

Improving the 20% doesn't mean that we should ignore the other 80%. In the short term, focusing on the crucial 20% scenario allows you to achieve the user experience (UX) improvement you want very quickly. However, you should keep in mind that long-term, ongoing improvements in the banking user experience are the key to keeping customers satisfied and loyal to your financial service.

Over the last decade, our team of UX architects has collected thousands of financial flow examples that create struggles in usability and we will show 20 of the major mobile banking features that should be improved through UI design ASAP:

1. Ensure a Quick and Smooth Login

Customers can get extremely annoyed when they want to quickly check their balance or transfer money, but accessing the financial app is such a struggle that they give up and decide to come back later when they have more time. This certainly is not a way to bond with the customers. They might put up with it in the short term, but eventually users will probably switch to a financial app that provides a quick and smooth login.

From the UX perspective, it is critical that the login is effortless and allows simple access, while keeping security in mind and biometrics is the best and quickest way to log in.

The design should emphasize the main scenarios that have led the user to a specific screen. It helps to ask yourself, why has the user arrived at this screen? What's the main goal? Ideally, one screen should answer one main question. Take a look at your financial product through the eyes of the user. Is it easy to log in? Are the correct elements emphasized? What could confuse your users?

When you have defined the primary scenario on the screen, it's also important to pay attention to the secondary scenarios. For what other reason than to log in might the customer arrive at this screen? What struggles may arise for which the customer might need immediate help? Features addressing these questions should also be included on this screen.

Though it's important to ensure that the emphasis is still on the login, it is also critical that you provide your users simple access to support, as well as offering new customers the option to join the financial service. Think about the most important functionality for the user on this screen instead of all the possible options. For example, provide one option to access “Help/Support” instead of cluttering the screen with all the possible options to get help, such as phone numbers and a list of branches.

2. Make Navigation Clear and Intuitive

There are some financial apps that the users compare to a jungle. They have to break through a thick “forest” of dozens of functions to reach their destination. This is not a quick or pleasant journey to take.

One of the main goals of the user experience design in finance is to help your customers achieve their goals as quickly and effortlessly as possible. Here, it's important to evaluate whether your financial app might remind users of a jungle. If so, a careful UX audit and evaluation of all the functionality should take place.

Often, it turns out that the users actually only use one-third of all the functionality available. Removing the unnecessary functions transforms the service's experience into a much more pleasant one. But, as we are talking about smart changes that can be done quickly and have a great impact, you should focus on at least guiding the users through the jungle with helpful navigation.

We advise not to overcomplicate the task; keep the main navigation menu easy to access and simple to understand. Let the user explore your financial app without any effort. The users should feel that the main menu is always there to guide them without requiring a lot of their attention.

Also, make sure that the navigation menu titles are formatted correctly and are easy to understand. When the users read them, their mind automatically generates possible functionalities under those titles, so it's important that they meet the customer expectations.

3. Don't Bury the Balance

For many users, the most important purpose of a financial app is to check the balance. This allows them to feel in control of how much money they have left and make decisions about future spending.

Often, the balance needs to be accessed ASAP, such as while a user is waiting in line at a shop and wondering what they can afford. Nevertheless, there are many financial applications that have made this critical scenario unnecessarily difficult. If users aren't able to access their balance quickly, it can result in a lot of frustration.

Psychologically, it triggers uncertainty about how much money is available and concern about getting embarrassed at checkout when their card is denied. Another common pain point for the users is that often the balance is not only hard to find but also confusing. The user needs to quickly find out how much money is available for spending. Unfortunately, some banks show the balance including credit limit and reserved amount, which can make it really difficult to understand how much is available for spending and how much is the borrowed amount.

Most users view their account balance every day, often multiple times a day. If gaining valuable and frequently used information takes effort and time through unnecessary clicks, it can make the whole app experience feel complicated and unpleasant. Don't hide the balance and make your users click through unnecessary screens to see it.

If your users have several accounts, be sure to show the balances of all those accounts on the dashboard. There is also an option to sum up all the balances and show a total amount, all based on the unique needs of your users.

Make a small audit of your financial app's first screen after login. Does it provide insights about the user's finances? Do the users immediately understand how much they can spend? Does it meet the user’s expectations about this crucial scenario and not make them frustrated by complicating the access?

4. Make Sure Money Transfers are Effortless

One of the most important functionalities in financial apps is the ability to transfer money. This is one of the key scenarios that determine whether the users will stick with your financial application. It's vital to make it as simple and effortless as possible.

Users expect to execute these kinds of common scenarios in just a few seconds. Most likely, they won't be forgiving if it is complicated to make a payment and consumes a lot of their time and energy. The less time your users will have to think about it, the more thankful they will be to your financial service.

Creating a payment is a task of high responsibility. When the user decides to make a payment, he or she already knows who the beneficiary will be and what amount of money they will send. These are the two most important elements that the user expects to see when they want to transfer money.

Often, list of many different payment options demonstrate that a bank wants to provide a wide range of functionality to its users, believing it is doing their users a favor. But, instead of the value that banks intend to offer, the user gets very confused and impatient when presented with a list of too many options.

Don't just display all of the options on one screen as this causes confusion for the user. Think about the possibility of removing this step, ensuring simplicity. Acknowledge all the payment options that your bank offers to the user and try to find common features. For example, both domestic and international payments require an account number or IBAN (depending on the region). So we shouldn't make the user decide whether it's a domestic payment or an international one. The user wants to transfer the money, and do it as simple and easy as possible.

How can you solve this? Ask the user to fill in the account number, and, based on that, provide the ability to fill in additional fields that are required based on the transfer type. Also, if the current screen is dedicated to conducting the transactions, try not to confuse your users with functionality that doesn't apply to their situation. For example, keep options like “Transfer” and “Edit limits” in separate categories. If the users navigate to the “Transfers” section, they are looking for transfers not editing limits or something else.

5. Provide Clear Feedback After the Payment

When making a payment, users have a feeling of responsibility and also a bit of anxiety about whether they will send the right amount to the right person. If everything goes as planned, the user is relieved. If, for some reason, it wasn't possible to make the payment, the user's anxiety rises. Here, the financial app should definitely reassure the user and guide them through any problem that might potentially arise.

The first thing the user expects to see after making a payment is approval from the financial app that it has been successful. That is the point when customers feel like they have achieved their goal.

However, often the users are busy, and they don't have the time to read all of the text that appears. Instead, they scan the screen to try to find any clues as to what the message is about. If there is no easy way to perceive the message that the payment has been successful, then the user might think something went wrong and try to make the same payment again. This can lead to frustration and financial losses, although these troubles for both the user and the financial business can be avoided.

Show your users they can relax after they have made a payment by providing straightforward feedback about the process. Try to make it look as clear and simple as possible. Whether or not the payment status is successful puts a design emphasis on it. Also, provide context for the feedback: display information about what exactly has been successful or unsuccessful by providing a short summary about the payment.

Try to think several steps ahead and provide your user with the options they will need in advance. If the payment processing has been successful, provide the user with the next possible move on this screen - either “go to the dashboard” or “make another payment.” This depends on your user research; it could be some other action that is important for your users once they have made the payment.

If the payment processing wasn't successful, provide more details about it. The user will always search for the reason why. Clear feedback about what went wrong relieves the user’s anxiety. Provide a clear action plan; otherwise, the user will look for your support team and ask for the information you could have provided right in the app.

6. Security First: Make it Quick to Block the Card

Most users spend their money using payment cards, so all operations regarding cards should be easily accessible through every channel. This is especially true when it comes to nerve-wracking security situations in which immediate action is required, such as losing a card or getting robbed.

More and more banks allow users to manage their payment cards from the financial app. Here, it's crucial that the scenarios with a huge impact are accessible in an easy way. The card allows direct access to the user's hard-earned money. So, for the customers, it's very important that they are able to manage the security settings.

Imagine the user’s feelings and reactions if the card is stolen. First of all, the user is very anxious about his or her finances thinking what if somebody accesses their account? Imagine them being worried that a random stranger will withdraw all of the cash they have and or even make fake reservations using their card.

In these cases, the users should have the ability to immediately block the card. Card theft is a very stressful experience, so card blocking should be quick and immediate and not require any additional thinking, since it’s hard to be rational when you’re in an emotional state.

Give the user the ability to manage his or her card freely. If the user can’t block the card quickly, it can have a big impact on the user’s life. Think about how else you can support your user in this unpleasant situation. If the bank provides the opportunity to choose the reason for blocking, this can be insightful for your financial business to understand how else you can help the customer. For example, if there have been fraudulent transactions, you can ask your user to identify them after the card blocking to facilitate the investigation.

Provide users with the ability to control their credit card settings since it will give the users a powerful sense of being in control of their own finances. Be the ally who supports the users in stressful situations and helps them to regain a sense of peace about their finances.

7. Don't Overload the Dashboard

Our everyday lives are more saturated with information than ever before. On one hand, this provides us with a wide range of opportunities. On the other hand, navigating oneself in the midst of such information overload can be exhausting and overwhelming. That's why simple and easy to understand financial services are in great demand.

People expect that the digital tools they use will ease their lives and reduce their daily stress and anxiety, not increase it.

If your financial app takes too much effort to understand, the users might choose a simpler alternative. Remember users want to invest their time in their priorities so try to simplify your financial service and create an understanding environment for them.

The dashboard is the screen most often used, so it is vital that the user can easily overview the most important information in one glance. Users expect to easily access the summary of their finances, such as available account balance, list of latest transactions, upcoming payments, the performance of savings or investments and debt amount. They also need access to urgent information that the user needs to act upon, such as bills that are due, money requests, automated payments that don’t go through or important announcements from the bank.

The main purpose of the dashboard is to quickly check in with the users’ overall financial situation to make sure that everything is under control. Unfortunately, sometimes when users arrive at the dashboard, they have to take unnecessary steps to get the information they are looking for.

Typically, the reason for this is that banks want to impress their users with the number of features, options, and products they have, but, in this case, it does the opposite, creating not the best first impression and ensuing frustration. Due to the information overload, it's difficult for the user to find the most important information, which can result in stress.

8. Put Yourself on a Map and Let Customers Find You

We are moving toward a cashless economy. More and more customers are choosing to pay using a credit card or other technological advancements like Apple Pay because it's simple and quick, and they don't have to worry about carrying wallets stuffed with cash.

Nevertheless, there are still situations in which cash is needed. As banks are trying to reduce the workload of the branches, ATMs can help with that. Users can not only withdraw and deposit cash but also pay the bills or even apply for bank products. As users are often busy and on the go, it's crucial to offer a quick and convenient way for them to reach the nearest ATM right from their location.

When the user is seeking the nearest location of something, first he or she will need to identify their current location. After that, the mind will start filtering the information about locations in your app and decide which one is the most convenient. To make it effortless and intuitive, provide the user with a map that conveniently displays all locations of your branches and ATMs.

Often a long list of street names does not prove to be helpful, especially if the user is out of town or abroad and isn’t familiar with the region. For people, it's much easier for the brain to perceive visual objects than text. When it comes to actual navigation, this is especially important.

Also add up-to-date ATM/branch details so the user won't find themselves in a situation in which he or she finds an ATM but there is no ability to cash in or the ATM is available only during specific hours, for example.

For the user, it is important to know the details about the specific ATM/branch, including the name, address, operational features, working hours (especially during holidays), and other information that's relevant for your users.

9. Be There for Your Users With Accessible Support

Financial companies might often hide their contact information or provide just a single contact option in order to avoid incoming message overload. If only a phone number is provided, the user isn't able to send any attachments like screenshots, or he's not able to talk at that moment and would prefer chatting. Moreover, often the phone operators are so busy that the user has to wait quite a while to reach support. All of this results in a combination of negative emotions and feelings toward the financial service.

Even if you create the most user-friendly app, there still needs to be an option to contact the financial service. Providing quick and easy access to a live person at the other end definitely increases reliability and a feeling of reassurance. This way the user will know they will always be able to contact the bank almost immediately whenever a problem arises.

Almost anyone can remember a situation in which there was no way to contact the financial company. This can get nerve-wracking as people have entrusted the financial service with their funds, and it's impossible to reach them when in need.

Calling a financial service digitalized and user-friendly is not a bad thing at all, but we should always keep checking ourselves to make sure if they truly offer great customer centred solutions or just a modern-looking app design. Customer support plays a very big role in the overall experience. In situations like this, in which it’s almost impossible for the user to find the contact and then has to wait a long time to be served, frustrations ensue and damage the user experience.

If your bank is mid-sized or large, you may not be able to provide an opportunity for the support specialist to join the chat immediately. In this case, you can offer an understanding of the status of the user’s message, such as whether it has been received or seen. Secondly, you can let them know the approximate time it will take to get an answer.

It is also important that, as in the example on the right, there is a friendly message, greeting the user by name, that gives personalized communication and a friendly attitude. The user will have the feeling that the bank cares about their financial situation, and they can trust that the bank will always be there to help him.

10. Make it Easy to View and Copy Credit Card Details

In the digital age, people make online purchases almost every day. To execute this common scenario, the user usually needs to enter the payment card details every time. The bank card number consists of 16 digits, which is typically not an easy combination to memorize. Add to that the expiration date and CVC code. If a user has to get up from his or her comfortable sofa to look for his wallet with the credit card information every time they want to buy something online, it can get uncomfortable.

Users typically have mobile phones by their sides 24/7, so this information should be easily looked up in the financial app with no need to retrieve a physical card.

Even if the bank allows you to view the card details, there might be no option to copy them. If the user is making a purchase on their mobile device, there could be a situation in which the user must switch between apps to fill in all the card details. This results in a manual task that is inconvenient and very annoying, especially in an age in which everything is automated.

Offer your users the most convenient way to use their payment cards. It seems to be a trivial detail, but the users will feel that the bank cares about them, which results in large rewards for the bank. Provide the possibility to view and copy the card details right from the financial app.

11. Make it Easy to Filter and Search Transactions

The transaction overview is one of the most popular user scenarios. The information about the transactions is very important for the customer because it provides an overview of where the money has gone.

Transactions that are easy to access and manage increase the trust level of the user in his/her financial app. That's why it's crucial to make this step simple to review and understand.

If there is no clear differentiation between the incoming and outgoing transactions user must study each of the transactions carefully to extract at least some insights.

Make the transaction list easy to review and manage. Let the user gain insights about incoming and outgoing transactions from just a quick glance at the transactions, using color accents. Also, visual grouping by day will help you quickly navigate.

Since we want to increase the user’s positive emotions, highlight the incoming amount very subtlely and keep the outgoing transactions in your current design style. Most often, incoming transactions are fewer in count compared to the outgoing, so you probably won't have a transaction list on which all transactions will be accented.

Provide your users with an ability to search specific transactions by a keyword or filter. We have all had a situation in which we are looking for a specific transaction; it is critical that this common scenario is easy to execute.

Make sure that you don't disappoint your users by providing a list of only the recent transactions. It's crucial that the customers can access the full history of transactions right from the financial app, without the need to visit the desktop version.

12. Ease the Setup of Recurring Payments

In our everyday lives, users are thankful for services and tools that helps them ease their lives. When it comes to financial services and banking, a feature that often reduces the user’s anxiety is recurring payments, as it makes it easier to manage their monthly bills.

Often, a user will choose the recurring option for a payment already made in the past. To avoid frustration, all the previous payment details should be easily accessible. For example, when the user starts to type in the beneficiary, the app finds corresponding payments that have previously been made using a smart search feature.

If the user fills in all the details from scratch, try to simplify the form. Split the process into several logical steps. The user only has to pay attention to one action in each step, which makes the process easier since it doesn’t split his/her attention. It is also quicker and easier to navigate than a long form filled with many confusing fields to input.

Before the confirmation of the recurring payment, allow the user to review all the main details of the payment in one screen to confirm.

13. Don't Make the Terms and Conditions Look Like the Chinese Alphabet

Every bank has different Terms and Conditions for each of their products. We all know that, in most cases, people are not reading them properly due to lengthy, unreadable text. Taking that into account, the bank should provide an easy way to review the Terms and Conditions to avoid any misunderstanding between the bank and the user.

Usually, the Terms and Conditions contain a lot of information. If it is possible to reduce it to fewer words, that's where you should start. Often this is not the case as there are many products and regulations that have to be outlined, but we can still ease the pain by making it much easier to read.

Provide your users with the ability to easily access information that is important for them. Avoid using third-party solutions, such as a PDF, to add Terms and Conditions to your app.

Integrate the Terms and Conditions page into the app. Allow user to see all of the text without any additional effort, and all that is required from him/her is to simply scroll down.

Reduce the huge amount of information by dividing the content into logical categories. In this way, users are not overwhelmed by a large amount of text and can also go directly to the category that's relevant to them.

14. Don't Mislead Your Users With Incorrect Button Placement

By analyzing different financial services, we often see that the financial company isn't even aware of the scenarios that cause real headaches for their users. The wrong use of design accents and CTA (call to action) buttons is one example that usually goes unnoticed but tends to cause quite a lot of trouble, not only for the users but for the financial company as well since the number of support calls increase.

The wrong CTA button can lead to harmful consequences for both the user and the financial company. When making a payment, the user focuses on the details of the payment (e.g., the beneficiary, amount, etc.) All the options on the screen in this process should be very intuitive, leading the user to his/her goal.

You can probably recall a situation in which you just pressed a button that seemed to have an obvious meaning but, instead, something totally different happened.

People quickly scan the screens instead of carefully reading all of the information provided. And very often, users do not read the button, but rather guess its meaning based on previous experience and context. Our perception is selective; otherwise, we couldn't process the mega amount of information that floods our brain every day.

Imagine there are two very similar (probably the same) options─“Cancel” and “Delete order” on payment screen. The user have to stop for a while and think, "If I don't want to make this payment, which button should I click?"

This causes excess cognitive load as the user tries to discern the difference between these two options and the consequences each would have. That's why it's so important to reevaluate all the features provided and select only one option if they both have the same functionality.

Confusing button placement can mislead the users. If you place the button that leads to the next step intuitively, right after the payment form, it simplifies and brightens customer experience. Remember that the user fills in the payment form from the top down, and after the last input, he/she expects to find an easy way to move forward. Highlight the main button of the screen, and make it easy to find.

Keep the secondary scenarios in mind, such as canceling the payment. Don't provide multiple options with the same meaning. It's very important to make sure that the user doesn't click the “close” button by accident. To avoid that, always provide the user with a confirmation message to make sure that he/she really wants to cancel the payment.

15. Ensure Full Functionality on Mobile Channel

Very often, mobile apps exclude functionality that's accessible via the desktop version of online banking. In the digital age, it's critical that a customer can get everything done right from their mobile devices.

If something is still only available on the desktop version of your financial product, you should pay serious attention to this matter as it might be a red flag when it comes to a great digital customer experience in banking.

It can be a very big pain if the financial app doesn't offer the same functionality as the desktop version. An example is the option to review the account statement, which is often unavailable through the app. A few years ago, it was not a big problem. The customers were used to accessing this scenario from the desktop version, but times have changed in the digital age.

Account statements are often required as an official document to prove financial stability, for example, when a user applies for a Visa card or when a user wants to rent an apartment in another country.

As there are so many financial app alternatives on the market, users are becoming more demanding. That's why it's so important that the mobile application ensures the same functionality and convenience as the desktop version. This might require some deeper-level improvements, but there are steps you can take right now to improve this scenario.

To provide the best possible banking experience for your customers, implement an omnichannel strategy. Create an exceptional financial service experience connected across all digital banking ecosystems used by your customers.

If your customers have to explore both the desktop version and the app in order to know which functionalities are available on each of the channels, it might frustrate them. Guide users to the function that they are seeking, if your financial app already provides this option. In this case, the account statement contains a transaction list, so we understand that, intuitively, the user will look for this option somewhere near the transactions. Provide users with the opportunity to do it with a few simple clicks.

First, the user can use filters to include only the needed information, then provide the customer with a statement preview, and, finally, let the user decide in what format he or she wants to export it according to their own preferences.

You can add additional value for your users by offering an option to share the statement right from the app via messaging, WhatsApp or email as link to download. Remember that users don't want an account statement; they probably just want to make sure that it will be received by the person who asked for it.

This is actually a great tip from the digital banking CX perspective - always try to explore the user's goal for any action on your financial app. In this way, you can get a lot of innovative ideas on how to take the banking CX to the next level by making it even more pleasant.

16. Help Your Customers Increase Their Savings

Savings are an essential part of almost every person’s life. Many are saving for rainy days or their future, such as sending kids to college or buying a car or a house. Some people are savers by nature, but most of us are not, which creates a pain point.

On one hand, it's important to have savings; however, human nature is more oriented toward instant gratification, which is why it's often so difficult to set money aside. Here is where the financial products can offer an effortless way to help people save money easily, making it almost unnoticeable and eliminating any frustration.

Some banks have started doing that, but unfortunately some still offer their users the option to open a savings account or term deposit to which they can make payments from their current account. There's only one problem: the customer has to figure it all out and also execute it him/herself. It's not intuitive, easy or effortless. A person already struggling with his/her finances most likely wouldn't want to choose such a path.

In the meantime, challenger banks have gotten ahead of the traditional players by offering their customers convenient ways to save. The Fintechs are changing people's perception of savings as something dreadful. They are making this feature fun and motivational, encouraging people to start saving with seemingly tiny amounts of money.

It's also important to take into account that users have different needs depending on the amount available to them to start saving. Some want to deposit a large sum, while others are interested in saving up gradually by adding a small amount each month. Some banks offer only the deposit function without the ability to add money regularly or create a separate savings account for this purpose, which can cause struggle if the user intends to save small amounts at a time.

When it comes to savings and/or deposit accounts, even more problems arise, such as potential restrictions on the movement of money. For example, the users can't withdraw money immediately without a fee, or they might have to request a money withdrawal 7-10 days in advance in order to avoid a fee.

On one hand, this could be good as it might motivate the customer not to spend his/her savings impulsively. On the other hand, this can get quite unpleasant if the users know that they can't instantly access and control all of their money or have to pay an additional fee to do so.

Following up on how regularly your users add money to their savings accounts can help you understand your customers. See if they can easily find this option in the application. Paying attention to the smallest details can help discovering the pattern of how your customers are using the saving option on your financial product.

Knowing that most humans, in general, are not good at saving their money, what could be the best way to remind them about savings? And, even more, how can you encourage and motivate your users to start saving? Your financial app has the power to provide your customers with a feeling of satisfaction in managing their money. Use it, and the customers will reward you with loyalty.

Just imagine the feelings of your users when, thanks to the help of your financial app, they have saved money to fulfill their dreams: buy a family house or afford a great university for their children. They will experience pride and happiness with your application in hand. This is how financial services can improve people's lives.

Provide the ability to create a savings account quickly and easily for different savings goals. On the challenger banks apps, for instance, users can create a savings vault with only a few clicks. The customer has to state the name of the goal, and then the app guides him/her through the features related to the vault.

From a banking CX perspective, saving money using the spare change option is a good strategy for those users who have difficulties saving. It might be painful to consciously set aside some part of their monthly income, but, by using spare change, it becomes almost unnoticeable. The users get a pleasant surprise after they see that these small amounts combined actually move them closer to their goals much quicker than they had hoped.

17. Provide the Option to View and Copy Account Details

Viewing and copying the account details is a common pain point for users. There are often situations in which we need to quickly provide our details to receive a payment, or we need the details for a contract or an invoice. But, to the surprise of many users, the option to view the details often isn't available, not even talking about the possibility to copy it.

Try to image what this scenario looks like: the user has his/her phone in one hand and a paper and pen in the other to manually write down the numbers and then type them in wherever they are needed. And try to ask, would this reflect the era of social media and digitization?

Even worse, if the account details aren't available on the app, OR if those are hidden like a very precious gem and impossible to find, the user will have to turn on his PC and login to the desktop version to access the necessary information. Just think about how many inconveniences this causes for the customer and how much unnecessary effort and time is dedicated to finding such basic information.

Help your users by providing the essential information of the products they own. Account numbers and bank details should be visible to the user so he/she is able to navigate the account freely and easily. If the user has multiple accounts, in addition to displaying the account number, the users should have an option to name each of the accounts. This makes it much easier to quickly distinguish them.

You can place a “share” button next to the user's account or IBAN number. By clicking on that button, the customer can easily copy the account details and share them via multiple channels. Here, the financial app has considered the “job” for which the users have “hired” this option. If the customer seeks the account details, then most probably he/she wants to share them with someone. This creates positive emotions to the users as they can quickly and easily send the account details through Airdrop, messages or social media.

18. Make it Clear How to Review the Scheduled Payments

One of the pain points that the customers often cite is that they feel anxious about all of the regular payments they have to make every month. As there are many utility bills received through different channels, as well as other regular payments, they worry that they might accidentally miss some of these or they might be afraid that something could go wrong, and the scheduled payment wouldn't go through. This anxiety is normal, as a delayed regular payment can result in a fine or, in the worst case scenario, lead to the heat, electricity or phone being disconnected.

To feel in control and gain a sense of calmness, the user wants to know that everything is in order: the payments are scheduled, and it's easy to review which ones are already safely paid and which ones are in the queue for payment.

By providing such an option, the financial service offers the users a feeling of relief and satisfaction that it's all taken care of, and the customer doesn't have to worry about it.

As we know, having all functionality easily accessible from the mobile device is necessary to ensure a great user experience, especially in a scenario that has so many emotions attached to it. Unfortunately, not all banks offer the option to review the scheduled payments on the app, but it’s available on the desktop version.

Another problem that arises is, even if the financial app provides a list of scheduled payments, it is often not intuitive and is difficult to read and understand, providing little value to the customer. If the users need to click on each payment to get information about the recipient provess becomes time-consuming, especially if the users have many payments on the list. Don't hide essential information like the recipient's name; show it instantly and eliminate unnecessary steps to find it.

Help your users save time by clearly displaying the most important information about scheduled payments: name of recipient, amount and date when the payment will be made. If the recipient’s name is accompanied by logo, it makes even easier to distinguish between the recipients and also makes the list more visually appealing.

Think about prioritizing the information. For example, emphasize the payments that are about to be paid shortly. Also, provide the ability to pay instantly, before the payment date. The users should have more flexibility in payment planning and gain control over their financial situation without being tied to a specific date.

You can provide the user with an easy overview of both the payments that have already been made and the scheduled ones, like Revolut has done in their financial app. Show the most recent payments and provide the option to view the full list. This is a great way to display the most essential information and not clutter up the screen, at the same time providing easy access to the full list, whenever the user needs it.

19. Create a Convenient Budgeting and Spending Feature

Amid the growing number of different budgeting apps, more and more banks are starting to create their own budgeting features. This is a wonderful plan as it can really provide value and improve the customers' overall financial health. Sadly, however, this great intent can lack a proper realization from the banking CX perspective and, as a result, the customers tend to avoid it.

The customer will choose to use the budgeting feature if it won't take much time and effort to enter all of the data, and if they feel that the insights gained are beneficial. After all, the main goal of this feature is to help ease the users’ lives. Accurate budgeting and spending analytics is the bank's responsibility. If the insights prove to be inaccurate, the customer might very quickly lose trust in the financial institution.

If you provide your users with a budgeting and spending analysis option, make sure that it really helps to improve their financial life rather than causing additional work and stress, which is sure to lead to harmful decisions. Digital products are tools that are supposed to ease people's lives, not complicate them.

Many financial apps display spending categories separately from budgeting goals. This is not bad practice, but, if you think from the user’s perspective, then often much more insights could be gained if these two features were combined. Remember that every function of your financial app should meet the user’s expectations and goals according to the specific scenario.

If you provide budgeting and spending options to your users, update your customers about their progress. If the user is close to overspending, send a notification about that so they will be prepared. Inform about possible upcoming financial issues before they occur. The users will feel that their financial health is important not only to them, but also to the bank that they use. As a result, the user will see that it is not just a financial application, but a financial health advisor and companion.

20. Make it Easy to Apply to Products

In the digital world in which we live, the user requires that everything happens immediately, on the go without any additional effort. This is a precondition for creating a delightful banking CX. If such a scenario applied to banking products can be executed only through the bank's desktop version or by physically going to the banking branch, people might not feel that the service is “user centered”.

A financial institution offering the ability to apply for products right from the app can be seen as a positive service that meets the requirements of the customer expectations in the digital age.

Every bank wants their customers to use as many banking products as possible so the customer can feel the full banking experience but we should accent the way we provide this opportunity to the customers. Some banks still do not offer the ability to utilize products right from their apps, or, if they do, there are limited products available or the application process is complicated.

If the app doesn't offer a list of products that the user can apply for, then, in most cases, the only option for the user is to contact the bank. Some banks provide message templates in their apps to apply for the product. On one hand, the bank tries to ease the application for new products, but, on the other hand, if this process is too complicated, the user won't proceed with it anyway. Besides, there are still quite a few banks that don't provide the opportunity to utilize these features right from the app at all.

Another struggle is that often there is no information about the full list of available banking products. Since the most popular channel nowadays is mobile, then the customers can't even have an overview of all the product types the bank offers. For example, a family might think that it would be convenient to get a payment card for their children. As they can't find this option in the app, it might seem that the bank doesn't offer this type of service, while, in fact, the bank might offer this option, but only in the desktop version or only at the branch.

The difficulty of signing up for the product decreases the chance of people actually choosing it. If the bank stepped forward and made the process quick and simple for the customer, or even created a personalized offer, the chances of people choosing the bank's products could increase significantly.

Give the customer the ability to experience the full range of banking products. Try to provide more information about each product so that the user can be sure which one to choose and then guide them through the journey to get it.

If you offer a form to fill out to apply for the products, make sure that users don't have to duplicate personal information. For example, don't make the users fill in data such as name and birth date if the banking app already has this information and can provide it automatically.

If the option of applying for products can't be easily added to your app, or it is required to visit the branch, you can still give your clients clues on how to do that from the app. You can provide your users with insightful information about your products, so that the customers can already evaluate which product is right for them and prepare the needed data and documents to accelerate the process.

Make sure the bank's contact information with phone number and branch locations, as well as their working hours, is easy to find, so that the user can contact support with any additional questions regarding the product or book an appointment at the branch.

Check out my blog about financial and banking UX design >>