UX Design Formula for Success in the Digital Banking Industry

Compared to 2019, there was a 29% increase in mobile banking in just the first half of 2020. In the U.S alone, there are 57 million users of mobile banking. The total value of payments made using mobile devices reached $503 billion in 2020. Since mobile users are 5 times more likely to abandon a task if it isn’t optimized for mobile, staying ahead of the curve is necessary.

Along with the number of digital banking users, customer expectations keep increasing exponentially as well. Customers now wish for everything to be available online, from quality assistance to any other service they may require.

To help you provide the best experience for your customers, you need the best UX in place. So let’s go over a few things we can do to make UX design for the banking industry stand out.

Problems With The Outdated Digital Banking UX

To put it mildly, the current state of digital banking UX could use some work. Of the many problems, a few of the common ones include:

• Overwhelming UX: 88% of customers say they won’t return to a website after a bad experience. Notoriously, the digital banking industry is guilty of providing a clunky UX that makes users browse around for longer than they want to, trying to figure out services they feel they shouldn’t be working this hard to find.
• Not providing support: Finding the “contact us” button on most banking websites still seems to be an arduous task. Chatbots often don’t end up helping, and quality service is nowhere to be seen. According to Microsoft, 95% of customers say that customer service is vital for establishing loyalty to a brand, proving that quality support is of utmost importance.
• Inefficient UX: Chances are, you’ve noticed the loading times are a lot slower on banking apps/websites. Granted, sometimes efficiency takes a hit for security purposes, but customer patience was never too high, to begin with.

UX Design Principles For The Banking Industry

67% of customers say their standard for a good customer experience is higher than ever. For an industry where trust and providing quality service make or break it, let’s take a look at how vital UX is for the whole process:

1. Empathizing with users

As is the case in any good design journey, empathizing with the end-users comes very early on in the process. To empathize with users is to understand their needs precisely, what they expect from the application/website, and how easy it will be to achieve their tasks.

Without accurate empathy maps, user personas, and research about what users want, your UX design will never deliver what users are looking for. Making sure you understand what you need to focus on early on in the design process will streamline the design process and help deliver a better product altogether.

2. Establish security without compromising efficiency

Banking app users are worried about the safety of their money, and rightly so. In a chilling statistic, mobile app fraud transactions have increased by over 600% since 2015. Ensuring security has been taken care of while delivering a seamless UX is a hurdle in UX design for the banking industry, but it needs the most attention.

85% of customers won’t do business with a company if they have concerns about security practices, and 95% of customers say they are more likely to be loyal to a company they trust. Security may be reinforced through multiple passwords, but maintaining the ease of completing a transaction/service should never be sacrificed.

3. Personalization of services

The benefits of personalization for any industry are too good to overlook. For example, 49.1% of customers claim to have a positive digital experience with banks that offer personalized services. According to McKinsey & Company, personalization can drive 5–15% revenue growth for companies in the financial service sectors. Offering unique services to a customer will make them feel more wanted and looked after.

Removing the cold and often unwelcoming UX of a digital banking website can be the first step in personalizing your website for better relationships. Digital innovation in the banking industry revolves around how well-personalized experiences can be delivered to your users.

4. Easy to use UX

Too often, banking websites/apps have been deemed too difficult to operate. Let’s not get into how the website logs you out after seemingly 5 seconds of inactivity while you were trying to figure out the UX. 90% of users have stopped using a website due to poor performance, showing how important an easy user journey is for your business.

UX design for the banking industry needs an overhaul when it comes to ease of use. By studying user flows, identifying common problems, and trying to make the experience as easy as possible, half of the work for any UX design is already done!

5. Digital innovation in the banking industry

Innovative UX design for the banking industry makes sure your users get the experience they were expecting in the first place. A few possible innovative UX practices are as follows:

• Pooling options together: With an emphasis on easy-to-use UX design, pooling similar functions makes it easier for your users to accomplish their tasks.
• Glanceable UI: First impressions are 94% design-related. Adding glanceable UI elements like charts/pie diagrams of a user’s monthly savings or earnings will increase personalization while delivering an attractive UI.
• Adding new features: Regular updates on new features and consistently adding new features will keep your website/application up to date. New features like multiple account support, analyzing areas of monthly expenditure, exposure to investment opportunities will set your platform apart from the rest.

A comprehensive service package

The sole reason that digital banking is seeing a rise in use is that physically going to banks has always been a cumbersome experience. Users now expect every service to be provided digitally without having to go anywhere. Nearly 80% of American consumers say that speed, convenience, knowledgeable help, and friendly service are the most critical elements of a positive customer experience.

A good user experience for customers will give them all the services they require quickly and efficiently. The inclusion of chatbots could greatly help this cause, helping users solve their problems faster. In addition, according to Salesforce, 84% of consumers say that being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business.

Final thoughts

Digital innovation in the banking industry will help you retain your customers and deliver a top-notch customer experience. For example, 56% of customers leaving their banks say the bank could have changed their minds. Simple steps like including easily accessible customer support on the interface of your website can do wonders to reduce a bank’s churn rate. According to Harvard Business School, retaining just 5% of your customers can drive profits up by up to 95%. By following the UX design tips we listed for you, designing for the banking industry will no longer be an uphill task!