UX Trends Reshaping FinTech and Digital Banking

In today's fast-paced, economically driven society where instant payments and easy transactions are key, the financial services industry is constantly needing to adapt to earn and keep customer loyalty. From refocusing product roadmaps to shifting service models, companies must innovate to deliver better customer experiences.

Accessible and inclusive banking experiences, one-stop-shop apps, AI, and real-time payments have emerged as driving forces shaping FinTech and the banking industry. These trends are not just buzzwords - they represent significant shifts in the way users manage, access, and interact with their financial institutions of choice. UX Research can provide specific insights into how financial companies can elevate user experiences to stay ahead of the trends.

Accessible and inclusive banking rises to the forefront

By bringing accessibility and inclusivity to the forefront of financial services, we expect to see consistent improvements in usability and improved user experience in the industry, as well as a clear differentiation between companies investing in development for all populations and those who have left it on the back burner. 

Within the last year at AnswerLab, we have supported financial services organizations with studies aimed at improving ease of use and security for a variety of populations. Some of those studies included:

• Improving banking and financial services website and app experiences for people with impaired mobility and/or cognitive decline
• Gaining insights from traditionally underserved populations and low household incomes to discover better ways for banks and financial institutions to serve them 
• Looking at the ways family structures influence access to banking and credit with multi-generational studies
• Recruiting hard-to-reach populations to gather perspective on banking practices, website and app use, and how site structure and imagery affects their understanding of product offerings
• Diving deep into the experiences of people with vision impairments to improve financial services website navigation

Even small changes to websites can have a
big impact on usability for all audiences.

We also found that participants who do not have disabilities often struggle with the same experiences as the participants who were navigating disabilities. Content clarity, imagery, navigation, calls to action, branding differentiation between products, ability to correct mistakes, and access to customer service are just a few of the areas where improvements in accessibility and inclusivity matter to all users. 

All-in-one banking services put convenience first

The practice of aggregating information that started with apps like Mint and Personal Capital is evolving. Both traditional banks and standalone apps are pulling dispersed financial information together and making it easier to handle important financial matters both at the individual level and for businesses. 

For consumers, the aim is to take an individual’s fractured financials - details spread across institutions and services - and create a cohesive picture that includes: 

• Checking and savings balances
• Credit usage
• Management
• Buy-now-pay-later
• Mortgage balances
• Loans
• Investments 
• And a variety of other asset or liability data

When done right, these products can show someone how their financial picture comes together into their net worth, or how their financial decisions and limitations are hindering their savings and future safety nets.

Additionally, when these same services combine bill pay options, quick and easy money transfers, as well as budgeting software, the result has a lot of potential - as long as the user interface supports all of the possibilities and users don’t get bogged down or confused by the options presented.

» Gen Z and Digital Natives are tech savvy and demand engaging user experiences that help them in their daily lives, including banking and investing. FinTech developers have the opportunity to meet these users by integrating alternative payment methods like peer-to-peer (P2P) and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options into their apps. 

Businesses are benefiting from these integrated dashboards and services as well. When sales, transactions, alerts, credit, loans, and multiple accounts are all in one place, businesses save time, have an accurate view of their financial health, and can build reports from across accounts. Some of these services also include file storage and connections to account software that make it easier to attend to the financial health of any business and stay up to date on reporting, taxes, and stakeholder communication.

While faster receipt of payments, integration of foreign transaction capabilities, and mobile apps with information on the go are beneficial to business banking, the user experience is still paramount to ensuring the speed and accuracy of information and the user’s understanding of what the services can do for them. Aggregations make business banking a bit less complicated, the right usability can make the difference between a person being happy with the service or looking for another option.

AI is transforming FinTech, offering users the promise of smoother, integrated banking capabilities

“How can we utilize AI here?” “Can AI help with this workflow?” Everyone is interested in artificial intelligence - from small businesses to large enterprises. Some of our clients are testing and working on AI in the background, developing features and services for their customers. Others are researching how the platforms they have signed up for, like payment and investment platforms, are going to be affected by AI and eventually embedded into their daily workflow. 

» Through our research on AI products for FinTech companies, we've learned that even simple references to future AI integrations and the promise of AI features is received well by customers. Especially for small business owners, future features are often associated with "ease of use" which is high on their list when determining what platforms they use. 

Additionally, an AI focus on security has been a top trend for FinTech. From fraud detection and alerts, to security protocols and account maintenance, AI will transform FinTech. The questions will always be if the user understands how AI is integrated into their banking and financial services providers, and if they continue to trust the companies they engage with regularly. 

Learn how to build better AI products with user research.

As with any new technology, conducting UX research with a range of users can help you better understand where and how AI products fit into your customers’ daily lives. Not to mention research on privacy, safety, and security will also help you understand user expectations and conform to current and future regulations around AI technology. Properly designed research can show if AI integrations are improving the experience of users or creating cracks in their loyalty.

Real time payments and immediate cash flow summaries make processes faster and more user-centric

Remember when it took days to see a customer’s payment arrive via ACH? Or when additional protocols were required to transfer sums above bank limitations?

The combination of modern banking technology and AI make it possible to have instantly available cash flow and secure payment services. Blockchain technology enables global financial institutions, businesses, governments and more to move, manage and tokenize value. These advancements allow other innovations like on-demand payments or earned wage access for contract employees or gig workers.  

» Some of the companies we work with are aiming to make investing, spending, saving and earning immediately accessible to everyone. With these services we can see immediate financial transactions settled instantly and securely. The benefits range from cost savings to instant liquidity to accurate fraud detection to supply chain management.

As institutions roll out services built on blockchain technology, it will be important to gather user insights on how the technology is understood, the level of trust users have in the institution and their implementation of new technologies, and what it looks like to bridge the gap between trust and understanding. Getting insights early and often will ensure that development leads to reaching the vision of accessible investing, spending, saving and earning. 

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These trends are just a snapshot of the potential for expansion in financial services and FinTech. From Neo banking to usability testing to niche recruiting - whatever the question your team is looking to answer - we can help you uncover compelling perspectives and valuable user insights. 

Learn how AnswerLab helped PayPal understand the end-to-end in-store shopping experiences to drive new product development.