A Step-by-Step Guide for Fintech App Design With Expert Tips

The market size of Fintech apps will reach $332 billion by 2028,  as more people are using fintech apps for financial transactions.  From top banks to emerging finance startups, everyone has entered the fintech space. So, investing in a fintech will be a good bet. 

One crucial area where your fintech app can stand out is the design – A simple and effective design can attract more users and drive revenue. 

Want to learn more about how to design your fintech app for a stellar user experience? 

We got you covered. We created this step-by-step fintech app design guide after taking cues from our expert UX designers who have built 100+ products. 

Importance of UI/UX design in fintech apps

Your fintech app should offer a seamless experience to your users falling under different age categories. You can’t use a design that only suits the 18 – 30 age group when you have older users. 

Most banking apps focus on the transaction but not on the user experience. A better UI/UX design will make the user journey in the app more smooth and increase customer retention rates. On the other hand,  a complex UI/UX can even ruffle your customer’s feathers. 

To make the app more user-centric, you need to focus on UI/ UX design right from day one of development. 

Focus on UX design

When you’re designing a fintech app, it should be based on the following factors

• Functionality of the app
• Better navigation for users
• The color scheme of the app
• Content included in the app [text, graphics, video] 
• Devices and web browsers adaptation

A better UI/UX design will help you increase the user retention rate by focusing on the customer from onboarding to signing out.

Steps for fintech app designing

You must consider many vital factors, from technology to your customers, before designing your app. Even though every team has its own set of ways to design, we have found some basic steps which will give an overview and act as a roadmap for fintech app designing. 

Research

The first and foremost step will be the research. When designing an app, you must understand the audience and the app market to get more insightful information. 

You have to study your target audience and also your competitors to get answers to the following questions. 

1. Who are your customers, and what will they expect from your app?
2. What are the places your competitors lag in design?
3. What are the regulatory preference and compliance?
4. What are the potential risk factors and hindrances while designing?

Better research will provide the essential answers guiding you through the entire design process. 

Read more about market research and how to do it. 

Functionality identification

You have to identify the core functionality of your app and sort out the features of the app. Sort out the features into two important categories – Want and Need. The features in the need section will be included in the initial stage, and others in the want section will be included in future updates. 

While designing, you need to consider both features to make the design flexible for changes in the future. 

During this step, the designers will have a basic idea of the important features and their functionalities. 

Sketch your design

Before going into actual designing, you have to sketch what you have in mind and find the feedback from the development team and stakeholders. 

You can use a pen and paper or digital tools to create the sketch. Create the illustration for every page and feature of the app. 

Sketching out your design using the information already collected and getting feedback will reduce errors in future development and save a reasonable amount of time. It also gives you a lot of freedom to add some uniqueness and eros since it requires less time to create and alter through feedback. 

Create wireframes

With the help of the rough sketch, you can create a digital wireframe showing how all components come together. These wireframes will show how users will navigate the app’s features and give an initial idea of what the final product will look like. 

With this digital blueprint, we can move to design the app.

Finalize the tech stack to develop the app

Prior to designing, the tech team has to determine the tech stacks they are using to develop and deploy. Most apps are built on a cross-platform for more flexibility and lesser effort. 

Whatever the platform is, the designers must be aware of the basics of the tech team to go through the elements in the design that will go apt with the development stack. 

Maybe some design elements will have a higher impact on the app’s loading speed. To make things clear, you need better communication between the tech and design teams. 

Build prototype

Build a working prototype, showing how your apps feel and start designing using the prototype. With the help of prototypes, you can gather feedback at an early stage and make the required changes. 

UI of the app has to focus on simplicity and avoiding hassles in the user journey.

UX of the app has to focus more on interaction with your users and better clarity with proper guidance. 

Tools to build a prototype

• Figma
• InVision Studio
• Adobe XD
• Just in mind
• Sketch

Content design

As the fintech apps carry much more sensitive and more secure information. All the content has to be simple and clear to the users. 

You need to write all information more precisely so the users don’t get confused in between. 

Every action, description, or feature name has to be more straightforward and can be written in their native language for better understanding. 

Avoid complex words and sentences; they may confuse the users. 

Test your app

You must test your fully completed prototype to find the issues and collect feedback. If you discover any flaws or need changes, you can make them at this stage, as it gets more complicated to change after you develop the product.  

You have to conduct more than one type of testing to ensure more quality and user experience. 

You can use your early target audience to test the prototype and collect feedback. Test again every time you make improvements to ensure everything is in place. 

Important principles to consider for fintech app designing

To make the designing process a smooth journey and to avoid commonly occurring mistakes, we have listed the essential principles to consider before planning your fintech app design process.

Focus on customer journey

App development should prioritize the customer journey over adding fancy features at the beginning stage.

As stated by B.J. Fogg’s behavioral model, you need to motivate your users to use your product. So how can you motivate? The answer will be “Simple user journey”. 

User flow is the number of steps to complete a task in your app. Make the steps as minimum as possible. If an action can be done in three steps, make it three, not even four. 

However, when it comes to things like payment transfers, adding a security step makes sense, and customers are also ready for it. But it has its limits, making things simple even for security. 

Make every action simple, safer, and shorter!

Information overload

As fintech comprises many actions, a load of information will be on the app. Don’t overload the app with data. 

Rather than adding more information on a single page, you can create separate pages for the different types of actions and provide the information.

Guide user

There are many possibilities your user can stuck in between any steps. Guide them through the process with blogs or videos on YouTube. 

Make forms easy

Fintech app demands some form filling now and then; you have to make this process as simple as possible. You can use features like clear form and clear that specific section for a smoother user experience. 

Security enhancements

Security is the top priority of fintech apps. Multiple authentication steps can make your payment or other transaction processes safer. 

When you ask for sensitive information, users will be hesitant to share it with you. To make things more transparent, you have to use data and relevant information to make your audience understand the importance of sharing the information. 

Also, by providing accurate information, you can convey that you are a safe place to share valuable information.

Biometric authentication is highly used by very fintech apps, paving the best way to secure transactions. 

Masking

Displaying credit cards in the digital space will lead to many unexpected threats. To make this issue more secure, you can use masking technology where the user can opt to show the full credentials in the credit cards. 

Masking card number is unavoidable and need to be included in the fintech app design.

Design elements

Design elements that you have to take into consideration before starting the app design.

Fonts

Choose a font that is easy to read and requires less space for lengthy information. Try to follow the same fonts all over the app.

Background color

Match the app’s background color along with the logo design and branding style. Having an option for dark mode is also essential. 

Color gradient

You can’t use the same color throughout the app. Try to finalize the color gradient beforehand to follow a similar pattern all over the app. 

Animations

You can use animations like small gestures on completing a transaction or completing a task to make the look more appealing and entertaining to your users.

Latest trends in Fintech app design

• Focus on GenZ and millennials – They are becoming the most active users, and you can find their preference in digital space as they were the active members in the digital area. 
• Personalization – Make the app more personalized for every user by adding their names in appropriate places and giving preferences like dark or light modes.
• Gamification – Add gamification at places where the users get bored.
• Data visualization – Users love seeing tables, graphs, or pie charts rather than just providing the numbers. 
• Voice assistant – Integrate voice assistant and make many simple processes simpler. 
• AI as a personal finance assistant – You can use AI as a personal finance assistant to help your user with primary financial education and also provide some finance tips. 
• Social banking – Strict banking days are gone, and social banking is the new norm. 

How can NeoITO help you build an excellent fintech app?

Building a fintech app is somewhat tricky and demands better expertise in both tech and design. 

As a software product development company for 8 years, we have served clients with unique, quality, and faster products with the help of emerging technology. We have been working with upcoming technologies like node.js, AI, and ML to develop products with high quality. 

If you are looking for an experienced team to design and develop your product, we are here to help you. We are just a click away.