In the world of financial technology, software is essential. As an increasing number of organizations develop high-tech solutions that aim to enhance and automate banking and financial services, fintech is helping companies, business owners and consumers better manage their financial lives.
Leveraging specialized software and algorithms used on computers and, increasingly, smartphones, fintechs innovate how business is transacted. Whether users are transferring money, depositing a check, applying for credit, raising money for a startup venture or managing their investments, it is essential that the fintech software solution both satisfies consumer demands and delivers on the fintech’s core value proposition.
This article will delve into a few crucial aspects of software development fintech companies must consider, highlighting the WinWinX platform as an example. Implementing these considerations during the software design and development process can help fintechs build user-friendly, easy-to-use apps that comply with industry rules and regulations while delivering revolutionary new functionalities and user experiences.
The Core Value Proposition of Specific Products or Services
WinWinX is a buy-now-pay-later platform that enables people to buy and sell goods or services using a convenient peer-to-peer payment plan. A key component of the unique platform is the ability for buyers to pay sellers directly using payment installments. WinWin X provides this innovative service by assigning buyers and sellers unique and dynamic “Online TrustScores.” With the WinWinX Online TrustScore, users can easily evaluate other profiles and confidently make financial decisions.
That said, personalization is premium. However the UX/UI designer works, their main goal is to make the software’s design represent the company’s distinct core values and services, reflecting that sentiment all over the website and web application.
Discuss with your leadership team what your expectations and main goals are for the solution. In the case of WinWinX, the company prioritized users’ ease of mind while buying or selling new and used items or professional services. Everything has to be transparent and trustworthy so people can freely make contracts with one another without the fear of being scammed.
Keeping this in mind, it is important to ensure that all the design elements and the copy are intuitive, in sync and easily accessible; there are no hidden or hard-to-find commands; and sysadmins can easily block or rate users or delete their account if needed.
Being authentic
Consider authentic imagery that elicits the feeling of glancing into someone else’s daily life moments. In the case of some companies people should not be posing but actually experiencing the moment with real emotions. Users can more easily connect with the imagery and see themselves in the picture because it looks and feels natural.
Color is crucial too. Different colors have different meanings and can establish a brand or product’s mood, tone, concept or connotation. The green on WinWinX’s website, for example, evokes a sense of growth, prosperity, safety and harmony. Green has many of the same calming attributes that people associate with the color blue, but it also incorporates some of the energy of yellow. In design, green can have a balancing and harmonizing effect and is very stable. Remember to use the color wheel to carefully select the colors that create harmony with your brand.
Know Your User
Everyone is already talking a lot about the user experience, but the UX cannot be stressed enough. Think of the beautiful designs you’ve seen that are mostly about the trends or the designer’s or client’s preferred aesthetics. But success as a fintech company depends on looking at the software through the eyes of the end user.
To build a solution that is as personalized as possible to the main users, think about creating several different personas.
Persona Examples
Linda is 34 years old. She is a single mother of a 10-year-old boy. Linda works hard as a waitress in a fancy restaurant downtown. She likes her work but wishes for a more flexible schedule. She also has two dogs she loves to take walks with after work. During her free time, Linda tries to be active and goes out with her son to hike, bike and paddleboard in the lake. She also loves taking pictures of nature. She wishes she had more money to buy the necessary equipment for her photography hobby and to upgrade her son’s bike.
David is a 45-year-old husband and dad of two daughters, ages 16 and 18. He works in the real estate business. He loves talking to people and helping them out, but in his spare time, he enjoys his freedom and loves fishing. His wife decided to start a business selling her cakes. She needs a lot of investment in the cookware, but he wishes he could spend his spare money on the new fishing gear his neighbor has.
Creating personas allows the design and development team to choose the creative assets that best represent families and their hobbies. Again, consider using images that users can relate to and connect with on a personal level. Additionally, this exercise can reveal the need to develop additional functionality. In the case of WinWinX, hobbies were introduced as one of the buying categories. By understanding how one of these personas might utilize the app, builders can organize design elements so that users can immediately identify the solution that meets their needs.
Just the Right Amount of Animations
As financial services organization continue integrating technology into their offerings, it’s important they are developing solutions that feel alive, guide users to the right places, provide relevant information and highlight important aspects. One trendy design element that programmers are increasingly employing is animation.
Animations, however, have gone wild recently. While it’s true that most of the heavily animated designs look very impressive, they’re not necessarily usable. The primary objective of animations should be to make the site more responsive. Balance is vital, so WinWinX sought to identify the critical elements to highlight based on its core values. Since the entire fintech software solution is based on trust, we animated the TrustScore — which is the main measure of how well users can trust other users. The WinWinX platform and website use very settle background animation of moving colors to provide a feeling of lively activity that doesn’t ultimately take a user’s attention away from the solution’s most important important aspects.
Get Feedback Early
Identify a process that works best for you as a fintech company and ask for input early and often. You have a vision, and you’ve done hours of research, testing and designing to put everything together, so guide the process and give feedback early. While digging in and offering your two cents’ worth can be time-consuming, it beats working on the project for weeks just to find out that you didn’t understand the task fully or your idea is not accepted with excitement. When you are fully connected with your team, you can quickly course-correct the project and the whole process will go much smoother.
High-quality software can boost a fintech business’ bottom line. The challenge for fintechs is designing and developing comprehensive software solutions that effectively meet user expectations for convenience and security while communicating the value they bring to the table. By balancing user needs with company values, fintechs can launch solutions that transform how we manage our financial operations, processes and lives.