Banking Application
Developing a secure and user-friendly banking application to streamline financial transactions and enhance customer experience.
Problem
The current application suffers from cluttered design, featuring numerous unnecessary icons scattered across the home screen. This clutter is causing confusion among users, hampering their ability to perform tasks efficiently and leading to a decline in user numbers. The project aims to enhance the UI/UX by streamlining the interface, removing unnecessary elements, and improving overall user experience to reverse the trend of decreasing user engagement.
Research Goal
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Understand the current market trends of banking applications.
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Identify the users and market.
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Identify competitors in the banking application space and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.
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Understand the user flow to efficiently complete tasks.
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Explore the experiences of users and identify pain points.
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Discover the goals, needs, motivations, and frustrations of users of banking applications.
Market Research
To gain more insights into a current banking application, I decided to start with market research. Through this research, I was able to develop a deeper understanding of the current trends in payment modes based on the data gathered.
Banking Application
Pros:
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Direct access to bank customer support for immediate confirmation in case of payment failure.
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Swift resolution of unsuccessful transactions with payment received on the same night.
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Cons:
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Cluttered information may cause confusion and result in a higher number of touches to complete tasks.
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Difficulty in accessing information, leading to increased time spent on figuring out tasks and potential reliance on secondary applications.
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Challenges in locating offers and promotions within the application.
Third Party Payment Apps
Pros:
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Convenience and time-saving for daily transactions.
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User-friendly interfaces make these third-party payment applications easy to use.
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Cons:
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Lack of interest on wallet deposits, providing no financial incentive for users.
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Delayed credit processing, especially when paying a merchant, leading to potential emotional distress and a 24-hour waiting period for issue resolution.
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Prolonged processing times (up to 3 days) due to technical problems, impacting user experience.
Balancing Functionality & Business Goals in Banking App Design
The banking app cannot be minimalistic due to various factors, and we cannot remove the some of the features from the home screen, considering the business goals of a bank.
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Banks prefer customer investment and purchases through their banking services to generate revenue and increase user growth.
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The bank aims for the user to be aware of the offers and facilities as much as possible to provide a better experience to their customers.
Persona
After the market research, I have started a case study by developing the user persona to understand the needs and pain points of the users. Total of 6 personas has been taken for the study to get a more clarity and two of them are highlighted.
Age: 33
Ravikumar, a businessman in detergent production, prefers using UPI for day-to-day transactions. He checks balances and makes payments through a banking app, especially for transactions restricted on other modes.
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Pain Points:
Inconvenience in switching between applications for different tasks.
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Difficulty in making UPI payments compared to other banking apps.
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Challenges in verifying recent day-to-day transactions.
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Feelings of insecurity regarding security and customer support when using secondary apps.
Age: 28
Manohar, a graphic designer, invests in gold and fixed deposits. He relies on third-party apps for various payments and pays the monthly EMI for his new car. Regularly checking his account statement, Manohar seeks clarity on his financial status.
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Pain Points:
Difficulty finding specific types of investments.
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Challenges in discovering offers for product purchases.
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Complexities in understanding the account overview, especially for monitoring payments through different apps.
Age: 59
Govindarajan runs a business importing and buying materials for clothing production. He prefers using a third-party app for minimal transactions, mainly mobile recharge, with occasional help from his daughter. Banking applications are his go-to for downloading statements, although he doesn't check them frequently.
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Pain Points:
Identifying tasks is challenging.
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Finding statements for tax filing and choosing document formats is difficult.
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Difficulty understanding banking apps due to excessive and unwanted information. He worries about making mistakes that could lead to financial loss in the digital world.
User Research and Analysis
Existing applications and active users of the primary banking app are analyzed to identify user problems.
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Research data reveals a preference for the secondary banking app for daily use, making tasks easier.
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The number of active users are decreasing.
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Users currently encounter challenges switching between apps, leading to confusion in finding tasks.
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Difficulty in finding offers and promotions persists.
Key Insights
The cognitive load for users is high, resulting in delayed decision-making and confusion.
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Tracking financial status becomes challenging when using a separate payment application.
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The application retains unnecessary information, creating difficulties for various user types.
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The information hierarchy is confusing, hindering task completion.
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The application's user flow lacks clarity, making task completion challenging.
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Discovering and utilizing offers for purchases and payments is not user-friendly.
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Performing UPI payments proves to be difficult and time-consuming for users.
Objective
To create a clean and clutter-free user interface that includes all the essential information for the banking process, allowing users to efficiently manage their investments, conduct seamless transactions, and monitor their banking activities without confusion, ensuring a swift and user-friendly experience.
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Additionally, customization options will be provided to enhance the overall user experience.
Card Sorting
User Flow
Faster UPI Payment
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If a user needs to make a payment immediately after a purchase, they can do so without any cognitive load.
UPI Payment
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If the user's need is to enter the preferred UPI ID, they can use the transfer icon on the home screen.
Wireframe
Typography
The rounded letters of Poppins create an extremely versatile effect for the text, making it easily and pleasantly readable.
Colors
Colors are picked as per guidelines from adobe color "accessibility tools" to provide high legibility with enough contrast.
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Contrast ratio 11.59:1
High Fidelity
Log In
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Users can log in either using Face ID or M-PIN.
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If a user decides to make a payment by scanning a QR code, they can tap on "Scan QR Code" to expedite the payment process.
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Similarly, to receive payment by displaying the QR Code or sharing the account details, users can tap on "Receive Payment" to access it without entering a password.
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These options enable users to perform quick actions.
Home
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Users can tap on "Current Balance" container to check their hidden balance.
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If a user wants to add money to their account from a different bank account, they can use the "Add money" button.
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By swiping the card, they can view credit card details if the user has one.
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Quick Banking provides the facility to complete all tasks without any confusion, according to user preference and needs.
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Users can access four additional secondary hidden icons at the bottom of Quick Banking to complete tasks quickly with a tap.
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Users can quickly scan and pay or select an image from the gallery for a swift transaction at any time.
Services are easily accessible whenever needed, and users can track them by tapping on a pending request.
Tapping on "Recent Transactions" helps users review their day-to-day transactions.
Offers
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Banks can enhance the promotion of their products by utilizing a carousel banner. Additionally, they can incorporate advertisements from third parties if necessary.
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Users can discover coupon codes and enticing offers through the platform.
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To facilitate efficient access, offers and facilities are categorized.
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The search icon aids in quickly identifying specific offers.
Financial Analysis
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Users can track their financial status.
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Financial analytics present total credit and debit amounts based on user-defined filters.
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The feature includes the remaining balance after expenditures on various items.
Transfer
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User can choose a mode of payment as per their needs without any confusion.
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If a user decides to make a transaction to the person from recent transactions, tapping on their name takes them to enter the amount, making the process easier.
Color Blind
Color blindness is the common term for a condition in which individuals often mistake shades or lose their ability to distinguish colors.
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All the colors are assigned with consideration for color-blind users, enabling them to differentiate colors easily.
Initial Iterations
Learning
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Initially, I aimed for minimal icons, but through a usability test, I realized it required more information.
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Banking applications cannot be minimalistic due to various factors.
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Taking a short break can sometimes lead to a change in design.
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User experience varies from person to person, depending on their tasks. Adding a few customizable options provides easy access for most users.
