Mobile Banking Redefined: Banking Apps Product Design Thinking
In this new age of strict public health standards, traditional banking practices are facing a disruption like never before. As businesses around the world are adopting to the new normal, banks need to bridge the literal physical gap through digital transformation that would provide a seamless mobile banking experience.
Conservative measures to ensure banking charter within the same course it has for the last 30 years will significantly push banks towards obsolescence. Movement towards shifting from a product centric way of thinking to a more user centric has been mostly aggravated by bureaucratic tendency within these ageing institution. But change, or at the very least adaptability, towards local and global development should be an imperative movement on building digital ecosystem to potential customers.
Indonesia is no stranger to digital transformation, businesses from end-to-end have adopted a digital stance towards reshaping their operations. Southeast Asians now ranks number 1 in terms of most engaged mobile internet users in the world, with Indonesia’s internet economy having an average growth rate of 49% a year since 2015 (reaching value estimated at $40 billion in 2019). With a strong progression in tech savviness, smartphone availability and purchasing power within its young, middle-class demographics, Southeast Asia has come a long way and with expected massive growth in online transactions through platforms such as e-commerce and the likes, banks should capitalise on this abrupt transition to retain established relationships and to expand further to the non-banked.
In the age of digital era, the rise and dependence of mobile banking app has been much more prevalent in the passing decade. The ease of use, the high versatility, and convenience of doing financial chores within a tap of one’s mobile device is an ever appealing enticement for many users to switch from the stand-in teller service to a more flexible and personalised mobile banking app.
More and more banks are now investing in creating this ecosystem as a means to better understand their customers behaviour through building a database based on their customer’s digital footprint and to gain a broader appeal to the non-banked. With the development in the digital industry, a new player within the financial game has appeared and offers an even more aggressive stance towards building its user base. Financial technology, or more commonly known as Fin-Tech, have adapted on this footing to a more ambitious manner, with no social boundaries and no known limit to their payment capabilities, Fin-Tech has grown to be the most favourable type of digital transaction within the Indonesian market with an estimated transaction value of USD 32 million and around 147 million user base at the end 2019.
“Redesigning for the sake of redesigning”
Banks are now not only focusing on gaining customers through financial program offering, but the appeal of a digital product such as a mobile banking app offers the functional aspect of an ATM, all in the convenience of their device. The role within the banking industry has now shifted to a more digitally conscious management, where designing a digital platform has become a major turning point within these “rigid” industry. Now, banks care as much about simplistic and intuitive design within their mobile platform as much as they care about promoting their services.
The problem with most mobile banking apps are that they managed to iterate a mobile experience that, though for functional purposes works at its bare minimum, can sometimes be confusing, with frictions between workflow in its interface and design visuals at the end of the priority list. At the end of the day, a product that is shipped with confidence but poorly executed will leave users frustrated, not only to the overall impractical functionality but users have to face the facts it is the only app available for their particular bank of choice.
Design encompasses a wholesome approach that doesn’t just emphasise on one key aspect, such as superficial stunning visuals, that’s why the role of design goes hand in hand with ensuring fluidity within its functionalities to better serve the users need. We find many apps that are beautifully crafted, with very enticing visuals elements, but ends up being discarded (one time usage trap) due to its unnecessarily complicated workflow where it stretches the user’s cognitive workload. The general buzzword to indicate a quick app adaption and ease of use for the general population is intuitive design. Essentially an intuitive design is to limit the amount of cognitive effort users exert to adapt to its platform, one such way to procure design in an intuitive manner is utilising familiar elements found in pre-existing apps.
Familiarity within app marketplace may not necessarily be a bad thing; Fin-tech are almost pretty homogenous when it comes to their app design and how users interact with their app. An already working template within a well-known app will bring a feeling of comfort and familiarity, users won’t experience the hassle of re-learning or hit another learning curve when it comes to using an app of the same nature. Avoiding a frustrated user is key to gaining long term retention and active engagement. That’s not to say that creativity shouldn’t be accounted for when it comes to modifying the app to better reflect the brand, when resources can be allocated to ensure design originality, then design overhaul can be prioritised.
Design should emphasise on efficiency and learnability. Users engage with their mobile devices at crucial moments and for the shortest amount of time possible, this can’t be more true for banking needs. Customers are essentially going in-and-out of the app just for the sake of getting their banking needs done. In order to achieve this, usability testing to selected individuals can establish valuable insight to how customers would interact and experience the product before launch, and if need be, further iterating it, fixing patches based on these in depth usability testing.
Major design changes, be it minor aesthetic tweaks or major additions of features, should be backed by data to prove these changes are necessary and not just for the sake of a facelift. Changes are there in order to fill in a gap within the already established experience, and ultimately to serve the users better. Customer survey, in-depth interviews and buzz generated within social media are one of many ways banks can trace signals to indicate necessary change, and is imperative towards building better customer experience. Stacking the already confined space of mobile screen real estate with too many bells and whistles may come across distracting, leaving users scratching their heads to get their job done.
Personalisation is key
Customisation has become a major staple in many service based apps, with the flexibility of personalizing the landing page to accommodate the features users find of the utmost importance or features users engage in the most. This ability for users to personally choose what they see and click on the main menu page would in the long run benefit the user as it assists them to complete the job to be done faster. Though less click isn’t the silver bullet to leveraging the overall customer experience, but it does provide more convenience and less landing page to be concerned about.
Banks are known to have a very close relationship with its customers, and going mobile shouldn’t mean losing that vital essence. Open channel communication between banks and their valued customer means maintaining speed in communicating within their digital presence and a seamless feedback mechanism to ensure customer voice is heard and valued upon. Additional feature such as a chatbot could be beneficial for generic questions customers may need answers for but in order to truly maximise the customer experience then customer service in the form of a readily available 24-hour chatroom would ensure real-time customer assistance. Optimising the limited communication capability of mobile banking app can be hugely advantageous to bridge the physical gap and can therefore drive engagement.
Personalisation within mobile banking apps means catering to the specificities of each individual customer. That doesn’t necessarily mean crafting a totally one of kind app for each individuals, it just means the app is designed to better suit the customers’ needs. Monthly transactions could be converted to better serve customer experience by assisting them in better managing their finances. Through analytics provided from their financial data, banks can essentially help them in making more sound financial decisions. Instead of providing transaction statements in the form of a pie chart, which isn’t hugely informative, a more user centric way of approaching would be showcasing a budgeting plan on how much you can safely spend based on your current budget; real time budgeting projection. This could be further implemented through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics to provide better services that would specifically cater towards each individual customer.
In giving accountability towards one’s own financial spending, customers have a great insight towards their purchasing habits and the bank can therefore assist in monitoring their expenses. Being actively engaged with their own finances will in turn increase customer engagement with the banking app. Financial advisor scheme has gain traction within the app marketplace, and banks can capitalise on it by providing similar experience to adequately guide their customer towards a more inclusive financial service. Robo-Advisor is one example in which banks can capitalise on the use of algorithm-based data analytics to ultimately serve their customers as their financial consultant.
Transactional history has been a major downfall for many mobile banking apps, curating a list of past transactions that leaves users scratching their heads. A clear and concise transactional statement with the ability to filter and sort based on categories such as date, total spending, and an easily recognisable merchant data can offer a more user friendly way to accomplish the task. Many Fin-tech have successfully showcase a simple and comprehensible list of transactional history that details specificities of the merchant, total spending and date that users can easily digest.
Exploiting the technological capability of mobile devices would further maximise the potential of online activities. From strengthening safety measures to turning mobile devices to a digital wallet, the possibilities for banks to utilize mobile devices are vast. When it comes to banks or any financial activities, safety seems to be a priority for many users. The use of biometrics for log-ins and as additional safety measures to finish off transactions, would further augment the customer experience. Contactless payment has been the new norm in the digital age, being the preferred payment method for both customer and businesses alike. QR codes, NFC and mobile payment system through a built payment account associated with the customers mobile number are one of many ways mobile banking apps can supplement the customer journey for their payment needs.
Conclusion
Mobile devices has shifted the way human behave and interact, and it will progressively continue to dictate our lives. Banks are an integral part of society and by expanding their reach through technology offered by mobile devices, banks will continue to facilitate how we finance our lives. However, it is simply not enough for banks to just be present through a mobile banking app, banks need to focus on designing a product that offers features to elevate the customer experience as well as providing an aesthetically pleasing and intuitive design to appeal to their customer’s visual receptor better. All in all, banks need to move forward and to be more customer centric to better capitalise on the momentum of its digital transformation.