Designing in the Financial Space| Things to Know
As soon as I mention financial space, we start imagining random complicated numbers, people sitting in front of their multiple screens working on complex software or traders on their desks shouting on top of their voices ( a ‘desk’ is nothing but a group of people generally comprised of experts and finance professionals).
The finance sector is a highly regulated industry. It deals with a lot of data, hence maintaining compliance is of utmost importance. It is also essential to keep the data secure as it includes information about money, customer details etc.
There are mainly two kinds of banks, i.e.
Commercial/Retail Banks:
Commercial banks focus on business customers where it helps them to maintain their accounts but they also need more complex services. They might need to accept payments from customers, rely heavily on credit lines to manage cash flow, and do business overseas.
Whereas retail banks deal with the general public/customers. They provide you loans, credit cards and you could easily find their branches in populated areas.
Investment Banks:
These banks help businesses work in financial markets. If a business wants to go public or sell debt to investors, they’ll often use an investment bank.
Why Design?
Finance had never been seen as a design focused until recently. Until recently, customers directly visited banks for finances, budgeting or finance services. Lately, all retail banks have their own digital apps and online service portals which gives a faster & efficient way to access your finances.
There are different kinds of tools and software used based on the type of bank and users. For e.g.
A retail bank would use retail applications which would include customer details and the general public (like all of us) could interact with it and make all finance related decisions on it.
Whereas an investment bank would be using a trading application which would serve a completely different purpose. It would be used for all trading activities for businesses to work in financial markets.
Although both the applications are fin-tech products, their consumers might be different and the way they interact with the product will also differ.
This is where design plays an important role!
A trading application would be far more complex than a retail application but each of these products needs to be designed in a way that the consumer is able to understand and interact with it. Time is precious and the traders cannot be busy with the IT professionals for technical glitches or bad product design.
Since a product in the financial sector is data-driven, it could be highly complex to understand sometimes and as the features and services are evolving with time, it is very important for the designers to understand the basics behind each of these features involved.
Best practices to follow in designing a financial product
There are various things that need to be kept in mind before designing a finance product but do not get overwhelmed because of this as it could be very exciting and you get to learn a lot more than a basic design project.
- Visual hierarchy needs to be followed so that the focus remains on the more important topics.
- Simple visuals can be used in order to communicate complex concepts.
- Grids should be used to create the layouts and colours used should resonate the brand.
- NOTE: A very useful application used by designers these days is Sketch. It focuses on user-interface design. Easy to pick up and one of the best tool for prototyping. It is a paid application but costs only a fraction of Photoshop.
How does Design Impact?
1. Context is Key
As mentioned earlier, depending on the kind of bank and the tools respective branch in finance use, the products need to be designed. Hence the context in which the traders are using software is very different from a consumer application. Traders have multiple screens at any given time having multiple conversations. Therefore, a successful design means understanding the user’s context and delivering the solution based on the needs. The design should fulfil the functionality required by its consumer.
2. Products are generally data-heavy
Since the finance products deal with a lot of data, a major challenge is to keep the data secure while doing the research before designing. Since the products are also being used by the public, who else could be a better judge?
Multiple A/B testings are done by taking customer feedbacks in order to improve the features based on the needs of the customer so that it provides a better experience. The information these products consists of is very sensitive and hence need to be dealt with care. Before confirming the design, a panel of financial experts sits together to approve the designs of each feature so that there is no stone unturned.
3. Accuracy and Interaction
It is very important to ensure accuracy in the financial products since it deals with income statements, balance sheets, cash flow, trading etc. This is revenue, expense or profits of a company or an individual. If accuracy is faltered, it could affect the overall economy as the management, the creditors, the auditors rely on this information to assess the performance.
While designing a product, it is very important to strike a balance between having a good customer experience and making sure the software used is compliant to all the regulations.
The user -interface of the product should be easy to understand and should allow the customer to perform every task without any hassle.
Nowadays, almost every sector, i.e. healthcare, food & beverages, transport rely on good design for their mobile applications or a website.
This has helped them to interact with their user base and gain more revenue. Similarly, it was time for the financial world to build systems that could help their customers to interact and make their own financial decisions.
A good design can make all the difference and allow the user to be more tech-friendly.. :)
