The FinTech evolution brought us better finance management tools, mobile payments, crowdfunding, fast loans, and peer-to-peer lending. All this was done by brilliant minds that came together, understood the significance of Design Thinking, and created services where banks and financial institutions struggled. Despite that, there are still many financial applications that are out of date.

That’s why we’ve written this article. So you can identify the signs that it’s time for a change and the seven steps to follow to update your Financial UX.

 

Five Signs For Change

  1. Lost sales. Has your sales team come back and said they lost another deal? Are your revenues declining? Are customers turning to competitors whose applications are more seamless and current? This could be due to the fact that you have an outdated and ineffective user experience.
  2. Your current application doesn’t do what it needs to. Do you find that your team is adapting processes to accommodate your current system? Are you relying more on work-arounds and spreadsheets? Or maybe, you can’t support your global organization. If your financial system can’t handle multiple languages, currencies, taxes, and regulations, and it can’t simultaneously handle GAAP and IFRS accounting and reporting needs, it’s time for change.
  3. You need a more effective or consistent mobile experience. Is your mobile solution inconsistent with your main solution? Or is your mobile solution as effective as it could be? If you are experiencing a drop in usage, this could be a sign that your application is not as easy to work with as it could be.
  4. Your application is not responsive. Today, more users access the web with mobile devices than with traditional laptops or desktops, so it has become more imperative to ensure that your application is responsive. Plus, when you ensure that your applications are responsive, you can improve usage and conversion rates, and lower bounce rates. You’ll also find that ultimately you’ll be able to develop and enhance your application faster and with less maintenance.
  5. Your application looks outdated. It used to be that you didn’t need to regularly update financial applications. But with users becoming more sophisticated, you can no longer get away with an older UI. An outdated application could lead customers or prospects to thinking that you’re not at the leading edge, which gives your competitors an edge.

 

Seven Steps To Updating Your Financial Application

So now you know the signs of an outdated Financial application. But what do you do? How do you approach updating an application in the most effective and efficient way. Here are seven steps you can follow. If you need help with these, contact us.

1.  Review Service Capabilities

Review the capabilities of your current solution and what you need to provide. Make sure you identify and understand any gaps you have today.

2.  Conduct a Five-Part Comparative UX Analysis

Instead of a simple competitive analysis, we recommend conducting a Five-part Comparative UX Analysis. With this analysis, we go a level deeper to not only look at top competitors, but also top alternatives, emerging players, best-of-breed and alternative solutions. Learn more here.

3.  Establish a User Advisory Group

A User Advisory Group (UAG) is a team of the client’s subject-matter experts who can provide input and review throughout the process. We recommend a team of six to eight users for each role. You can use the UAG to get feedback on your current solution and uncover where there are gaps and shortcomings. Be sure to meet at least three times: once to collect information; once to share a design concept; and once to review your design concept.

4.  Review Your Current Technology

Look at your current technology. Does it do what you want it do?  Is now the time to upgrade to a newer, more current UI technology — this is particularly true with respect to mobile UI.

5.  Create and Validate Design Concepts

Create multiple design concepts to share with your User Advisory Group. Use the UAG to refine those options into a single design concept for capability, look and feel. Then review the concept with key stakeholders.

6.  Simplify Your Application Flow

If your application needs to be updated, chances are your user flows do as well. Reviewing user flows will force you to focus on the experience and needs of the user not the small design details on the screen. You may identify changes in the user flow that are more effective for your end user. In addition, user flows make it easy to collaborate with the team on design, communicate key changes, and ultimately document how and why certain decisions were made.

7.  Define and Develop a Plan of Action

Working up front to develop a comprehensive plan ensures that the project as a whole moves more seamlessly. In fact, about 30%-50% in risk and 10%-25% percent savings in final project cost can be achieved by spending the time and money to do early and aggressive scoping. When working with your agency on this, be sure to involve key stakeholders and develop a detailed task list. And be ready to iterate on the plan throughout the project.

Let’s Talk

Catalyst has worked with hundreds of companies on just this activity. We can help you get the above activities completed in short order. Let’s talk.