1. The design must be unique and creative

UX (User Experience) design should always be innovative and creative to meet the increasingly diverse and changing needs of users. They want a better, easier, and more convenient product experience. Therefore, UX design must focus on the user and provide them with a great and distinct experience compared to competing products.

We can see banks and Fintech startups pursuing innovation, competing with each other over the latest design and technology solutions. We are amazed at the incredible capabilities of new technologies, but this does not mean that applying them to a product will ensure a flawless user experience.

Most average users do not have the time or desire to learn about new technologies; many may feel frustrated because everyday functions become unusual and not as expected. New technologies should be applied appropriately and provide benefits to users, helping them easily use them to solve their problems.

Thus, the deployment of new designs or technologies should gradually occur and be strategic, without threatening core features. Usually, you do not need to reinvent the wheel but should optimize solutions that have been proven and are familiar to users. In this case, you can rest assured that there will be no need to guide users about your service.

2. Just provide the right design for what is requested

To achieve successful UX design, it is not only about designing as requested but also considering many other important factors that must be met by users and businesses.

In fact, a good product not only meets the needs and expectations of users but also ensures that it meets the business goals of the company. UX Designers need to understand the business model of the product, marketing strategy, usage context - who the users are? What are their issues and needs? This information will help UX Designers better understand the goals and needs of customers, optimizing the user experience and meeting the business objectives of the company.

The UX design process always runs from top to bottom; understanding the product's business model also helps UX designers make reasonable design decisions that align with the company's business strategy. If the product requires the use of premium features and needs to charge fees to ensure the company's finances, the UX designer must ensure that this feature is designed so that users can understand and are ready to pay.

3. The more features, the more satisfied the users

One of the most enlightening experiences of my life in the early days of my career was participating in a company undergoing a digital transformation, my task was to design a job search application but integrated with many interesting features that were completely unrelated. No need to say, this project failed, the investors did not have enough finances, the development team lacked resources and capabilities, and users were disappointed because it was not engaging enough to meet their needs.

More features do not mean that users will be more satisfied because this can cause various issues. You should learn more about the concept of Minimal Viable Product. Before starting a project, it is important to understand which key functions are requested most by customers.

First, when there are too many features, users may feel confused and find it difficult to use your product. This can lead to dissatisfaction and loss of their trust in your product.

Secondly, too many features can also make your product slower and harder to use. If your product requires too many steps to achieve a specific goal, users may feel it's time-consuming and be dissatisfied.

Finally, adding too many features can make your product messy and harder to understand. If your product is not simple and easy to use, users may not want to use it and switch to other products.

Therefore, instead of focusing on adding as many features as possible, focus on ensuring that features are meaningful and useful to users. Pay attention to how users interact with your product and design your product to best meet their basic needs.

4. UX design should only be based on quantitative data

It is indisputable that design based on quantitative data is an extremely promising approach in the product industry, especially in the financial field. The advantages of this method are clear: designing solutions supported by statistics, measurable outcomes of design decisions and tests, as well as selecting the best solutions.

Essentially, this is a scientific system based on numbers aimed at achieving the maximum measurable effectiveness. The main motto of this method: no random actions, no emotional solutions, only design backed by numbers. For any manager in a financial organization, relying on data to have a basis for implementing design solutions is a reasonable approach.

Quantitative data can provide insights into usage levels, user behavior on the product, helping to make reasonable design decisions and evaluate the product's effectiveness. However, it does not provide a complete picture of users' thoughts and feelings when using the product. Creating a good user experience requires a combination of both quantitative and qualitative data, along with an understanding of users and the designer's experience.

Therefore, it is necessary to integrate both quantitative and qualitative data to better understand users' needs and expectations. This can be achieved through methods such as interviews, surveys, polls, and direct observations of users using the product.

Using both quantitative and qualitative data will help create a good user experience, meet user needs, and provide value to the business.

5. Financial experts know exactly what their users want

In reality, your users are often very different from what you think. Financial experts do not guarantee that they know exactly what their users want. Although financial experts may have information about market trends and customer data, they cannot represent all users and their preferences.

Financial experts are rational people always seeking the best solutions. And they expect that most users will utilize financial services in the same way. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Most people are quite irrational; they make decisions and draw conclusions based on emotions and instincts, often unconsciously. Their behavior patterns often do not follow logic, and they act out of habit. This explains why many people do not use the product in the way that developers have envisioned.

To create a product with a good experience, a combination of many fields is needed, including design, market research, product development, and finance. However, to understand users' needs better, direct contact with users and market research are crucial. Financial experts can collaborate with product development teams to analyze customer and market data, but they cannot represent users or know exactly what users want.

Therefore, to create a product with a good experience, it is essential to bring users to the center of the design process and provide solutions that meet users' needs and requirements through research and testing methods.

6. The easiest way to succeed — Copy the design of popular products

A common misconception is that you can look at a successful service, copy it, and immediately achieve a similar level of success. Blindly copying financial interfaces from a popular service will clearly not be effective.

Each product has its own requirements and characteristics, and copying the design of another product does not guarantee that your product will meet those requirements. The uniqueness and success of a product are determined by several factors not just related to interface design. It is essential to understand exactly what lies behind this success. Some copycat efforts have indeed succeeded. However, upon closer examination, the founders of that product discovered a niche market, created their own business model, and invested considerable effort into product development by shifting from copying to creating.

The design of a digital product is not just dependent on interface design but also involves other factors such as how content is organized, page load speed, features, customer support, etc. You need to analyze and consider everything that helps your business and product become unique and ultimately capture long-term competitive advantage. Additionally, a product has a good UX experience.

Of course, the interfaces of popular applications can serve as inspiration and a good starting point. This can save time when starting a design, but interface design is just one part of user experience design. It is crucial to understand the ideas behind the designs you are referencing and how they benefit users and solve real business problems. In this way, your service can become a new standard and help improve the daily lives of millions of people.

7. User experience design only requires a large investment for large-scale companies?

Essentially, user experience design revolves around enhancing satisfaction and gaining user loyalty by improving usability, useful functionality, and enjoyment through the interaction between the customer and the product. User experience design can be applied in projects of all sizes, for both large and small companies. In fact, investing in UX can help save costs, increase competitiveness, and improve the user experience of your product.

Therefore, when it comes to building digital financial services, combining UX design technology with Design Thinking will be particularly effective. Optimizing the lean UX design process to achieve good results within limited budgets and timeframes is a suitable solution for small companies with limited resources and costs. UX design steps, such as creating Personas, User Journey Maps, User Testing, etc., can all be conducted by small teams or startups. In the long run, UX design yields significant returns on investment and enhances the core capabilities of the development team.

However, for large companies, investing in UX can open up more opportunities to improve their products, including more detailed research on users, collecting more data, and having more grounds to improve product quality. It is essential to recognize that investing in user experience is not an expense but an investment in the future of the product.

8. User experience only relates to product interface

Many people think that a product with a good experience only relates to a visually appealing application interface. However, user experience also relates to many other factors, including content, customer service, page load speed, product responsiveness, customer interaction, product features, product usability, reliability and safety of the product, and many other factors.

The content of the product is an indispensable element in user experience. The content must be optimized to fit the purpose of use and quickly and easily provide users with the necessary information.

Customer service is also an important factor in user experience. This is especially true in the financial industry, where customer service is an integral part, such as banking or insurance. The customer support team should be trained to quickly and effectively resolve customers' issues.

The information loading speed and product responsiveness also affect user experience. When a product loads slowly, users may not be patient enough to wait and switch to competitors' products. The product's responsiveness also needs to be improved to meet users' requirements.

Therefore, user experience does not only relate to product interfaces but also many other important factors that create a comprehensive and optimal user experience to help enhance user satisfaction and loyalty with the product or service.

9. Just designing a good user experience ensures the product will succeed

User experience is one of the crucial factors that make a product successful, but it is not the only one. The fact is that digital products often grow quickly, but they still must adhere to market rules. This means that success depends not only on product quality but also on how and when the product is introduced to the market, what services are offered to users, competition in the same field, legal terms for services to operate, and many other business factors.

Moreover, UX design is an iterative process, and it does not end when the product is launched. In the future, the product needs to be optimized and improved based on data collected and feedback from customers.

A product also needs to meet other factors such as reasonable pricing, product quality, market accessibility, effective marketing strategies, and many other factors. If a product has a good user experience but is overpriced or hard to reach the market, it will not succeed. Therefore, to ensure a product's success, it needs to meet all business factors and not just be about user experience.