9 common misconceptions about UX in the Fintech environment

1. The design must be unique and creative

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

We can see that banks and Fintech startups are pursuing innovation, competing with each other for the latest design solutions and technologies. We are amazed by the incredible capabilities of new technologies, but this does not mean that if applied to the product, it will guarantee a perfect user experience.

Most ordinary users do not have the time or desire to learn about new technologies; many may feel frustrated because daily functionalities become unusual and not as expected. New technologies should be applied appropriately and bring benefits to users, making it easy for them to solve their issues.

Thus, the implementation of new designs or technologies should occur gradually and strategically, without threatening core features. Generally, you do not need to reinvent the wheel but should optimize proven solutions that are familiar to users. In this case, you can be assured that you will not need to guide users about your service.

2. Just providing the design that meets the requirements is enough

To successfully design UX, it is not just about designing according to the specified requirements, but also considering many other important factors that need to be met by users and businesses.

In reality, a good product not only meets the needs and expectations of users but also must ensure that it meets the business goals of the company. The UX Designer needs to understand the business model of the product, the marketing strategy, the context of use - who the users are? What are their issues and needs? This information will help the UX Designer gain a better understanding of customer goals and needs, helping to design to optimize the user experience and meet the company's business goals.

The UX design process always goes from top to bottom; understanding the business model of the product helps the UX designer make reasonable design decisions that align with the company's business strategy. If the product requires using premium features and needs to charge fees to ensure financial viability for the company, then the UX designer needs to ensure that these features are designed so that users can understand and are willing 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 being involved in a company in the process of digital transformation, where my mission was to design a job search application that integrated many interesting features, but they were unrelated. There’s no need to say, this project failed; the investor lacked financial support, the development team did not have enough resources and capabilities, and users were disappointed because it was not engaging enough and did not meet their needs.

The more features do not mean that users will be more satisfied, as this can cause various problems. You should learn more about the concept of Minimal Viable Product. Before starting a project, it is essential to understand which core functionalities are most requested and used by customers.

Firstly, when there are too many features, users may feel confused and have difficulty using your product. This can lead to dissatisfaction and loss of trust in your product.

Secondly, too many features can also make your product slower and harder to use. If your product requires too many actions to achieve a specific goal, users may feel they are wasting time and become dissatisfied.

Finally, adding too many features can make your product more complicated and difficult 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 the features are meaningful and useful for 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

There is no doubt that design based on quantitative data is an extremely promising approach in the product industry, especially in finance. The advantages of this method are clear: design solutions are proven by statistics, measurable results of design decisions and experiments, as well as selecting the best solutions.

Essentially, this is a scientific system, relying on data to achieve maximum conversion and measurable effectiveness. The main slogan of this approach: no random actions, no emotional solutions, only designs proven by numbers. For managers of any financial organization, relying on data to justify implementing design solutions is a reasonable approach.

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

Therefore, it is necessary to combine both quantitative and qualitative data to gain a clearer understanding of users' needs and expectations. This can be achieved through methods like interviews, surveys, polls, and direct observation of users using the product.

Using both quantitative and qualitative data will help create a good user experience, meet user needs, and provide value for 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 the market, trends, and customer data, they cannot represent all users and their preferences.

Financial experts are rational people who are always looking for the best solutions. And they expect that most users will use financial services in the same way. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. Most people are quite irrational; they make decisions and draw conclusions based on emotions and instincts, often unconsciously. Their behaviors usually do not follow logic, and they act out of habit. This explains why many people do not use products the way their developers envisioned.

To create a product with a good experience, it requires a combination of many fields, including design, market research, product development, and finance. However, to understand users' needs, direct engagement with users and market research is very crucial. Financial experts can collaborate with product development teams to analyze data about customers and the market, but they cannot represent users or know exactly what users desire.

Therefore, to create a product with a good experience, it is essential to place users at the center of the design process and provide solutions that meet users' needs and demands 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 be ineffective.

Every 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 defined by multiple factors not only related to interface design. It is essential to understand exactly what lies behind this success. Some copying efforts have indeed been successful. However, upon closer examination, the founders of that product discovered a niche market, created their own business model, and invested significant effort in product development by transitioning from copying to innovating.

The design of a digital product not only depends on interface design but also relates to other factors such as content arrangement, loading 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 advantages. Additionally, a product with a good UX experience.

Of course, the interfaces of popular applications can serve as a source of inspiration and a good starting point. This can help save time when starting to design, but interface design is just one part of user experience design. It is crucial to understand the ideas behind the design you are referring to and how it benefits users as well as addresses real business challenges. In this way, your service can become a new standard and be beneficial to the daily lives of millions of people.

7. Designing user experience requires a significant investment only for large companies?

Essentially, user experience design revolves around enhancing satisfaction and gaining user loyalty by improving usability, functional utility, and enjoyment through interactions between customers and products. User experience design can be applied in projects of all sizes, catering to both large and small companies. In fact, investing in UX can help save costs, increase competitiveness, and enhance the user experience of your product.

Therefore, when it comes to building financial digital 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. This 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 substantial returns on investment and enhances the core competencies of the development team.

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

8. User experience only relates to the product interface

Many people think that a product with a good experience only relates to the aesthetically pleasing application interface. However, user experience also involves many other factors, including content, customer service, loading speed, product responsiveness, customer interactions, product features, product usage, reliability and safety of the product, and many other factors.

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

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

The loading speed of information and product responsiveness also affect user experience. When a product loads slowly, users may not have the patience to wait and switch to using competing products. Product responsiveness also needs to be improved to meet user requirements.

Therefore, user experience relates not only to the product interface but also to many other critical factors that create a comprehensive and best possible user experience to enhance user satisfaction and loyalty to the product or service.

9. Just designing a good user experience will ensure the product's success

User experience is one of the important factors for a product to become successful, but it is not the only one. The reality is that digital products often grow rapidly, but they still have to adhere to market rules. This means that success not only depends on product quality but also on how and when the product is introduced to the market, the services provided to users, competitors in the same field, legal terms for the service to operate, and many other business factors.

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

A product must also meet factors such as reasonable pricing, product quality, market accessibility, effective marketing strategy, and many other factors. If a product has a good user experience but is priced too high or hard to access in the market, it will also not bring success. Therefore, for a product to become successful, it needs to meet all business factors and not just focus on user experience.