UX design best practices for Fintech apps

Fintech apps compete in a market where user experience is more than just a gimmick. In fact, 73% of users would switch banks for a better user experience. 

To get you more informed on this topic, we’ll explore UX best practices for fintech apps. Let's help you, your startups, and financial product teams design apps that users love to use. 

As a sneak peek, we’ll talk about themes like building trust through design, simplifying financial tasks, personalized UX, and making sure every interaction is seamless and secure. 

Fintech onboarding UX best practices

You need to create a friction-free fintech onboarding UX. 

Fintech apps often face mandatory KYC UX design steps (Know Your Customer identity checks) and other compliance hoops. 

The challenge is to meet these requirements without driving users away. Let’s break down some fintech onboarding best practices.

Focus on one task at a time

For example, a digital bank might request one piece of info per screen (name, then ID, then selfie) with clear reasons why each detail is needed. Breaking KYC into more manageable pieces will make the process less intimidating.

Make creating an account and/or logging in as simple as possible

Request only essential information initially (often just name and email) to reduce friction. Extra details for financial app authentication (like address or income) can be gathered later once the user is engaged.

For the logging in feature, enable biometric login UX options (fingerprint, face ID) to eliminate password fatigue. From a UX perspective, biometrics are the fastest, simplest way to log into a financial app.

Show progress and guidance

Let users know how far along they are in the sign-up process. 

Simple progress bars or step indicators motivate users to finish onboarding. You can also add in-app guidance, like tooltips or an interactive demo, to explain features as users sign up.

Give security without extra friction

Users expect strong security measures, but these should happen mostly in the background. 

For example, instead of forcing users to answer a security question every time they log in, send a one-time code or use device-based trust. 

What you can do is better communicate security checks (e.g., a brief “verifying your identity…” message) so users know why you ask for certain info.

Personal finance and budgeting app UX

Designing a personal finance app UX means helping everyday people manage money with ease, and maybe even a bit of fun. Popular budgeting, saving, and expense tracker apps include Mint, YNAB, and Revolut. What they do best is turn complex finance into engaging experiences. 

If you’re working on a budgeting app design or a savings tool, your best bets are on clarity, encouragement, and personalization. 

Make your interface friendly and insights easily discoverable

Unfortunately, money can be stressful. Let’s try not to make it even more stressful with finance apps. The app’s tone and visuals should ease anxiety.

1. Conversational copywriting,
2. Clear labels (e.g., “Spending this month” vs. “Debit Transactions”), 
3. Gentle color schemes.

These can make a financial app design feel more approachable to users who aren’t finance experts.

Users should instantly see what matters most: their account balances, budget status, upcoming bills, etc. A good expense tracker UX shows key information through visual cues like charts or progress bars. For example, a budgeting app might show a monthly spending bar filling up as the user spends.

Sprinkle some personalization and gamification

Fintech users appreciate when an app acts like a smart assistant. Leverage AI personalization to analyze spending habits and tailor the experience. Many personal finance apps now offer personalized UX features such as custom budget categories, alerts for unusual spending, or AI-generated tips on saving.

A modern personalized UX might notice a user spends more on weekends and suggest a weekend budget, or automatically adjust expense categories using machine learning.

The same is true for gamification. 

Turning financial management into a rewarding game is a proven best practice in fintech UX. 

Elements like challenges, points, or rewards for good behavior can dramatically improve engagement and loyalty. 

Read more about gamification in Fintech in our next article.

Payments and transfers

Smooth payment flows are basically the core of fintech UX. It could be a peer-to-peer transfer, mobile wallet payment, or international remittance. 

Regardless of what it is, users expect sending money to be as easy as sending a text. If your payment app design ain’t it, users will quickly find an alternative. 

Here’s how to remove friction from money transfer app UX:

1. Identify the most frequent user goals (e.g., sending money to a friend, paying a bill) and streamline those paths above all.
2. Use positive friction to prevent errors. For example, you could add confirmation steps, such as “Are you sure?”
3. Give feedback and status updates.
4. Keep the payment flow focused by hiding or disabling unrelated options.
5. If your fintech handles multiple payment types (P2P, bills, international, QR code payments, etc.), design for the simplest use case first, then gracefully scale up complexity.

We also cover more of payment UX in our upcoming article, continuing our Fintech theme, so be sure to check that one out too!

Investment app UX practices

Investment and trading apps (including stock trading platforms, robo-advisors, and crypto exchanges) are a fast-growing segment of fintech. Designing a great investment app UX means the following.

Making data simpler and using visuals

Good investing apps use visual design to simplify complexity. 

For example, instead of drowning a new user in charts and technical indicators, an app might first show a clean line chart of their portfolio value over time with key milestones annotated (deposits, withdrawals). 

Use tooltips or an optional “learn more” mode to explain terms like APY, expense ratio, or P/E ratio in plain language. The principle of progressive disclosure is helpful because you present basic info by default and let users drill down into details if they want. 

Personalizing the experience based on skill level

Not all investors are alike. A first-time investor might sometimes need hand-holding, while a pro trader would want efficiency.

How about onboarding users with a quick questionnaire about their experience or goals, and then adapting the UI accordingly?

For instance, a stock trading app ux could offer a “Beginner mode” that highlights essential features (like one-click portfolio view, simple buy/sell options) and hides advanced features under an “Expert mode” toggle. 

Or a robo-advisor using very conversational language and reassuring confirmations for a novice (“Great, your investment is set! We’ll take it from here.”). At the same time, it can show more analytics to an advanced user.

Offering transparency and guidance

If you want your users to trust you, it pays off to be very clear about fees, risks, and how the technology works.

Provide trust signals in fintech contexts: for example, show security badges, regulatory membership info (like SIPC or FDIC coverage for U.S. apps), and use reassuring copy (“Your assets are securely held by our custodian bank”).

However, don’t annoy the user with legalese on every screen - instead, make critical information accessible when the user seeks it (e.g., a “Learn about our investment approach” link).

Another way to improve fintech app retention with UX is by continuously adding value beyond the core function. 

Investing apps can differentiate by integrating education into the UX. This could be as simple as contextual tips or as involved as offering in-app courses or quizzes about investing basics.

Building fast and error-free interactions

The main rule here is that users should be able to execute transactions quickly and see confirmations instantly. 

Any lag or uncertainty (e.g., an order that seems stuck “pending”) can destroy trust. Optimize your app’s performance and show updates for things like portfolio balances and market prices. Also, pay attention to error states specific to investing – for instance, if a trade fails due to market closure or insufficient funds, craft an informative message and an alternative suggestion.

The best fintech UX design in wealth-tech turns something traditionally intimidating into a guided, user-friendly workflow.

Wrap-up

At its heart, fintech UX should feel more like a helpful friend than a financial tool. You might only be simplifying onboarding hurdles, making payments intuitive, or designing engaging investment experiences, but remember that behind each interaction is someone (YOUR user) seeking ease, clarity, and confidence.

So, as you design or refine your fintech product, ask yourself: Does every feature reassure the user? Does every interaction build trust? 

Speaking from experience, the most successful fintech apps are the ones people genuinely enjoy using.