FinTech App Development: Essential Features of FinTech Apps

FinTech has officially touched all of our lives—and therefore, so has meticulous and beautiful FinTech app development.

And, at this point, we use FinTech to handle so much of how we operate. We trust it to manage our budgets, transfer money to businesses and friends, pay our rent, and insure our homes.

Moreover, we even put our savings in online banks and invest with FinTech apps (do not ask me about my DogeCoin—yes, I still have it, and no, I don’t want to talk about it. This is not investment advice.)

But with all of the incredible value FinTech brings us—we’re trusting it with a lot. Our banking information, our 401ks—basically, all of our most personal information, plus, literally, our hard-earned money.

So what should FinTech apps do to build trust and ensure the peace of mind needed for user adoption and retention?

Well, that’s what we’re here to answer.

But, before we start—if you want some examples, check out our FinTech app development case studies:

• PredictionStrike (investment + sports)
• Hard Assets Alliance (investment + alternative tangible assets)
• ChangeFi (social-driven banking)
  
  
  

What is FinTech?

FinTech is a portmanteau of “Finance” and “Technology.” In essence, it’s the combination of streamlining and providing accessibility to financial processes with the power of modern tech.

So, its use cases are vast—because whether we like it or not, we’re pretty much all entangled in financial systems. Applications of FinTech include:

And, clearly, the industry is massive and ever-growing. For example, in 2021, FinTech was the largest funded category of hi-tech, with $130B of investments (20% of the global total.) Not to mention, there was a 3x rise in FinTech IPOs in 2021 from 2020.

So, yes, the industry is booming, and more and more FinTech companies and apps are springing up and finding their users every day.

But what makes them successful? Well, the features below probably (definitely) don’t hurt.

The Essential Features of FinTech Apps for FinTech App Development

1. Demonstratively Strong Security

Alrighty—let’s start with the “trust” aspect of this whole thing. Because there are few things people are more protective from (and suspicious of) than giving their money to someone else.

While there are many features to bolster user trust (i.e., the rest of the items on this list), the first is demonstrating security. I don’t say this lightly when I say—it’s absolutely imperative to offer proof of secure payment and processing.

So, for instance, if you’re using a third-party service or company to facilitate transactions, slap on that security badge—everywhere.

Additionally, another feature to heavily consider is biometric security.

And, finally, for any API integrations—or even just for logins into your app—make sure there is multi-step verification. For example, if you want to link your Chase account to WealthFront, you have to enable the link both by signing into your Chase account through WealthFront and with an in-app system in your Chase app.

Those are, yes, added steps for the user. So you have to make sure they’re seamless and user-friendly, of course. But those added verifications will make your user feel you’re protecting their information and assets.

 

2. Impeccable and Streamlined Onboarding

We’ve written at length about what great onboarding looks like.

But it’s important to note here that excellent onboarding is especially important for FinTech app development and building user trust.

Why? Because, to put it simply, people don’t trust what they don’t understand.

If your onboarding is ineffective or convoluted, users will be disoriented in how to use your app. And if you were confused about how to use an app—meaning, how to get value from it, but most importantly, how to get your money out of it—would you use it? Well…hopefully not.

This is why it’s so critical to know your users. You want to tailor your onboarding to their demographics, psychographics, and behavioral characteristics.

For example, an older user base may resonate more with a certain type of guidance or aesthetic than a younger one—and so on and so forth. 

3. User-First Navigation and User-Centered Design

For the sake of great UX/UI and user orientation, it’s essential to have straightforward navigation. So, put your most important features at the forefront of every screen, making them accessible and easily navigable from one to the other.

And, another point regarding UX/Ui design is to make forms frictionless and easy to use. FinTech apps will often have lots of forms, be they for signing up, linking bank accounts, transferring funds, or approving transactions.

Therefore, stick to enclosed fields, large clickable areas, clear field labeling (ergo, not in the field, which only taxes the user’s memory load by making them have to remember what information belongs there.)

Additionally, grayed-out “submission” or “continue” buttons for forms that are missing information are a plus. And so is highlighting invalid fields—instead of throwing up a general “error” warning upon submission and having to redo the whole thing over again.

You want to make forms as easy to understand as possible. If you do, you’ll boost conversion, retention, and adoption on your end and reduce frustration on theirs. 

4. Personalization

We all like things in certain ways—and when it comes to the comfort of tending to our money, we really want things a certain way. So, users being able to personalize their UI and settings is a massive added bonus to them when it comes to FinTech app development.

There’s a fine line to walk here—you want to offer them options, but not too many or ones that are too frivolous. Those can distract from the value proposition and purpose of the app.

However, things like main navigation buttons, push notifications, dark mode, currency, or, for instance, category customization spend tracking features? Those will only add to user orientation and the value you’re bringing to them. 

5. Data Visualization

Unless you’re a spreadsheet lover and peruse Excel documents for funsies, you probably prefer some sort of graphic way to understand numbers.

This is where analytics comes in—and, especially, data visualization users can control.

If users can filter through information and have the data visualized to them in a personalized way, they’ll be able to truly harness the most value from the app.

Think of investment or online banking apps—you want to know what’s going on with your money as quickly and easily as possible. Is the line going up or down? Are you in the red or green?

By personalizing these principles (up, down, red, green—and any other universal indications of numerical statuses), you’re helping your user understand why and what they’re doing with your app.

You’re boosting orientation in the app. And, as we mentioned before—people don’t trust what they don’t understand, but that also applies vice versa.

The goal is to both help the user understand what’s going on to provide as much value-add as possible. And interactive data visualization—the ability to filter and sort through data or zoom in or click on data points in a graph to expand on events—will only help them harness more value.

However, there is a caveat here—and it’s why it’s so important to know your users. You want to consider: how much data will be helpful, and is there a point at which there’s too much information, and the overload gets distracting, overwhelming, or confusing? 

6. Cross-Platform Capabilities + API Integration

And lastly, there’s this “little” thing: how do users get money in and out of the app? This is where cross-platform capabilities and API integrations come into play with FinTech app development.

But more than just the app capabilities your dev team (or Goji Labs’ ;)) can establish, it’s important to design them such that integrating accounts is easy on the user-end. Secure and robust—of course. But with that secure and robust third-party integration process, it must also be seamless and user-intuitive.

For example—if you want to link your bank account to Venmo, all you have to do is log in to your bank account through Venmo and then approve the access with two-step verification. And therefore, Venmo makes it so easy for users to give them their money. Which is ultimately precisely what you want to do.

Well, this was a lot. We know.

Coincidentally, hi, we’re Goji Labs—a product and software development consultancy with experience in designing, “rescuing,” and deploying hundreds of products.

Looking to develop a new app or revamp an existing one? Need some product strategy or mobile app and software development help?

Have any general questions about who we are and our authority on the subject?

Reach us at GojiLabs.com or drop us a line.

– Goji Labs