How to Hire Banking UX/UI Designers

Over 68% of consumers in 2021 abandoned a finance app during onboarding. The lengthy application process was a major turnoff. That’s right, tedious registration cuts off many users before they even get started.

Banking apps face numerous other problems besides complex onboarding. Think of confusing navigation, overly complicated forms, and unnecessary features that customers rarely use. Luckily, FinTech UI UX design offers a promising solution.

Just imagine a banking app with simple navigation and personalized experiences — the qualities valued by 94% and 72% of users, respectively. All this, and even more, is achievable with expert designers on board.

By ensuring your app is user-friendly, these specialists let your customers use features easily, find information quickly, and feel confident with transactions. Look at N26, a fully digital bank known for its intuitive, secure, and seamless experience, boasting over 8 million customers. Or Finmo, a tax management app that slashed customer drop-offs by 40% by simplifying the app’s structure.

How do you hire banking UI designers who can create this kind of app for you? Keep reading to find out.

Current Trends in Banking UX/UI Design

Digital banking pushes traditional banking aside, steadily growing by 11.59% each year. Consequently, banking UI design adapts and constantly embraces new techs and trends.

One such trend is the increased adoption of artificial intelligence. Some FinTech companies use AI for hyper-personalization, while others leverage generative AI to power chatbots, prevent fraud, and automate time-consuming tasks. In fact, McKinsey estimates that gen AI can boost the global banking industry by $200 billion to $340 billion annually.

Virtual and augmented reality, typically associated with gaming and entertainment, are making their way into the banking sector, too. Things like metaverse technologies in banking interfaces and virtual communication channels are becoming more prominent. While far from mass-market adoption, VR and AR are decent tools for increasing customer engagement.

Banking also witnesses a shift toward hyper-personalization and user-centric designs. According to Deloitte, customers demand hyper-personalized interactions with their banks, similar to what they experience in other industries. With a modern mobile banking UI design offering personalized dashboards, targeted financial advice, or gamified features, this kind of customer-centricity is possible.

Why Is UX Design for Banking Apps Crucial?

As you can see from the trends above, banking apps are more than just a collection of features. To really succeed, banks must deliver a high-quality FinTech UI UX design. Here’s why:

Building a Strong Banking App Foundation

The FinTech app UI UX goes beyond mere aesthetics. A decent application also should:

• Easily withstand heavy server loads and be scalable;
• Cater to the widest possible range of users, regardless of their age, technical expertise, and so on;
• Provide interactive features and contain dynamically updated content;
• Include several language versions;
• Deliver reliable and secure performance;
• Integrate the means for customer feedback;
• Follow accessibility guidelines like WCAG (hire WCAG developers if that’s your case).

UX Requirements for Banking Products

Let’s now look at what users expect from a banking app:

• Personalization — dedicated user accounts and data syncing;
• Security — robust measures for personal user data and financial info protection;
• Adaptability — supporting various formats of mobile devices;
• Intuitiveness — clear, easy-to-use interfaces;
• Conciseness — prioritizing essential functions and using drop-down menus for additional options;
• Aesthetics — compliance with all the above points should not contradict with interface’s aesthetic perception.

Things to Avoid When Creating a UX Design for a Banking App

While creativity is important in banking apps, all UI UX consultants would say that there are certain limits to it. Your application must be clear and user-friendly in the first place. So avoid the following design mistakes:

• Excessive creativity. Banking isn’t the space for the most daring design ideas. Stick to established UX design patterns for mass products.
• Pop-up notifications overload. Constant pop-ups are intrusive and annoying. Leave them only for really important notifications.
• Trendiness over clarity. The pursuit of trendy UX design elements can often outweigh what truly matters: an intuitive and understandable interface. Don’t prioritize aesthetics over functionality. If a trendy feature makes your app more complicated, leave it out.

Essential UX/UI Designers Skills

Learning the skills that UX/UI designers should have brings you one step closer to a successful hire. Pay attention to the following:

• Cross-disciplinary understanding. Hire UI/UX developers who understand design, technology, and, of course, finance.
• Technical feasibility assessments. Designers must know the basics of mobile app development and be able to evaluate the technical feasibility of design ideas.
• Agile development practices. It’s reasonable to hire UX/UI designers experienced in an Agile development environment. This way, you ensure a flexible and collaborative workflow.
• Communication and prototyping tools. Designers should be adept at the latest communication and prototyping tools to create interactive prototypes and communicate their ideas clearly.
• Feedback loop integration. The best designers value user feedback and, therefore, integrate feedback loops into the design process.

Mobilunity’s Case Study

A leading Spanish bank sought Mobilunity’s assistance in upgrading its digital banking platforms. Our client aimed to improve user experience and engagement and requested UX/UI experts in the same time zone as their IT team.

During this project, we faced several challenges:

• Tight deadlines;
• The need for 4 FinTech UX/UI designers;
• Integrating new designs with the bank’s outdated systems.

To tackle the above challenges, we used our extensive network and proprietary databases for candidate sourcing. Our efforts included:

• Technical screening;
• Cultural fit assessment;
• In-depth client interviews.

Throughout the recruitment process, Mobilunity approached 137 candidates and interviewed 48 of them. Ultimately, we hired 4 UX/UI designers — all with profound financial app UI design expertise.

Besides just that, Mobilunity can recruit numerous other experts. Just consider hiring remote financial software developers for your banking app or project managers to supervise all the processes.

How Our Recruiters Approach the Search

Drawing on extensive recruitment experience, Mobilunity is best at finding top UX/UI designers. Here’s how we land ideal candidates for your banking app:

1. Understanding client needs. We study your specific project requirements, desired skills, and company culture.
2. Skill mapping and market analysis. Once we know what you need, we analyze the market to find talent that matches your desired skill set.
3. Sourcing candidates. Our recruiters use professional networks, social media, job boards, and our own talent database to locate UX/UI designers.
4. Screening and initial assessment. We handle a strict screening process by reviewing resumes and portfolios.
5. Technical assessments. We give test tasks to shortlisted candidates to evaluate their design skills better.
6. Cultural fit and soft skills assessment. Mobilunity also evaluates a candidate’s communication and teamwork skills along with overall work ethic.
7. In-depth interviews. After all the above assessments, we conduct initial interviews with the best candidates.
8. Client interviews. This stage involves interviews with you and your team.
9. Offer and onboarding. Once you’ve chosen the perfect candidate, we create an offer and help with onboarding.

How to Interview and Test Candidate’s Experience

Handling thorough interviews is necessary to hire front end developers and UX UI designers alike. Here are several tips to help you:

1. Prepare for the interview. Identify essential skills and create interview questions directly related to your requirements.
2. Handle technical assessment. Choose a suitable testing format, ensure the test reflects the tasks the designer will perform on the job, provide clear evaluation criteria, and analyze the completed tests.
3. Conduct the interview. Blend technical questions with soft-skill ones and encourage candidates to use the STAR method when answering.
4. Handle post-interview assessment. Review the interview answers and consider how well the candidate’s responses coincide with your company culture and role’s requirements. Make a hiring decision.

Hire Banking UX/UI Designers with Mobilunity

Finding the right designer is essential for your banking app’s success. But, for some businesses, recruitment might seem like a never-ending process.

Luckily, Mobilunity removes the hassle of lengthy searches by providing experienced UX/UI FinTech designers. We’ve been doing this since 2010 and have gathered over 40 satisfied clients globally.

Our recruitment team can identify top UX/UI designers, front end programmers, and other specialists anywhere in the world. As seen in our portfolio, locating FinTech designers isn’t a problem for us.

For those looking to cooperate with us, we offer flexible models:

• Dedicated teams of experts for large projects;
• Part-time IT consultants for short-term or small-load projects.

If you strive to create unique banking solutions that deliver an intuitive experience, feel free to contact our team.

FAQ

• What key skills are essential when hiring UX/UI designers for FinTech applications?

Look for designers with a cross-disciplinary understanding that combines UX/UI, technology, and finance expertise. Hire those experts who have strong communication skills and use the latest prototyping tools.

• How does employing UX/UI designers benefit the development of FinTech applications?

UX/UI designers know what user-friendliness truly means. They can tackle issues in onboarding, feature selection, and user flows to create apps that increase user satisfaction.

• Can we interview and select UX/UI designers for our FinTech projects directly?

Of course. When recruiting designers with Mobilunity, you can participate in the interview process. The same applies when you want to hire NextJS developers and other experts. 

• Is it possible to hire UX/UI designers for both short-term and ongoing FinTech projects?

Yes. Mobilunity offers two flexible cooperation models. One is perfect for long-term projects, while another suits short-term FinTech initiatives.

Ready to create a user-friendly financial app UI design? Partner with Mobilunity to recruit the best UX/UI designers for your project!

Written by:

Anastasia Stefanuk

Market Researcher