Mobile Banking App

The development of an empathy map and analysis of user pains and gains in this project follows a structured decision-making process aimed at delivering a user-centred design for a mobile banking app. 

Why a mobile banking app?

A mobile banking app was selected as the platform due to the increasing reliance on mobile devices for financial management, particularly among younger demographics. According to research, millennials and Gen Z prefer mobile-first experiences and handle most of their day-to-day financial activities through smartphone apps. Focusing on a mobile app ensures that the design aligns with the behaviour of the target audience—young professionals, like our persona, Emma.

Understanding the Target Audience

Before diving into the design process, it was important to define a user persona based on common characteristics of the target audience. Emma, a young professional in her late twenties, represents a typical user who values convenience, security, and personalised financial insights. The decision to focus on a persona like Emma stems from market data that suggests young professionals are highly engaged with financial technology but often feel underserved in terms of personalised features and guidance.

Identifying Key Pain Points

The empathy map identifies five key pain points for the user, focusing on barriers to usability and emotional responses to the product. These pain points—complex navigation, security anxiety, lack of guidance, overwhelming information, and missed notifications—are typical issues that users encounter when engaging with mobile banking apps. Each of these pain points is directly tied to user experience research, which highlights the importance of usability, trust, and clarity in financial apps.

Understanding User Gains

In parallel with pain points, understanding what users value (gains) is critical for designing solutions that offer real benefits. For Emma, the desired gains revolve around simplicity, financial clarity, enhanced security, timely notifications, and a sense of progress. These gains represent positive experiences that make the user feel empowered and confident in their financial management.

Empathy Mapping

The empathy map serves as a foundational tool to capture what the user says, thinks, does, and feels when interacting with the product. This framework helps to humanise the user’s experience, allowing the design team to step into the user’s shoes and understand their emotional and practical interactions with the app. It also highlights gaps between what the user wants and what they currently experience, providing a clear path for design improvements.

Designing for Pain Reduction

Reducing pain points is essential for creating a seamless user experience. In this project, the focus is on simplifying navigation, enhancing security with ease, providing clearer financial guidance, and delivering timely notifications. Each pain point was matched with a corresponding design solution, grounded in user feedback and industry best practices.

• For example, simplifying navigation addresses users’ frustration with finding key features by introducing a cleaner layout and better search functionality.
• Biometric authentication resolves security anxiety by balancing ease of use with robust protection.

Designing for Gains

Designing features that promote gains means going beyond basic functionality to deliver an experience that actively supports the user’s goals. For Emma, this means designing features that provide clarity and a sense of control over her finances. For example:

• Personalised insights give Emma clarity into her spending patterns and help her make informed decisions.
• Customisable notifications ensure she receives timely, relevant updates about her account, reducing stress and preventing financial missteps.
• Goal tracking provides Emma with tangible markers of progress, reinforcing positive behaviours like saving.

Rationale for Insights

After mapping out pains and gains, key insights are drawn to inform the design process. These insights provide actionable recommendations for product improvements. For instance, the insight that users feel overwhelmed by too much financial jargon leads to a decision to prioritise clarity and simplicity in the user interface. Similarly, the insight that users want personalised guidance leads to the decision to integrate AI-driven insights into the app.

Conclusion

The decision-making process behind this project is focused on understanding and addressing the core needs of the user through a blend of empathy mapping, pain and gain analysis, and actionable insights. The goal is to create a mobile banking app that not only solves functional problems but also provides a personalised, emotionally satisfying experience. Each design decision is grounded in research, ensuring that the app meets user expectations while aligning with broader trends in the fintech industry.