Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/iphone-visa-business-buying-card-624709/

Since the world got introduced to smartphones, all business industries have gone mobile. Whether it is related to shopping, researching for projects, playing games, or even seeing what your friends are up to, can be done from the comfort of your home through your smartphone.

Banking has also gone mobile, as a large number of users prefer to use their smartphones for transactions. According to Juniper Research, by 2019, the number of users who use mobile apps for banking will cross 1.75 billion. Banks from all over the world are considering developing mobile apps and the costs of developing mobile apps, so that they can keep up with the current trends in the market. However, developing mobile apps for banking is tricky as it requires significant attention to detail. To help you out and make the whole process easier, we have compiled a list of four tips for developing banking apps:

Diversity is key

While the growth of smartphones over the past few years has been phenomenal, it has also led to large-scale diversity. There are millions of smartphones all over the world with different specifications. Screen size, processor, RAM, and OS are some of the main elements of smartphones that differ vastly. As your banking app will have a huge user base, it is important to design it for all types of smartphones.

To ensure that your mobile app is compatible, you should test out the prototypes on as many types of smartphones as possible. The more different types of smartphones you include in the test, the better your app will perform in the real world.

Minimalistic UX

Banking apps are not popular among users because their UX is outdated and slow. To ensure that your banking app doesn’t fall into this list, you need to make the UX clean and minimalistic. For starters, to go through all the sections of your mobile app, it should be done in the least number of taps. Similarly, there should be shortcuts for all the most-used features on the main screen.

You can make your mobile app UX better by incorporating gestures such as swipe, double tap, and hold. These gestures improve functionality and navigation at the same time. When your mobile app is taking time to load, you can display important and useful banking tips.

Security is top priority – Utilize multi-factor authentication Notifications

Mobile banking apps should have the highest security possible because you are dealing with your customer’s money. There a large number of hackers waiting to exploit errors, to steal money from users. Ensure that your customers will continue to use your mobile app by making security, your number one priority. Always go through all the security policies of your mobile app meticulously before releasing it into the market.

The configuration of your application servers should eliminate phishing. You should implement a password strength checker, so that your users use only very strong passwords. You must notify users about how to use and protect your banking app. For example, they should never store their passwords on their smartphones. Also, every time there is a transaction, regardless of whether it is debit or credit, the customers should get a notification on their smartphones. For example, when there is a transaction, you should send a push notification, an SMS, and an email to the customer immediately.

All the data that is handled by the mobile app should be encrypted. Also, you should make use of multi-authentication factors for better security. Instead of only relying on passwords, you can make use of OTPs. As all smartphones come with fingerprint sensors, you should give access to your mobile app, only if your users can confirm their identity.

Simple and functional UI

One of the major problems with a majority of the banking apps is that they take a lot of time to load. The reason as to why this takes place is because there are too many features in these apps. To ensure that your mobile banking app is a success among your customers, the UI should be simple and functional.

Most of the users only want to use mobile banking apps to check their balance and pay/receive funds. Avoid bringing in all the features of your online banking UI to the mobile app. For example, applying for loans from your mobile banking app isn’t a useful feature as not everyone will use it. When you keep the number of features as low as possible, the load on your servers reduce significantly.

These are the four tips that will help you develop mobile banking apps. If you are finding it challenging to build a great mobile banking app, why don’t you get in contact Robust Tech House? Our developers and designers have a lot of experience in building mobile apps and will make it easier, simpler, and more straightforward in creating one for you!

Brought to you by RobustTechHouse

Also published on Medium.