close
FILTER BLOGS BY TOPIC
close
INDUSTRIES
CAPABILITIES
NAVIGATE YOUR CONTENT
SELECT YOUR TOPICS
AND PRESS GO

What Makes a Great Mobile Banking App?

Launching an App Your Customers Will Love and Love to Use

A recent study marked a steep surge in mobile banking and having access to digital banking tools made customers much more likely to recommend a bank to others. Their findings also noted mobile functionality will become a major factor in attracting and retaining customers, encouraging banks to invest in useful features like electronic deposits.

But what else goes into creating a mobile app your customers will want to make a part of their daily lives? Keep reading for four key insights from our financial marketing and app development teams.

Clean up the Interface

While mobile devices do have certain limitations, especially when compared to their desktop counterparts, a smaller screen size doesn’t mean design has to take a back seat. In fact, creating a positive user experience (UX) through your app’s interface is arguably more important than any other platform, as your customers expect to find the answers they’re looking for fast and with as few taps as possible. Here are a few factors to consider:

  • Watch your text size and optimize it to be easily legible on smaller screens.
  • Take a second look at your buttons and calls to action. Are they large enough to tap on with your finger? Or would it be difficult for users to hit such a small target?
  • Is your app bogged down by large imagery? While your website may be a good spot to showcase photography, your app should be all about speed, convenience and ease of use. Strip it down to the basics.

Make It Helpful

Going back to UX for a moment, think about what your customers are using your app for. Research says the most common action in mobile banking continues to be checking account balances or recent transactions with transferring money between accounts following closely behind.

Knowing this, your app should offer a seamless path to those actions. For example, should “make a transfer,” be housed right on your app’s homepage or included as a sub-navigation item? If you’re working to focus on your customers’ needs, having instant access to this feature on the homepage might be your answer.

Prioritize Security

A jaw-dropping 83 percent of mobile apps across the banking, financial and retail industries have a vulnerable backend. Before taking any steps to optimize design or usability, focus on building multi-layered security measures into your mobile application. Work with your development team to ensure your users’ credentials are safe. You can even activate biometric verification—Touch ID on the Apple family of products—to protect your customers’ information and help them feel secure in trusting your bank or credit union.

Focus on Performance

Even a flawlessly designed, UX-focused mobile banking application wouldn’t be successful if performance isn’t stellar. Slow load times, crashing and constant error messages are the perfect recipe for unhappy mobile customers. In fact, if your app doesn’t load within six seconds, you’ll see a marked drop in users.

Fortunately, these shortcomings are preventable with a bit of elbow grease. With every new version of your app, build in-depth testing of its performance into your schedule.

Looking for more insights on marketing for financial institutions? Find out if you should be focusing on paid or organic search and how technology has changed the way baby boomers bank.