3 ways banking apps let customers down… and why that matters

use a banking app at least once a week

1 in 3want to do all their banking

on apps

1 in 5

UK consumers have embraced mobile banking

…and apps are a factorwhen they choose their bank

Image created by Wilson Joseph, from the Noun Project

would switch banks to get a better app

1 in 5

But when we reviewed leading banking apps, none offered an

outstanding experience

Image created by Wilson Joseph, from the Noun Project

Highest and lowest scores for app UX and functionality

75%32%

We assessed the UX of 5 UK retail banking apps, using a range of different research techniques

Image created by Wilson Joseph, from the Noun Project

Qualitative user research

In-depth interviews

& observation of bank

customers using the apps

Quantitativesurvey

Nat rep survey of 400

consumers, conducted

by ResearchNow

Expert heuristic analysis

Assessment of the apps

against 65 usability criteria

by two UX researchers

Analysis ofapp reviews

Analysis of thousands of

reviews from the Apple and

Google Play app stores

☐✓

We discovered that banking apps are letting down customers

in 3 key areas:

Image created by Wilson Joseph, from the Noun Project

Functionality1.

Payment experience

2.Convenience

3.

1. Functionality

Banking apps are missingkey functionality:

Source: ResearchNow, UK NatRep survey, December 2014

% of UK consumers who want this functionality

64%

See pending payments

57%

Managedirect debits

52%

Add newpayees

Consumers don’t want to have to channel shift away from apps

but limited app functionality means they have to

When they shift, they choose channels that cost banks more

61% visit thewebsite

costing banks

£0.16 per visit

11% ring the

call-centre

costing banks

£0.86 per call

25% visit a

branch

costing banks

£2.90 per visit

Sources: ResearchNow, UK NatRep survey, December 2014; Javelin Strategy & Research

Payment experience

Start-ups are offering seamless payment experiences

Sending moneyvia Snapchat

More and more apps are offering payments

While some banking apps are still struggling with the basics

‣ Naming: banks’ language (“transfers” versus “payments”) confuses consumers

‣ Unhelpful forms: when users make an error, apps don’t alert them, or help them fix it

‣ PayM: trying to pay someone not registered for PayM is frustrating and disappointing

Convenience

Many apps don’t consider their users’ convenience enough

In dozens of little ways, these apps make users’ lives harder

Some apps don’t balance security and convenience appropriately

Users check their balance as often as several times a day,and want to check quickly.

Requiring full log-in every time slows down this low-risk activity.

…although some are doing better than others

Tesco’s Balance Peek: swipe down to reveal balances for 5 seconds

Many apps don’t offer search, filter or pagination for transactions

To find older transactions, users of this app have to laboriously scroll back through the months

Some apps waste space on things that aren’t important to users

Using half the screen for the balance & account info means only a few transactions can be seen at once

Transaction details are squashed to fit and so they’re hard to read.

Want more? Download our full research report for more ways banking apps can be improved

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summary report

Adaptive Lab is a digital innovation company.

We partner with companies to solve problems and transform businesses through human-centred design, rapid prototyping and user testing, then agile and lean development of web and mobile services.

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Find out more at our website: www.adaptivelab.com