Most banking apps are built by people who understand finance deeply but users only superficially. The result? Experiences that feel like compliance checklists dressed up as products. Drop-off rates spike at onboarding. Support tickets pile up around features that should be self-explanatory. And customer satisfaction scores measured by CSAT(Customer Satisfaction Score) and NPS (Net Promoter Score, a measure of how likely customers are to recommend your product) stay stubbornly low despite expensive redesigns.
At Feelpixel, we design fintech experiences that balance security, usability, and trust helping BFSI brands simplify complex journeys without compromising compliance. From onboarding flows to everyday banking interactions, our solutions focus on reducing friction, improving clarity, and creating digital experiences users actually feel confident using.
The 10 Mistakes at a Glance
- Treating onboarding as a legal checkpoint rather than a welcome experience.
- Hiding critical actions behind too many navigation layers.
- Using jargon that confuses users instead of building their confidence.
- Making security feel punishing instead of reassuring.
- Neglecting accessibility and calling it a “nice to have”.
- Drowning users in notifications without context or control.
- Failing to design for low literacy and low digital fluency users.
- Treating the mobile app and web portal as separate universes.
- Building dashboards that display data but don’t help users decide.
Treating KYC Onboarding as a Legal Checkpoint
The root cause is organizational. Legal and compliance teams drive onboarding requirements, while UX teams are brought in late to “make it look nice.” The result is a 17-step document upload flow with zero progress indication, inconsistent error messages, and no explanation of why a document is being requested.
A common pattern:
How Feelpixel solved a similar UX challenge?
https://www.feelpixel.in/kotak-cherry/
The fix:
- A/B test your KYC completion rate with and without contextual microcopy. A single line like “We need this to keep your account secure” can reduce drop-off by 15–25%.
Burying Core Actions Under Too Many Navigation Layers
The most-used actions in a banking app like pay, transfer, check balance, add a payee should never be more than two taps away. When they’re buried under menus, users feel the app is working against them.
A common pattern:
How Feelpixel solved a similar UX challenge?
Case Study
The fix:
- Conduct a task frequency audit: identify the top 5 actions users perform, and surface them on the home screen or bottom navigation.
Using Financial Jargon That Alienates Users
Most users don’t know what “RTGS cutoff time,” “line amount,” or “available balance vs. current balance” mean and they shouldn’t have to. When financial apps use jargon without explanation, users either guess wrong or abandon the task.
A common pattern:
A user sees two balance figures on their account screen “Available Balance: ₹12,400” and “Current Balance: ₹15,000” with no explanation. They assume the lower number is wrong and call customer support. The difference is simply a pending transaction.
The fix:
- Replace or supplement every financial term with plain language explanations: “Available Balance (what you can spend right now)”
- Add inline tooltips (a small (i) icon) for unavoidable technical terms.
Designing for the Happy Path and Ignoring Error States
The fix:
- Map every failure scenario before you design any success state.
- Write error messages that name the problem, explain why it happened, and tell the user what to do next: “Transfer limit reached. Your daily IMPS limit is ₹1 lakh. [Increase Limit] [Try Tomorrow]”.
Making Security Feel Punishing Instead of Reassuring
Security is critical in BFSI, but many apps implement it through repeated logins, confusing session timeouts, and unexplained restrictions that make users feel frustrated instead of protected.
A common pattern:
A user who logs in using biometrics is asked to re-enter their full password after viewing a statement for more than 2 minutes, with no explanation. They wonder if they did something wrong.
- Use contextual re-authentication: step up security for high-risk actions (large transfers, profile changes) but don’t re-authenticate for passive browsing.
- Always explain why a security step is happening: “We ask for your PIN again when making transfers above ₹10,000”
Ignoring Low Literacy and Low Digital Fluency Users
Fintech products in large markets like India serve users across a vast spectrum of digital literacy. Designing only for urban, English-literate, smartphone-native users leaves a massive segment behind and often, that segment is the fastest-growing one.
A common pattern:
With limited self service understanding, users often need to contact customer support for basic queries, like tracking support ticket status. This reliance leads to frustration, as users are unsure when their issues would be resolved.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is UX in fintech?
UX (User Experience) in fintech is how easy, clear, and trustworthy a financial product feels to use. Poor fintech UX leads directly to drop-offs, support escalations, and churn.
Why is UX important for BFSI companies?
Digital-first challengers have shifted competition from rates and features to experience and poor UX has real costs: abandoned onboarding, higher support volume, and regulatory exposure.
What are the most common UX mistakes in banking apps?
The biggest offenders are friction-heavy onboarding, buried navigation, unexplained financial jargon, weak error states, and dashboards that show data without helping users act on it.
At Feelpixel, we help BFSI and fintech brands simplify complex user journeys, build trust through thoughtful design, and create digital products that users genuinely enjoy interacting with. Whether it’s onboarding, investing, banking, or payments we design experiences that feel intuitive, engaging, and human.
Feelpixel is a product design agency, building scalable digital experiences across e-commerce, SaaS, healthcare, and fintech.
Work with Feelpixel
Feelpixel Design, helps Fintech brands build high-conversion digital experiences through UX strategy, design systems, and product-focused UI design.
