Influencing User Experience Across Financial Products

How Aeropay is helping to improve the user experience of major financial applications through involvement with Financial Data Exchange (FDX).

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In the United States, consumers are increasingly using technology to manage their finances. In 2021, nearly 9 in 10 American consumers used some kind of fintech application to help with their finances, increasing by 52% from 2020. Financial applications are now among the most widely adopted of all consumer technologies.

As of 2021, over 80% of consumers have connected a bank account to at least one third-party financial app. Financial institutions are racing to support their customers’ preferences, and fintech providers are rapidly developing products to harness this wide-ranging market.

With this high-speed boom in fintech development over the past few years, consumers are often faced with inconsistent experiences, confusing instructions, and concerns around security. Recognizing this inconsistency across providers, Financial Data Exchange (FDX) has made it their mission to unify “the financial sector around a common standard for the secure and convenient access of permissioned consumer and business financial data.”

FDX is a non-profit industry standards body working to “empower end users to better understand, leverage, and benefit from their own financial data in a secure and reliable manner”, and has a “global membership that includes financial institutions, financial data aggregators, fintechs, industry utilities, payment networks, consumer groups, financial industry groups and other stakeholders in the financial sector.”

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Aeropay Involvement With FDX

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FDX has over 200 member organizations including 9 of the top 10 U.S. banks, 4 out of 5 of the largest financial core technology providers, and all of the largest financial data aggregators in North America.

Regardless of size, all FDX member organizations receive equal voting, participation and leadership rights. This allows for collaboration across financial organizations large and small with the unique opportunity for smaller companies to influence major decisions through voluntary effort in FDX working groups and task forces.

In 2022, Aeropay became a member of FDX and began investing time and resources to make an impact on key user experience decisions. In an organization consisting primarily of major financial institutions (data providers) and large financial aggregators (data intermediaries), Aeropay took an unconventional seat at the table as a young and lean payments provider (data recipient).

Identifying the opportunity to impact decision making through user-centered data and insights, Daniel Muller, Aeropay Founder & CEO, and Ryan Bush, UX & Design Manager, became Co-Chairs of the UX Research Task Force within the User Experience and Consent Working Group.

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UX Research in Open Banking

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Leading the UX Research Task Force, Aeropay conducted a comprehensive research project around open banking consent flows which included detailed usability testing and user-centered focus group research. The findings from this project identified core, end-user concerns around connecting their banks to third-party financial apps. 

First, non-descriptive labels and instructions cause confusion. When presented with labels that were generic or non-descriptive, users often misunderstood the intended message. This proves problematic when attempting to generate trust and provide users with a frictionless flow. It is best to present users with labels that are specific and accurate to what’s being described.

Next, users are more comfortable when presented with detailed messaging around transparency and security. Users are interested in understanding exactly how their data is being used and what security measures are in place. Additional messaging can add to the complexity of a page; however, users are more likely to complete the flow when this information is readily available.

Additionally, the data revealed best practices for user interface elements presented during these flows. It is best to design UI elements that are easily clickable on all devices for users with dexterity issues. Furthermore, these consent pages should utilize descriptive icons to provide additional context, and contain minimal branding elements.

In October 2022, Ryan Bush and Beverly Dines, Aeropay Director of Operations, presented findings from the project at the FDX Global Summit in Dallas. The presentation brought end-user experience to the forefront of the summit conversation.

Prominent FDX contributors were able to hear about the most critical obstacles in current user flows and proposed solutions identified in the insights. In following summit sessions, findings from the presentation were consistently brought up as essential considerations for future user experience decisions. 

In addition to bringing the research findings top-of-mind for FDX leaders, the presentation also helped to facilitate questions for future research projects. Giving key stakeholders a view into user concerns and friction points within consent flows prompted analysis into other user flows and how they might be improved.

Insights from the project were taken into consideration by FDX working groups, and the recommendations have influenced decisions being made for the next FDX API release.

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Future Involvement and Opportunities

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Moving into 2023 and beyond, Aeropay continues to expand its participation and impact within FDX.

As Co-Chair of the UX Research Task Force, Ryan Bush has worked to operationalize research for future scalability. By recruiting additional task force participants across several member organizations and creating processes for intaking and conducting research, the team is now ready to take on ambitious projects moving forward.

Continuing to contribute to the UX Working Group, Beverly Dines has also joined the FDX Conference Planning committee to help plan future summits and increase member collaboration.

Aeropay is determined to improve financial technology experiences through involvement with FDX. Additional Aeropay team members continue to get involved with various FDX task forces, bringing a user-centered perspective to initiatives involving some of the largest financial organizations in the United States.