Banking UX Beyond Usability: How to Create Financial Products Customers Desire

Modern financial products need more than functionality—they need emotional appeal and user engagement. This principle is especially crucial in financial services. Successful financial apps like Revolut and Cash App thrive by creating charming customer experiences (CX) in banking that go beyond basic functionality. In this article, we will look at how "emotional design" could provide inspiration and insight into the creation of a financial product to make it attractive to users, and ultimately a market leader.

Who was it? In the 90s, a company was on the brink of bankruptcy. Its founder gathered the managers and asked, "Do you know what the problem is?" When no one could offer a clear answer, he declared, "The products suck! There's no sex in them anymore." He was not talking literally about sex. He was pointing to something that many mature industries eventually lose: desirability. Yes, you guessed it—this is the story of Steve Jobs and Apple.

A product can be technically capable, reliable and usable—and still leave people indifferent.

Now, you might argue, "But that was Steve Jobs with innovative gadgets—financial products are different; they’re just boring balance and transaction numbers." Think again. Banking increasingly faces the same challenge. 

Payments, cards, transfers, savings, investments and even AI capabilities are becoming available across competing institutions. When functionality converges, the strategic question changes from “Does the product work?” to “Why should customers prefer this one?”

Desirability in banking UX is the degree to which customers not only find a financial product useful and usable, but actively prefer, remember and want to engage with it. It emerges from the combination of functional value, usability, aesthetics, emotional resonance, Digital Brand Identity, personalization and the overall quality of the customer relationship.

A desirable banking product does not simply eliminate friction. It creates preference.

Just look at apps like Revolut, Cash App and Nubank. They are genuinely "sexy", and today, they boast as many clients as the top three U.S. banks: Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. There’s more in common between sex and banking than you might think, and today we’ll explore how to use "sex appeal" to create a killer financial product.

What Steve Jobs’ “Sex Appeal” Means for Banking Products

In Fintech and banking, where trust, security and reliability are paramount, adding "sex appeal" to products might seem counterintuitive, even inappropriate. But in mentioning "sex," Jobs wasn’t talking about intimacy or superficial aesthetics. Rather, he was talking about creating products that evoke emotion, passion and a deep connection with users. He meant designing products that people love, not just tolerate. Adding "sex appeal" means injecting innovation, excitement and a seamless customer experience into banking and financial products that have historically been seen as utilitarian and, frankly, boring.

In product design, “sex appeal” is a metaphor for desirability—the quality that makes people emotionally attracted to a product rather than merely accepting it as functional.

For banking, this does not mean adding provocative aesthetics or entertainment everywhere. It means creating an experience customers actively prefer because it combines usefulness, simplicity, trust, personality and emotional resonance.

Financial services have historically been highly utilitarian. Digital banking creates an opportunity to move from purely transactional relationships toward experiences that feel more personal, distinctive and valuable.

A visually polished banking app can create a strong first impression, but desirability is not simply aesthetics. Customers continue using products because visual quality, usability, utility, trust and emotional value work together. A beautiful interface that creates confusion, anxiety or poor service will quickly lose its appeal.

1. Functionality: Can the product perform the required financial task?
2. Usability: Can customers perform that task easily, clearly and confidently?
3. Desirability: Do customers prefer this experience to alternatives—and does it create an emotional reason to return?

Functionality makes a product possible. Usability makes it accessible. Desirability makes it preferable.

For a decade the UXDA team has been focused on humanizing financial services and has designed a user experience for leading digital financial products in 39 countries. And if we are talking about "sex" here, let's compare development of the banking CX to the well-known sexual revolution.

From Utilitarian to Emotional

During the medieval period, particularly in Europe, the influence of Christianity led to a more restrictive view of sex, often emphasizing its utilitarian function for procreation within marriage and associating it with sin and shame. The Renaissance brought a renewed interest in humanism. Art, literature and philosophy during this period began to reflect a more nuanced view of sex, acknowledging its emotional dimension.

The 18th-century Enlightenment further shifted attitudes toward sex. Thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau began to challenge traditional views and advocate for personal freedom, including sexual expression. The rise of romantic literature emphasized the emotional aspects of love and sex, and movements for women's rights began to challenge traditional sexual norms.

The 20th century brought us the Freudian Revolution, with theories on sexuality and the unconscious, causing a significant shift in understanding human sexuality as a fundamental part of human identity and emotional life. The western sexual revolution of the 1960s-1970s marked a profound change in attitudes toward sex, driven by factors such as the development of birth control, the feminist movement and greater openness in discussing sexual issues.

We have described movement from purely utilitarian thinking toward greater recognition of human emotion and individual experience. Banking is undergoing a similar transition—from designing primarily around transactions and internal processes toward understanding how customers actually perceive, feel and value their financial relationships.

For centuries, banking was primarily about providing essential financial services like deposits, withdrawals, loans and savings. The interaction between banks and customers was mainly transactional, focusing on the functional aspects of managing money.

You probably think there is nothing more boring than designing banking apps and serving financial customers. But think again. Digital technology has started placing a significant emphasis on creating a positive and engaging customer experience in banking. The banking sector has seen a rise in innovative digital services, such as mobile banking, online financial management tools, AI services and next-gen apps, designed to enhance the user experience and make banking more accessible and enjoyable for everyone. 

Some financial digital product experiences with desirable "sex appeal" in the industry can be explored in our portfolio.

How Banking Is Moving From Utility to Desirability

These transformation in banking perceptions reflect broader societal changes toward valuing personal fulfillment, emotional engagement and positive experiences. They underscore a shift from purely functional and utilitarian perspectives to ones that prioritize human connection, satisfaction and individual needs:

1. From Standardization to Personal Relevance

Customers increasingly expect products to reflect their context, needs and goals.

2. From Transactions to Relationships

The experience between transactions becomes increasingly important through guidance, insights and proactive support.

3. From Functional Brand to Digital Brand Identity

The brand is experienced through product behavior, communication and interaction—not just advertising.

4. From Satisfaction to Preference

A successful experience should not merely avoid dissatisfaction; it should give customers a reason to choose the institution over comparable alternatives.

For instance, the anticipation of an intimate encounter can be compared with the excitement of receiving a paycheck or a money transfer. Similarly, anxiety about performance in sex can be compared to the nerves one might feel when applying for a loan or investing in stocks. Just as a fulfilling sexual experience leaves a lasting positive impression, a smooth financial transaction, a notification of received income or a successful investment can also provide deep satisfaction.

Feature Parity Makes Desirability Even More Important

As banking functionality converges, individual features become easier to match. Payments, budgeting, virtual cards, investments, personalization and AI capabilities increasingly spread across the market.

When customers can obtain similar functionality from multiple providers, competitive advantage shifts toward how those capabilities are combined, expressed and experienced. Desirability becomes the layer that turns functional parity into customer preference.

Features answer “What can I do?” Desirability answers “Why do I want to do it here?”

Benchmarking can improve usability, but excessive imitation creates sameness. When every bank adopts the same layouts, features and interaction patterns, customers lose reasons to form preference beyond price or convenience.

Desirability requires deliberate distinctiveness—not usability at the expense of usability, but recognizable choices grounded in the institution’s own strategy and Digital Brand Identity. Because desirability becomes strategically stronger when it is distinctive rather than generic. 

Digital Brand Identity translates the institution’s purpose, personality and positioning into recognizable product behavior through visual language, interaction patterns, communication, motion, personalization and emotional tone. Without Digital Brand Identity, a polished experience can still feel interchangeable. With it, the customer begins to associate particular feelings and behaviors with one financial brand.

Feature parity makes desirability economically important. When functionality is easily replicated, customer preference increasingly depends on the total experience surrounding that functionality.

How Desirable Banking Products Create Business Value

A desirable digital financial product offers outstanding benefits to banks and financial service companies. After spending a decade designing hundreds of financial products, the UXDA team is convinced that creating a product that is not only functional but also engaging, appealing and emotionally resonant can deliver significant rewards for financial institutions.

A desirable digital financial product can revolutionize the relationship between banks and their customers. A more desirable digital experience can contribute to stronger satisfaction, engagement and preference, which in turn can support retention, adoption and relationship value. Moreover, it positions the bank as an innovative leader in the market, opening up new avenues for growth and success.

In an industry often perceived as dry and utilitarian, adding a touch of "sex appeal" can be a game changer. A desirable digital financial product goes beyond aesthetics and functionality to create a holistic, engaging and innovative banking CX that benefits both the user and the financial institution.

1. Stronger Customer Preference

Customers have a clearer reason to choose the bank when comparable functionality exists elsewhere.

2. Higher Digital Adoption

Customers are more willing to move behaviors into digital channels when the experience feels valuable and easy to use.

3. Greater Engagement and Relationship Depth

Relevant, emotionally resonant experiences can encourage customers to explore more of the ecosystem.

4. Stronger Brand Perception

Digital experience can reinforce an institution’s positioning as modern, premium, empowering, simple or innovative.

5. Increased Loyalty and Advocacy

Customers are more likely to remain with and recommend brands they value beyond basic utility.

6. Competitive Differentiation

Desirability helps make otherwise similar financial functionality feel recognizably different.

Why Desirability Shapes Perceived Value in Banking

Customers do not evaluate digital financial services only through objective functionality. Visual quality, clarity, language, responsiveness and emotional tone influence how polished, trustworthy and valuable the overall service feels.

This does not mean aesthetics can rescue poor functionality. Research on aesthetics and usability shows that both instrumental and non-instrumental qualities contribute to overall product appeal, while poor usability can reduce perceived beauty over time.

UXDA’s Dopamine Banking concept represents one mechanism for increasing desirability through positive reinforcement, visible progress, achievement and emotionally rewarding feedback. But desirability is broader: it also depends on trust, Digital Brand Identity, clarity, relevance and product craft. 

In consumer technology, attraction can sometimes precede trust. In finance, the two need to reinforce each other. An exciting interface that feels unpredictable, opaque or manipulative can quickly destroy preference because customers are entrusting the institution with money, identity and consequential decisions.

The strongest banking experiences combine attraction with reassurance: distinctive enough to create desire, reliable enough to deserve trust.

But financial institutions should not use emotional design to maximize activity regardless of customer outcome. Desirability should help customers understand, control and improve their financial lives—not encourage unnecessary borrowing, speculative behavior or compulsive engagement.

A product worth wanting should also be a product worth trusting.

7 Signs Your Banking App Lacks Desirability

• Customers describe it as functional but not distinctive.
• Competitor screenshots could easily be mistaken for yours.
• Brand expression is mostly limited to logo and color.
• Emotional experience is not defined intentionally.
• Product teams benchmark competitors more than customers.
• Engagement depends primarily on functional necessity.
• Customers struggle to explain why they prefer your digital experience.

What Makes a Banking Product Desirable

Just as Jobs reignited passion for Apple by adding "sex" to its products, Fintech and banking products can be transformed from mundane to extraordinary by focusing on the banking CX, emotional connections and seamless design. 

At the heart of every financial transaction is a human being—and humans crave experiences that are not just functional but also delightful, engaging and, yes, even a little "sexy". By applying these principles, we can create digital products that people not only use but love:

1. Human Relevance: Make the Product Understand the Customer Context

Banking products often feel cold and impersonal. To humanize the experience we can use language that resonates with the audience, employ visuals that connect emotionally and ensure every touchpoint feels personalized. Think of how Apple's devices seem to understand their users' needs almost intuitively—that’s the level of empathy your financial product should strive for. But the tone should feel human and appropriate to the financial situation rather than artificially casual.

Example: Instead of a formal notification about a low account balance, craft a message that speaks clear: "Your available balance may not cover your upcoming payments. Add funds, review scheduled payments or set a reminder."

2. Emotional Value: Create the Right Feeling at the Right Moment

Delight in banking? Absolutely! Adding small moments of joy can turn a mundane task into something users look forward to. Whether it’s through micro-interactions, playful animations or unexpected rewards, these elements make your product memorable. Desirability can come from:

• reassurance;
• confidence;
• progress;
• achievement;
• control;
• occasional delight.

Example: When a user successfully completes a financial goal or milestone, celebrate it with a small animation or a personalized message. It’s like the confetti that rains down in fitness apps when you hit your step goal—it’s simple but makes you feel good.

3. Effortless Clarity: Simplify Without Removing Financial Depth

One of the reasons traditional banking products often lack "sex appeal" is because they are overly complex. Simplifying these processes and making them intuitive can drastically change how users perceive and interact with your product. Remember, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Desirable financial products make complexity feel manageable without hiding information customers need to make responsible decisions.

Example: Consider the process of applying for a loan. Traditionally, this is a long, tedious process filled with jargon and complex forms. By breaking it down into simple, understandable steps and using plain language, you can make this experience more accessible and engaging.

4. Digital Brand Identity: Make the Experience Recognizably Yours

A visual identity defines appearance. Digital Brand Identity extends this into behavior, language, motion, interaction and emotion. This goes beyond just looking good. It’s about creating a visual experience that aligns with your brand’s values and resonates with your target audience. Consistent colors, typography and design elements across all platforms help build trust and recognition.

Example: Look at how Apple’s visual design is instantly recognizable—from the clean lines to the minimalist approach, every element is crafted to reflect the brand’s ethos. In Fintech, creating a similarly strong visual identity can make your product stand out in a crowded market.

5. Meaningful Progress: Connect Banking to Customers’ Real Goals

Money is inherently emotional—it’s tied to our dreams, anxieties and self-worth. To add "sex" to Fintech and banking products, simply tap into these emotions. Craft experiences that acknowledge these feelings and help users navigate them with confidence.

Example: A savings app that doesn’t just track progress but also sends encouraging messages like, "You’re doing great! Just $100 more to hit your savings goal!" Or one that offers advice when users are falling behind.

6. Positive Reinforcement: Make Progress Visible and Rewarding

Gamification has proven to be an effective way to engage users across various industries, and Fintech is no exception. By adding elements of play, you can transform mundane financial tasks into something more enjoyable.

Example: Implement a rewards system for completing certain actions, like saving money or paying off debt. These rewards could be points, badges or even tangible benefits like lower fees or interest rates.

7. Product Craft: Make Every Interaction Feel Intentional

In today’s world, users expect their products to work seamlessly across all their devices. A banking app that works well on a desktop but poorly on a mobile device is a surefire way to frustrate users. To add "sex appeal", ensure that your product offers a consistent, high-quality banking CX no matter where it’s accessed.

Example: Develop a responsive design that adapts beautifully to any screen size, and ensure that all features are fully functional on both mobile and desktop versions. Instant account setup, real-time notifications and one-click transactions can make your product feel more dynamic and modern.

The Most Desirable Banking Products Are Wanted, Not Just Needed

Banking products will always need to perform essential functions reliably. But functionality alone is increasingly insufficient when competitors offer similar capabilities and customers compare banking with the best digital experiences in every other category.

Desirability adds the layer that turns a functional product into a preferred one. It combines usefulness and usability with emotional value, recognizable Digital Brand Identity, meaningful progress and exceptional product craft.

Steve Jobs’ provocative use of “sex” was ultimately about this distinction. Great products do more than perform their function—they create attraction and preference. In banking, however, that attraction must always be supported by trust, transparency and responsible customer outcomes.

The objective is not to make banking superficially sexy. It is to create a digital experience customers would genuinely choose even when comparable alternatives are only a tap away.

Banking UX Desirability: Key Questions

What makes a banking app desirable?

A desirable banking app combines useful functionality and intuitive usability with emotional value, distinctive Digital Brand Identity, personalization and product craft. Customers not only accomplish their tasks but develop a reason to prefer the experience over comparable alternatives.

What is desirability in UX?

Desirability is the quality that makes users actively want, prefer or feel attracted to a product beyond its basic usefulness. In banking, it emerges from the interaction of functionality, usability, trust, emotional resonance, aesthetics and brand identity.

Is a beautiful banking app automatically desirable?

No. Visual aesthetics can influence product perception, but long-term desirability depends on the overall experience. A visually attractive banking app that is difficult, unreliable or confusing will struggle to maintain customer preference.

Why does desirability matter in digital banking?

As banking features become increasingly similar, functionality alone provides less differentiation. Desirability can help turn comparable capabilities into customer preference by creating a more distinctive, relevant and emotionally valuable experience.

What is the difference between usability and desirability in banking?

Usability determines whether customers can complete financial tasks efficiently and clearly. Desirability goes further by determining whether they actively prefer that experience and want to continue using it.

How does Digital Brand Identity increase banking app desirability?

Digital Brand Identity translates a bank’s positioning and personality into recognizable product behavior through visuals, language, interaction, motion and emotional tone. It gives customers something distinctive to associate with the experience instead of encountering another generic banking interface.

Can emotional design make financial products more desirable?

Yes, when the emotional response is appropriate to the financial context. Confidence, progress, reassurance, control and occasional delight can make financial experiences more meaningful and memorable.

Does desirability mean adding more animations or gamification?

No. Animations and gamification are only tools. Desirability can also come from exceptional clarity, personalization, trust, distinctive communication, effortless interaction or meaningful progress toward a financial goal.

How does feature parity affect banking desirability?

When competitors offer similar functionality, customers have fewer functional reasons to choose one provider. Experience quality, emotional value, Digital Brand Identity and trust therefore become more important sources of preference.

Can banking UX be too engaging?

Yes. Financial UX should not maximize engagement at the expense of customer wellbeing. Positive reinforcement should support beneficial financial behavior rather than encourage unnecessary transactions, borrowing or compulsive use.

How can banks measure product desirability?

Banks can combine behavioral signals such as adoption, repeat usage, retention and recommendation with qualitative research into customer preference, emotional response, perceived value and brand differentiation. The goal is to understand not only whether customers can use the product but why they would choose it over alternatives.

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