back to latest articles

User Centered Design

What is User Centered Design (UCD) in banking and Fintech?

The definition of User Centered Design (UCD) or Human Centered Design (HCD) is: a methodology of creating products or services that provide solutions based on the human or user perspective in a problem-solving process. The term, "user centered design" was first introduced by Donald A. Norman in his 1986 book, User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-computer Interaction.


The User Centered Design process in banking consists of:

  1. defining the full user context (e.g., user psychology, user behavior, pain points, user flow of using service or product, interactions) 
  2. identifying the requirements 
  3. designing a solution 
  4. testing the results

User expectations are defined in the first stage of the design and became the core of an engineering and validation solution.

User Centered Design in banking, sometimes called Customer Centered Design, is focused on researching and empathizing with banking users to architect financial services that provide for them a delightful user experience. The best service design agencies to hire for such a job are UX design agencies, and especially UXDA, which is the first financial UX design agency of its kind.

User Centered Design methodology includes: 

  • user personas 
  • user scenarios
  • use cases, etc.


The main UCD principles in banking and Fintech:

  1. The design is defined by a deep knowledge of users and their context;
  2. Users participate in design engineering and development;
  3. The design is tested and proved on users;
  4. The design process is iterative;
  5. The solution design provides a holistic user experience;
  6. The UCD team has multidisciplinary experience and knowledge.

The award-winning UXDA design agency has successfully integrated all of these principles into Financial UX Design Methodology to architect world-class digital financial services.

Check out the best articles by UXDA about User Centered Design in banking.

10 Powerful Design Thinking Quotes To Shake The Banking Industry

Embrace the essence of design and customer-centered thinking in the form of a brilliant quotes collection.

UXDA Methodology: Banking Needs Purpose-Driven Mindset for the Digital Age

There are hugely successful digital companies that achieve fantastic results with minimal resources. What's their secret? We’ve identified five brilliant trends that lead the transition to digital and make it successful.

Underestimated Power of Design in Banking Digital Transformation

There's a great misconception about digital products that not a lot of people are aware of - design is NOT a matter of how your product looks like, it is about what your customer feels, the emotions.

Why Core Banking Solution Can Ruin Success and Cost You Billion

Out of date back-office systems hold banks back from digitizing and providing the best user experience. We collected a number of real-life cases that demonstrate the dramatic impact inner culture has on customers.

Bank Digital Transformation Strategy Depends on Mindset

We are witnessing how digital technology disrupts the financial industry. Placing the focus on customer expectations and behavior completely changes the rules of the game ─ something that new technology implementation is not achieving for everyone. Why?

Solve Pain Points through Information Architecture in Banking Product

Finance Digitalisation causes many banks to adjust their approach to the development of their products and services. Today, more and more financial companies evolve by creating user-centered services and simpler and more convenient solutions...

Purpose-Driven FinTech Design Should Address Brain's Seeking System

Every day, millions of people, both offline and online, do not make their desired purchases. Let's take a look at how to get the Fintech product design right to deal with this.

Banks Are Losing Customers Because of These UX Mistakes

Capgemini and Efma released their annual Retail Banking Report and there are 3 key findings about banking user experience.

Financial Services Design from the Perspective of Psychology and Neuroscience

Why people are bad at understanding and planning finances? People are frustrated by financial services, but banking technology have a solution.