Make a £5 payment
You’re a bank. Besides the fact that you’ve probably got a few hundred other cool features in the backlog that you’ll roll out for various customer segments, at the end of the day, you’re a bank. And because you’re a bank, you need to be able to send £5 from your customer’s account to another bank account and do it really, really well - simple, fast and secure. This has UX and interaction design written all over it.
Going into battle here are two fintechs at wildly different stages in their development. One is Monese. The other a relative newcomer to personal banking - Bó by Natwest.
Monese
Bó
Monese
Pay. It sits bang in the middle of Monese’s nav. Tap it and you enter planet pay, where you can ‘pay friends nearby’, ‘send money globally’, request money or set up a standing order. It takes a beat to find the floaty ‘New payment’ button, but tap it and you’re off.
A tidy bunch of payment forms that I assume have been tested within an inch of their lives. Still, some interesting detail / quirks. Monese tells us that 1 GBP = 1.0000 GBP when we’re entering account details. Probably hanging about in case I want to send money in a different currency? And the message ‘This is FREE’ when adding the amount to send makes me question, what ISN’T FREE?
Then, a rather amazing slider to confirm the payment. It looks fun and authoritative at the same time. A satisfyingly simple draggable device that pulls a rainbow of brand colours in its wake. How awesome it’s not another blooming button saying Pay Now? Lovely.
A text message is used for security and the confirmation screen surfaces an invite mechanic.
What about that slider though?
Bó
For a minute or so I’m clicking around the Bó app playing the where-is-the-make-a-payment-button game. It turns out that it was right in front of me, top left of the ‘Spending’ screen in a 36x36px icon that has two arrows (and no copy). I’m a new customer, what do I know? But, now I know and we’re on our way.
The first step of making a payment takes us to the payee list, with a sweet illustration for the empty state. This is great UX. I now know that once I’ve paid someone, their details will be stored here for next time. Tap ‘Pay someone new’ gives me a reassuring scam disclaimer message that I have to opt-in to to proceed.
Payment details are sucked in via some crisp form design though the mandatory ‘Add a reference’ field could do with feeling like a proper input here. The categorisation step will help Bó with the budgeting calculations, no doubt. Authorisation via passcode feels more natural, but maybe slightly less secure than Monese’s SMS?
The Bó design system is tight compared to a lot of other fintech apps. The illustrations help the interface to feel light and airy. Making a payment isn’t magical but it works well and feels solid.
