Trust, Simplified: The Future of Financial UX/UI

I’m Julie Tran, a 2025 Summer Intern at The Ricciardi Group, and rising senior at NYU studying Media, Culture, and Communication. One of my projects this summer is to dive into a topic that I am passionate about. In this blog, I explore how intentional UX/UI choices can help brands better resonate with younger generations and serve as a key differentiator in an increasingly digital-first world.

The first time that I had to get renter’s insurance, Lemonade came consistently recommended as the leading, digital-first affordable option. After trying it out for myself, I immediately understood why. With no prior understanding of the process, their simple app interface and conversational onboarding struck me as a masterclass in UX/UI. In less than 5 minutes, I had renter’s insurance and felt good about it. It was love at first swipe.

This is when a good combination of user experience mapping and an intuitive interface is not just about having nice visuals, but a competitive advantage. 

We all grew up with the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, but the truth is that we can’t help it. Why is that?

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Look Good, Feel Good

Enter the aesthetic-usability effect. First introduced in 1996 by researchers at the Hitachi Design Center, they found that design aesthetics—visual elements such as white space, color palette, typography—and functionality were intertwined in impacting the user experience while testing their new ATM’s UI. When something looks good, it makes the users feel good too. 

Today’s users demand experiences that are as intuitive as they are intelligent. A nice landing page or minimalist mobile homescreen is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.

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Mobile-First. Gen Z Next.

Forrester’s 2024 report found that over two-thirds of users globally prefer using mobile apps over other channels for managing their finances. Meanwhile, a generational shift in wealth is underway: according to our global wealth report, Money Changes Everything: The Evolving Global Wealth Landscape, $84 trillion is expected to be passed down to younger generations in the U.S. alone. This younger cohort—notably Gen Z and Millennials—relies more heavily on social media to stay updated on current news and events. For a digitally native generation like them, intuitive design has become the baseline. 

Given that Gen Z and Millennials will soon have the most spending power, the financial sector will need to ensure that it meets this audience’s preferences through design choices that emphasize personalization, authenticity, simplicity, and community.

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Leaders in Look and Logic

A number of brands have caught the younger audience’s eyes and have begun writing the financial UX/UI playbook that their B2B brethren could take a page from:

• Klarna reassures users with a soft, fuchsia-driven palette and irreverent wording, though it’s their use of quirky abstract humanoid characters that makes buying now and paying later less transactional and more of an aspirational, personal lifestyle choice

• Revolut’s robust app customization options—my favorite being the extensive widgets section—coupled with gamified features, like transfer payments that double as raffle entries, are housed neatly within a sleek pastel palette to make it truly feel like the Swiss-army-knife of finance apps

• Chime, the connector that ports data between financial institutions, defies the finance industry’s stereotypical color palette of blue and white and invites users into the people’s bank – featuring no jargon, vector characters in everyday scenarios and clean-cut visuals, so banking can feel more like a relatable conversation than a lecture

• Robinhood has mastered the art of boiling down investing into a central hub, a few intuitive gestures, and a swipe-ready interface; in between its hints of neon green and dynamic characters, it makes investing feel effortless and readily accessible even for a first-time investor 

• Credit Karma’s minimalist dashboard outlined with green accents commands your visual hierarchy to focus on what matters most – your credit score and bite-sized insights; paired with rounded and abstract iconography, the interface remains calm and helps alleviate the complexity of personal finance

So What Does This Mean for B2B Marketers?

Although the above examples aren’t exclusive to B2B, they still offer insights on how to create engaging mobile experiences – a must-have for any brand targeting Gen Z and beyond. Here are the notable emerging trends that are shaping the digitally fluent future of finance marketing:

1. Intentional illustrations over generic imagery – instead of simply replacing stock photos with vector drawings, take it a step further and involve lively characters, dynamic gradients, or minimalist abstract visual elements in your identity that align with your brand mission 
2. Eye-catching color systems – forget about blue and white, your competitors, like Klarna and Robinhood, are tapping into pastels and radiant neons to differentiate in a highly regulated, homogenous field 
3. Conversational copy – reducing jargon and introducing a more relaxed tone is exactly how to lower the barriers of entry for new users
4. Community-driven UX – having centralized dashboards double as connection hubs that showcase not only the user’s accomplishments, but also shared goals, reinforce social proof, and real connections

Regardless of whether your audience is institutional buyers or PE firms, they’re still human. So, how do you appeal to them?

1. Make a lasting first impression – it only takes 50 milliseconds for a user to decide whether or not to click out of your app, so make sure that you start strong with a visual hook and simple layout throughout, so you can let your product shine
2. Bold is the new blue – don’t be afraid to make room for contrasting or pastel colors and fun typography in your brand kit instead of sticking with the classic blues and whites
3. Humanize your CX – make room for emotion and personality by switching the stock photos out for more abstract elements and characters
4. Grow with your user – introducing customization options, from minor things like renaming your account or noticeable changes like adding widgets to homescreens, can be the difference between a loyal customer and an uninterested one
5. Audit, A/B test, repeat – commit to continuously learning and be willing to make mistakes in the process – that’s how you can show transparency and build deeper trust with your customers 

In financial services, trust is currency. A beautiful UX/UI cannot be reduced to an afterthought, and it certainly cannot be considered a distraction from a firm’s credibility; aesthetics is part of your credibility. This does not solely mean having flashy designs, but creating a frictionless experience and emotional connection with the user. As FinTech and digital-first platforms continue to imbue the finance sector, it is your job to provide the contemporary user with the clarity, empathy, and consistency that they expect.

Design your product like it belongs in the future and your customers will want to follow you there.