Taken from this LinkedIn post by Dean Casey:
Is your wealth management app just another investment dashboard with fancy performance charts?
Stop right there.
After helping 50+ wealth managers transform their digital presence, I’ve noticed a concerning pattern: everyone rushes to build feature-rich apps, but they’re building on shaky ground.
Here’s the hard truth
Those sleek portfolio analytics and real-time trading features won’t matter if you’re missing the essential foundation that makes users actually want to use your app.
Let’s dive into what actually matters:
1️⃣ Brand recognition & intuitive UX
This is best explained with an question.
Why do Apple iPhone owners queue up for days before the release of the next version?
The answer:
Apple iPhone owners are proud to own the latest iPhone. It is not merely new technology. It is a status symbol!
Isn’t that what you want with your brand?
The goal is to make your app simple and easy to use.
Here are some quick tips to consider:
✅ Colour Palette: Your app should use a maximum of 3 main colors that match your brand. Any more is just noise and clutter.
👉 Pro tip: Get someone to hold your phone 3 feet away from you and have them navigate through your app. The important data and buttons should still be clearly visible to you.
✅ Simple Navigation: Think about how Apple designs its products. You don’t need a manual to use an iPhone, right? That’s what we aim for. Use clear icons and labels. Put the most important features front and centre.
✅ KISS: Keep it simple s…. Only the features that your users really need. Less is more! and more cost-effective.
Make users proud to use your app. They will show off your brand and promote your business!
2️⃣ Security & encryption
One of the MAJOR benefits of a mobile app is additional security. Emails can be phished, go to junk. Mobile apps are more secure.
Here’s what we implement:
✅ Biometric Authentication: Enable Face ID or fingerprint login. It’s faster and more secure than passwords. And, it saves the user writing their hard-to-remember password on a post-it note.
✅ Data Encryption: Ensure all data is encrypted, both when it’s stored on the device and when it’s being sent. This means even if someone intercepts the data, they can’t read it.
✅ Multi-Factor Authentication: For extra-sensitive actions like instruction approvals we add an additional verification step.
Security and data encryption are non-negotiable in the financal world!
3️⃣ Responsive design
You need to ensure a seamless experience across all devices and screen sizes.
Do buttons disappear off the screen? What about the keyboard getting in the way and hiding things.
Doesn’t that drive you nuts!
Imagine what your user thinks? This app is supposed to delight them, not frustrate them.
Your app needs to look great and work perfectly whether it’s on a small phone in portrait mode or a tablet in landscape mode, and everything in between.
Some key considerations for responsive design:
✅ Adapt the navigation: Adjust the menus and navigation to suit the device size. Phone navigation is most often bottom buttons or hamburger menu. Tablet is most often a navigation panel on the left and drop downs on the top.
✅Scrolling widgets:Provide obvious clues to the user that there is more data off the screen.
✅ Testing: Make sure you test on multiple REAL devices, portrait and landscape, before launch. If you don’t, your user will.
✅ Scalable Typography: Design text to scale proportionally with screen size. Bigger for phones and smaller for tablets
❌Responsive design, the most often overlooked element of a digital platform!
4️⃣ Limited connectivity handling
Not everyone has perfect internet connectivity all the time. So, the important thing is how to does your app handle poor connectivity?
Here’s how we handle poor connections:
✅ User feedback: Let the user know that data is loading. But do not endlessly display a loading indicator. Give the user a chance to stop the current request.
✅ Shimmer Screens: While content is loading, we show animated “placeholder” content. This gives users visual feedback that the app is working, even if it’s slow.
✅ Optimise data transfer: Make sure that all data retrieved from the server is as small as possible. Especially images!
✅ Offline Mode: We store key data locally (encrypted) on the device. This means users can still see their portfolio summary or recent transactions, even without internet.
Poor connectivity handling and lack of feedback is a recipe for a 1 star review on the app store
5️⃣ User analytics & error handling
You have built your perfect app and deployed it to the app stores. It looks great and has all of the functionality that your users demand.
Now, how are your users using it? Do you know you user’s habits and usage patterns?
It’s not enough to build an app. You need to understand how it’s being used:
✅ Usage Patterns: We track which features are used most often and at what times. For example, we might find that younger users check their investments daily, while older users prefer weekly summaries.
✅ Error Tracking: If a user encounters an error, we log it. This helps us fix bugs quickly and improve the app.
✅ Feedback Loop: Include easy ways for users to request features or give feedback directly in the app. This valuable input drives our updates.
👉 Pro Tip: consider using an analytics tool like LogRocket User Analytics to get advanced usage patterns and user trends
BONUS: Accessibility – Designing for everyone
Did you know that a significant portion of wealth management clients are “silver surfers”– our tech-savvy older users?
With age often comes visual and physical challenges, making accessibility not just a nice-to-have, but essential.
Making your app accessible isn’t just about compliance – it’s about ensuring ALL your clients can manage their wealth with confidence
Here’s how to make your app fully accessible:
✅ Text-to-Speech Integration: Let your app speak! Many users prefer having information read to them, whether due to visual impairments or simply multitasking.
✅ Smart Text Scaling: Your text should grow with user needs. Ensure your layouts flex and adapt when users increase their font size. Refer to point 3 above. Ensure there are no broken interfaces!
✅ Color Confidence: Not everyone sees colors the same way. Use strong contrast ratios and avoid color-only indicators. Your charts and graphs should be clear to everyone, including color-blind users.
✅ Screen Reader Friendly: Label everything properly for screen readers. Those tiny details make a huge difference for visually impaired users navigating your app.
👉 Pro Tip: Test your app with VoiceOver (iOS) or TalkBack (Android) enabled. If you can navigate your app with your eyes closed, you’re on the right track!
Remember: WCAG and ADA compliance isn’t just about avoiding legal issues – it’s about serving ALL your clients effectively.
An accessible app is a successful app.
These foundational elements are often overlooked but are absolutely critical.
They’re the difference between an app users love and one they abandon.
Ignore them at your peril!
Over the last 25 years, we’ve helped 50+ wealth managers grow through automation and superior client experiences. We know what works.
Stay tuned and have a great weekend!
Want to see how we’ve implemented these in our mobile apps for wealth managers? Contact me and send “MOBILE APP” for a private chat on how this works in practice.