Designing FinTech Applications for Older Adults: Evaluating Previous Design Guidelines and Recommendations by Semi-structured Interviews, Usability Testing, and Prototyping
2024 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
In today's digital age, the concept of combining finance and technology called FinTech, has revolutionized financial services, making them more accessible through mobile applications. However, a significant knowledge gap exists among older adults (aged 70-85), who face usability challenges with these banking apps (Wahab et al.,2021). Despite an increase in Internet use among older age groups in recent years (SCB, 2022), many still struggle with FinTech applications due to physical, cognitive, and motivational factors (Gomez-Hernandez et al., 2023). The shift towards digital services and lack of familiarity is something that leads to older adults feeling excluded (Clarke, 2022). This study aims to gather and evaluate previous design guidelines regarding mobile UI and UX for older adults, with the goal of finding ways to improve the general user interaction, inclusivity, and independence for this demographic in Sweden. Previous guidelines and recommendations were gathered and existing Swedish banking apps were looked into. These guidelines and findings were then used to create a prototype of a fictitious banking app that was tested by usability testing. Five participants aged 71-82 were recruited through purposive sampling. During the data collection, qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews and usability tests were used. Participants shared their experiences with mobile apps, completed tasks in the prototype while thinking aloud, and provided feedback. This helped to understand what is lacking in FinTech apps and how previous guidelines work for older adults. Thematic analysis revealed that FinTech mobile applications often struggle with small text size, information overload, and navigation difficulties, leading to exclusion in digital society. While some older participants found banking apps easy to use, others faced significant challenges, highlighting the need for improved user interaction. Established design guidelines and recommendations provide a strong foundation for creating accessible apps. Testing the prototype that includes these guidelines showed a generally positive experience for participants, suggesting that these guidelines can effectively enhance FinTech apps and their user experience and accessibility for older adults.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024. , p. 149
Keywords [en]
FinTech, usability, accessibility, design guidelines, user experience (UX), user interface (UI), mobile applications, prototyping, usability testing
National Category
Design
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-65396OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-65396DiVA, id: diva2:1877561
Subject / course
JTH, Informatics
Supervisors
Examiners
2024-07-302024-06-252025-10-13Bibliographically approved