Seeing through your customer’s eyes: prototyping to eliminate UX friction

In financial services, most “UX problems” don’t show up as bugs. They show up as drop-offs, abandoned forms, and people quietly deciding, “I’ll deal with this later” — and then never coming back.

By the time you see that in your analytics, the damage is done.

Here’s a solve to that: using prototypes in the design phase to see your experience the way your customers do, and fix friction before it hits your KPIs.

Finsights, Shiny’s proprietary study of U.S. adults, set out to understand how people think and feel about financial services—and what they expect from providers. Across segments, we see the same tension: people live highly digital lives, but feel real stress and hesitation around money decisions.

That’s why early prototyping matters. You’re not just testing clicks; you’re testing whether an anxious, skeptical human can make it through your experience without bailing. And in an era where developing prototypes no longer requires weeks of development and testing, there’s no reason not to build this into your workflow.

Experience it like a real user

Most teams review designs on big monitors in conference rooms. Your customers don’t.

They’re on a cracked iPhone on the couch. A laptop in the midst of a cluttered desk. On a mid-range Android at the bus stop. Half distracted, half nervous about what happens if they tap the wrong thing.

Opening a prototype on your phone or computer forces you into that reality. You see:

• How cramped a “perfect” layout feels on a small screen
• Where labels or helper text get buried
• How jarring certain transitions feel when you see them in real life

A well-crafted prototype, experienced and tested on real devices, can show you exactly where your experience feels risky, confusing, or like “too much work” for those customers — and give you specific places to dial down friction.

When you run through the flow yourself — on your own phone, with your thumbs — you’ll quickly see where your “seamless” journey actually feels cumbersome or confusing.

Test in context, not in theory

Prototypes are most powerful when they leave the design bubble.

Share them with a small group of real users or internal folks who can role-play real scenarios:

• “You just got hit with an unexpected expense and need to move money fast.”
• “You’re finally ready to pay more than the minimum on your card.”
• “You’re curious about a savings feature but worried about hidden catches.”

Then watch — on their own devices if possible. Listen for confusion, hesitation, and throwaway comments like “I guess I’d just call someone here.” Those are your friction alarms.

The good news: you don’t need enormous samples. Jakob Nielsen’s classic research, shows that testing with just five users can uncover around 80–85% of usability problems — if you test early and iterate.

In other words, a single round of prototype testing with a handful of people can surface most of the issues that would otherwise wait to ambush you post-launch.

Turn findings into empathetic fixes

The point of prototype testing isn’t a long report. It’s better decisions.

As you watch people move through the prototype, translate what you see into specific, empathetic changes:

• If a user pauses at a fee explanation, add plain-language context and an example.
• If they scroll past a key benefit, change the hierarchy so it’s impossible to miss.
• If they hesitate before tapping “Submit,” consider adding a brief summary or confirmation step that reinforces control instead of risk.

Prototyping also gives product, marketing, and compliance a shared object to discuss. Instead of debating hypotheticals, you can all react to the same flow:

• “This is where we’re adding anxiety.”
• “This is where we could reassure them faster.”
• “This is where we’re designing for our process instead of their confidence.”

That alignment is gold in financial services where internal silos often create disjointed customer experiences.

Why this matters so much in financial services

Finsights shows that a large share of people worry about inflation, struggle to save, and report at least one major money challenge. They’re not gliding through your experience carefree; they’re hoping not to make a mistake by ending up with a decision that isn’t best for them. Or worse, getting declined for a product that is wrong for them and being punished with a ding on their credit report – all because they didn’t understand something along the way.

Now layer on the broader UX reality: early usability testing with small samples finds most serious issues, and fixing those upstream is dramatically cheaper and more effective than patching after launch.

In commoditized financial categories, that combination creates a clear view of the reality:

• The stakes are high for your customers.
• The margin for friction is low.
• The cost of catching problems early is small compared with the cost of losing trust later.

Prototyping is how you respect that reality. It’s how you make sure your next “big digital initiative” actually feels smooth, clear, and safe in the hands of the people it’s meant for.

Not just for you on a conference-room screen.