Vietnam is a country with a young population, with over 50% of the entire population aged under 30 years old. Having grown up with technology, people have become very familiar with it and are comfortable using it for almost any task. In some countries, older people in particular can be a bit wary of using technology. Especially when it comes to things like banking. There is a lack of trust in the technology and people might think by using the technology, more security risks will be created. But this actually isn’t true at all! Most services we use today can be accessed through web and mobile applications and are built with top-level security in mind. A web or mobile platform shouldn’t just look good, but it should be designed in a way that everyone can understand how it works with minimal effort.
The issue is not about whether the digital service is secure, it’s about how easy it is to use. It’s important to make every feature intuitive for the users, and that’s why companies work with UX designers to research and design the interfaces for their products. Even a person with a low technological understanding should be able to use it. This is important because by giving people access to services with technology, they are able to do some things that wouldn’t be so simple in person. Let’s use banking to illustrate this. If you went up to a bank manager at a local bank in Vietnam and asked them to transfer a large amount, there would be a process of verification and confirmation so you would be sure of what’s happening. With the app, you can just tap a few buttons to send off the transfer. It’s easy to add an extra zero or type the wrong account number for example, and this can cause massive issues.
Most large companies, know just how much trouble it will cause them if they have customers making these kinds of mistakes, so they researched the optimal ways to design the interfaces of their apps and websites with a good user experience in mind. If you use any banking applications in Vietnam, such as VietinBank, Vietcombank, or Agribank, you will know that there are several safety features implemented to ensure that these issues don’t occur. If you log on to an internet banking portal with your computer, you will need to use your email and password to log in. But to add more security, web developers usually implement something called two-factor authentication, where they will send you a unique code to your registered email or phone number. This gives you an additional safety feature, in case someone managed to get a hold of your login credentials. For mobile, the same security is usually added, but it is slowly being replaced with FaceID and TouchID. These security features require your face or fingerprint to log in to the service.
Whether you use the company’s website or mobile app for banking, sending an amount that you didn’t intend, is actually not that easy! Before a transfer is sent, you will be taken to a page to review exactly what will be done with the option to confirm or cancel. You can then see exactly what amount you will send and also to who you will be sending it. This prevents people from making unintended errors. Besides not wanting to deal with customer complaints, companies are in constant competition with their competitors. To get ahead they are always improving the user experience of their products and they will continue to innovate like this. In Vietnam, banks also have competition from mobile wallets such as MoMo and ZaloPay, so there is even more reason to ensure that their products are constantly improved to avoid losing customers.