79% of smartphone owners admit to checking their device within 15 minutes of waking up every morning. Consumers have become hooked on digital apps like Instagram, Uber, Facebook, and Whatsapp, habit-forming products that connect the user’s problem to a solution and captivate us from the first interaction.

Habits are actions we carry out with little or no conscious thought. When it comes to banking, you could be forgiven for thinking that ATMs had been around forever and that visiting the ‘hole in the wall’ has always been second nature to us. Not so. In fact, Barclays was the first bank to install an ATM in London in 1967, and it actually took considerable time for them to become commonplace. Has the dawn of digital banking, and our new set of habits, committed the ATM to extinction? Not quite.

Despite all the digital transformation that is happening, I would say logging into your online bank is not yet a common ‘urge’ in our day-to-day lives. Because developing high-quality and meaningful engagement is far from easy, I wanted to talk to UI/UX experts and hear how to design positive impact and habit-forming experiences within digital banking. How can small interactions drive longer-term engagement and provide a true impact in a person’s life?