23 Icon Sets and Design Tips for Finance and Budgeting Apps

Design plays a pivotal role in developing a smartphone app because it directly impacts a person's ability to use it.

Design is the front-facing portion of an app–the part a user interacts with. When an app is well-designed, a user is able to easily navigate through the app and perform the necessary actions. 

A clean design with logical layouts helps users feel confident using the app.

This blog will discuss design tips and icon recommendations for finance and budgeting apps. 

We will cover the following:

• Why design is important for financial apps
• Five design tips when developing finance and budgeting apps
• The role icons play in the user experience
• 18 icon recommendations

Why is Design Important for Financial Apps?

Finance and budgeting apps differ from news, media, sports, or gaming apps. The latter apps are primarily consumed for fun and entertainment. But in a finance app, a user is often feeding sensitive financial details and performing other essential functions, such as:

• Accessing their bank or building society accounts
• Investing in stocks or shares
• Scheduling payments
• Analyzing cash flow
• Tracking expenses
• Generating reports
• Managing debt

These functions are personal and sensitive to a user's life. As a result, it is crucial that the app's interface is simple to navigate and use. If users can complete their actions easily, they'll feel confident about using the app.

If a financial app is too confusing to use, users could make mistakes such as inputting incorrect data, making duplicate entries, or making erroneous transfers. Such mishaps erode trust.

Thoughtful design helps users feel supported and in control of their financial decisions. 

5 Design Tips For Developing Finance Apps

There is a wide range of design principles to remember when developing apps selling financial products.

Keep It Simple with Flat Design

In developing sensitive financial apps, adopt a 'less is more' design approach.

The minimalist design eliminates unnecessary elements that don't serve any purpose except bells and whistles.

Any design decisions should be based on making the app easier to use. Avoid:

• Complex visuals
• Heavy textures
• Gradients

Focus on design that emphasizes critical information. When users review data-heavy interfaces such as expense trackers or budget overviews, simplicity ensures they can easily understand and act on the presented information.

This fictitious expense tracking app makes it easy for users to add, track, and categorize expenses. (Image source.)

A clean, straightforward interface allows users to move seamlessly between actions, which helps them feel in control of their finances and reduces their frustration.

Use Action Buttons

People who use finance apps want to complete their necessary and daily actions with minimum fuss. Clear action buttons do the trick. Good action buttons:

• Explain their purpose clearly, such as "submit payment" or "view report."
• Are placed logically within the app. For example, a "transfer funds" action button should appear underneath all the transfer details. 
• Make navigation easier. Buttons like "back," "save," or "clear" improve usability.

Use Consistent Branding 

A brand is the sum of associations people make with your business. From a design perspective, this includes:

• Company logo
• Color palette
• Fonts

Your chosen colors and fonts must be consistent to create a cohesive look for the app. For example, they should match what is on your website and other digital and non-digital marketing material. This reinforces your brand identity and ensures people can recognize that the app belongs to you. 

A consistent brand builds a sense of familiarity. A psychological theory known as the mere exposure effect states that familiarity naturally builds trust.

A visual representation of the mere exposure effect. The more a person is exposed to something (in this case, your brand), the more likely they are to prefer your brand over your competitors. (Image source.)

It's always best to keep things simple when applying fonts and colors to your app.

Inclusive fonts are clean and easy to read. Use a simple hierarchical structure–bold fonts for headings, slightly smaller fonts for subheadings, and standard sizes for written text.

Avoid changing the font too often. Too many different fonts on a single interface can cause clutter and distract someone from using your app.

And the same applies to colors. Keep the colors simple and easy on the eye, and opt for calming colors. Calming colors include:

• Neutral colors (white, gray, etc.)
• Pale yellow
• Green
• Purple
• Blue

According to color psychology, such shades promote a sense of calm and serenity. They are considered harmonious, quiet, and restful. Additionally, they reflect trust, dependability, and confidence. Blue is also believed to lower blood pressure!

Integrate Accessibility

People who use apps come from a wide range of backgrounds and ability levels. As a result, your app needs to integrate thoughtful accessibility-based designs. The basics of accessibility include:

• Using high-contrast colors. This means using dark text on a light background or vice versa.
• Ensuring interactive features like buttons actually look like buttons and are clearly labeled insofar as their function.
• Using self-explanatory icons and symbols.
• Adding alt descriptions on images to allow the visually impaired to understand.
• Giving people an option to change language and font size.
• Adding a night-mode feature to give people a simple black background and white text design.
• Enabling a screen orientation option allowing people to switch between landscape and portrait modes without affecting the app's rendering.

In 2022, a digital design company called Diamond researched and documented the digital accessibility of mobile apps. Unfortunately, accessibility leaves a lot to be desired. 

Their research found that only 65% of free Apple apps and 75% of free Android apps met basic accessibility standards. 

Although there is much room for improvement, it does give financial company design teams a significant opportunity to gain a competitive edge by bridging the gaping hole of accessibility through their apps.

Use The Design Thinking Methodology

So far, we have described the broad standards of good app design. To make your app truly fit for your users, you need to employ what is called design thinking.

Design thinking means taking a user-centered approach when solving problems. In the context of app design, it means taking the time to understand your user's needs, behaviors, and challenges. You can do this by:

• Sending questionnaires.
• Holding focus groups.
• Asking users to test your app and feedback.

When you have this information, you can create an app with design elements to meet your user's specific requirements.

With a design thinking approach, you can prioritize your app precisely as your user desires. 

Remember that design thinking is not a one-off activity performed when creating your app's blueprint. It is a continuing process of collecting customer feedback and acting upon your collected data. 

18 Icons For Your Finance App

Icons on a smartphone app are visual shortcuts that help users navigate and use your app.

For instance, SoFi's budgeting tool uses visually distinct icons for each spending category. It incorporates alerts for upcoming bills, so users are guided through their financial journey in an organized and intuitive manner. 

The visually distinct icons and alerts for upcoming bills help guide users through their financial journey in an organized and intuitive manner. 

This helps them understand how to make a monthly budget while staying focused on their goals. 

Here are 18 ideas.

Core Financial Functions

Typically speaking, core financial functions may include:

• Transferring money to a savings account
• Receiving payments
• Budgeting

Here are some icons that indicate the function.

Account Management

General account management features include

• Accessing your profile
• Going to settings
• Checking notifications 

Icons that indicate the function include the following:

Spending Categories

Some of the most common spending categories include

• Transportation
• Food
• Housing-related (bills, etc.)

Goals and Progress

People use finance and budget apps to track progress and work towards a goal. Consider the following:

Navigation and General Features

These include:

• Home button
• Search function
• Main menu
• Logging out
• Arrows to indicate going back or forward

Help and Support

Another crucial element of a finance app is making it easy for people to access help and support. These include:

• FAQs
• Contacting support
• Live chat

The icons presented here are the property of the respective creator at IconScout. Icons are in default colors but can be customized to your company's branding.

Final Thoughts

Good design choices and smart use of icons are essential for the success of financial apps, as they directly impact usability, trust, and user satisfaction.

Clean, intuitive design reduces cognitive load, helping users easily navigate complex financial processes. At the same time, clear and consistent icons act as visual guides that simplify actions like budgeting, tracking expenses, or managing accounts.

These elements work together to create a user-friendly interface that builds trust, encourages regular app use, and supports users in making confident financial decisions.

Financial apps can deliver a seamless, reliable experience that meets customer expectations by prioritizing these design principles.