The Project

How do consumers make decisions about credit, mortgages and investments? Economic models of financial decision-making focus on cognitive processes and biases. While these processes are fundamental, in today’s digital world, another factor seems to be equally important: the digital devices that consumers use in their financial decision-making. Most of our financial choices are made with the help of a digital device, may it be a website or an app. How these digital financial tools are used and designed is crucial for understanding financial choices, financial inclusion and differences between consumer groups’ financial behaviour.

This project looks at the digitalization of the Swiss retail finance market to understand these processes.

First, we look at how consumers use digital tools in financial-decision-making. We conduct interviews and observe consumers while they are making financial decisions. The aim is to find out why different consumers use digital tools differently and the obstacles they face when trying to use digital financial products.

Second, we speak to experts in the financial sector to understand how different digital financial platforms are designed, the challenges of digitalizing financial products and the ideas of the consumers that underpin the process.

Finally, we examine different digital platforms to understand how their design, text, and interactive elements may influence financial decisions.

The research project is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. It is an academic project for non-profit purposes. Its theoretical background draws on consumer behaviour (digital inclusion, user experience and socio-material approaches) and economic sociology (theory of the habitus, classification situations and science and technology studies).