RIP Simple Bank. Why do the best designed products still die?
I got news a few days ago via email that my bank, Simple Bank, would be shutting down their service. Simple Bank is the design-forward, startup bank inside of BBVA Compass, a large international financial services company headquartered in Bilbao, Spain. It looks like Simple users will eventually be rolled into BBVA’s system, although Simple’s apps and website will work for the time being. Simple’s design is gorgeous. Its user experience is wonderful. Their mobile app is one the best in banking and their web app even supports features like dark mode. These features matter to me because I’m a designer. They endlessly please me. They make me a happy and loyal customer because it shows that they care to spend time working on features that modern mobile and desktop users want to use.
Whenever I saw Simple would be shuttered, it reminded me of the fate of one of the early streaming music services, Rdio. Like Simple, Rdio was a design forward, user experience dynamo whose users delighted in its design and features. It was a beautiful music player whose design was far ahead of its time. You could tell that they hired great designers and they crafted the app with care. Even now, 5…
