Redefining Mobile Banking with Smart, Simple Design
DURATION
4 Weeks
MY ROLES
Product Designer
UX Researcher
Visual Designer
UX Writer
TOOLS
Figma
Figjam
Notion
Google Forms
Introduction
Overview
I designed PayGo, a user-friendly mobile banking app that streamlines everyday financial tasks for individuals seeking speed, simplicity, and control. The app enables users to instantly check balances, perform quick actions like transfers and top-ups, as well as view recent credit and debit history. It also supports airtime purchases, bill payments, and other essential banking needs—all in one place. Conventional banking apps often feel bulky or complex, but PayGo focuses on delivering a clean, intuitive experience that helps users manage their money efficiently and confidently.
The Challenge
A vast majority of mobile banking apps in Nigeria fail to meet the needs of busy users who require fast and efficient access to their financial tasks. With interfaces that are often cluttered and non-intuitive, users struggle to perform even basic actions like checking balances, transferring money, or paying bills. The complexity of the app's navigation and excessive steps to complete simple tasks can leave users frustrated and discouraged. As a result, the app becomes more of a hindrance than a helpful tool, preventing users from managing their finances smoothly and efficiently.
Proposed Solution
The opportunity was clear: create a fast, intuitive banking experience that empowers users to manage their finances with minimal effort. The goal was to design a mobile solution that simplifies access to key banking features, making everyday transactions like balance checks, transfers, top-ups, and bill payments quick and hassle-free.
Solution Impact
The expected impact includes:
- Faster transactions with quick access to core banking actions.
- Better user experience through a clean, simplified interface.
- Increased app engagement by offering essential features in fewer steps.
My Approach
I employed the iterative five-steps design thinking approach for this project:
- Empathize (research user needs)
- Define (clarify problems)
- Ideate (brainstorm solutions)
- Prototype (create mockups)
- Test (gather feedback and refine)
Phase 1: Competitor Analysis
I began the research process by evaluating four primary competitors, two secondary competitors, and three indirect competitors in the mobile banking space. My research covered user interface design, features, usability, and customer satisfaction.
This stage was crucial to understand the landscape, identify gaps, and benchmark our product.
- Primary Competitors: Kuda, Opay, PalmPay, and Moniepoint
- Secondary Competitors: ALAT, FairMoney
- Indirect Competitors: Revolut, Chime, and Cash App
Customer Reviews
I collected and analyzed recent user feedback from product review websites, app stores, forums, and social media for the four key competitor products. This helped me identify recurring pain points and unmet user needs.
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis helped evaluate competitor strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and potential threats in the market.
Perceptual Map
With insights from the concluded competitive research, I created a perceptual map to visually position Nigeria’s leading mobile banking apps based on quality (user experience, service reliability, features) and design (ease-of-use, visual appeal, accessibility).
Opportunities to Differentiate
This in-depth competitor analysis helped me identify opportunities to differentiate our mobile banking app by offering simple, secure, and user-focused solutions.
Key opportunities include, but are not limited to:
- Adaptive User Interface: Design a lightweight, responsive UI that performs efficiently on low-end devices, ensuring accessibility across economic segments.
- Smart Defaults & Automation: Introduce intelligent input predictions and automatic form completions to minimize time spent on repetitive tasks.
- Feature Usage Analytics: Implement smart suggestions based on feature engagement, hiding rarely used tools to simplify the user experience.
- Enhanced Customer Support System: Implement a 24/7 customer support framework with quick response times to tackle inconsistent support and slow dispute resolution issues faced by competitors.
- Offline Functionality: Implement a basic offline mode for viewing balance and transaction history to cater to users with limited internet connectivity.
This analysis guided my decision to focus on simplicity, security, and accessibility for PayGo.
Phase 2: User Research
Research Methodology
Following competitive research, I concentrated on understanding user goals, needs, motivations, and pain points. My target audience consisted of everyday bank customers and business owners from diverse backgrounds.
To gather insights, I conducted:
- 8 in-depth interviews with bank customers to understand their experiences and frustrations with current mobile banking apps.
- A 21-person survey to collect both quantitative and qualitative data on banking preferences, challenges, and desired features.
Sample interview questions included:
- “What’s the most frequent transaction you do through your mobile banking app?”
- “What issues do you face when transferring money or paying bills?”
- “What features would make your mobile banking experience easier?”
Sample survey questions for mobile banking users included:
- “What additional features would you like to see in your banking app?”
- “Which feature do you use most frequently (e.g., bill pay, transfer, balance check)?”
- “How satisfied are you with the security features of your mobile banking app?”
Quantitative Reports
Key responses from the real estate customer survey revealed:
- 66.7% of respondents use mobile banking apps primarily for transferring money, while only 9.5% use them for paying bills.
- 76.2% of users want transaction history to be more easily accessible than other app information like account balance or charges.
- 61.9% of users rated the app’s usability and navigation experience below 4 stars, indicating moderate satisfaction.
- 71.6% of users rated the overall app design below 4 stars, while just 28.6% rated it 4 or 5 stars.
- Only 33.3% of users gave a 4- or 5-star rating for app security features, while the majority (66.7%) rated it 3 stars or less.
This shows that while most users depend heavily on the app for money transfers, they struggle with finding transaction history. There’s also a general lack of strong satisfaction across usability, security, and design, suggesting room for improvement in both UX and trust-building features.
Qualitative Findings
After analyzing customer feedback from competitor research and responses to open-ended user research questions, I uncovered key insights and pain points, highlighting opportunities for PayGo to deliver innovative solutions.
Using these findings, I outlined some potential features and enhancements for PayGo that directly tackle user challenges and improve user satisfaction.
These findings sharpened my understanding of user desires and habits, setting the stage for a solid problem statement and clear-cut user personas.
User Personas
Based on the information gotten from the foundational research, I created two user personas whose goals, motivations, behaviors, and frustrations represent the needs of the different target user groups.
Meet Samuel…
Meet Bola…
These personas guided every design decision, ensuring the app addressed real user needs and behaviors.
Empathy Maps
Using the data from interviews and surveys, I developed empathy maps reflecting the thoughts, feelings, and actions for each key persona.
Samuel’s empathy map…
Bola’s empathy map…
User Journey Map
I mapped Samuel’s journey from discovering the app to becoming a loyal user, identifying key touchpoints and opportunities to enhance her experience.
Problem Statement
My research revealed that users struggle with mobile banking apps that lack smart convenience features, fail under poor network conditions, offer unreliable customer support, and limit accessibility for non-tech-savvy users, resulting in delays, confusion, and security concerns.
Take Bola, my petty trader personas: Sherelies heavily on mobile apps for business transactions but is frequently hindered by app freezes, cluttered interfaces, delayed confirmations, and unreliable customer support. These issues disrupt their financial flow, cause anxiety over payment status, and erode trust in the app’s reliability.
Now we know the exact problems faced by our users. So, what next?
Phase 3: Design
User Flow
To achieve my goal of creating an intuitive, research-driven design, I mapped out a user flow to ensure a logical and familiar navigation. These sequences ensures each step is purposeful, guiding users toward their goals while boosting engagement and minimizing drop-offs.
Information Hierarchy
To outline the app’s structure, I developed a tree map detailing key functionalities, screens, and high-level content structure. This hierarchy ensured logical connections and seamless navigation, grounded in robust information architecture principles.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
With the user flow and information hierarchy defined, I moved on to designing low-fidelity wireframes. These layouts captured navigation, functionality, and content placement, adhering to Gestalt principles and a clear hierarchy to ensure key features were instantly accessible.
I transformed the low-fi wireframes into an interactive low-fi prototype, which was reviewed by users to validate design choices and identify areas for improvement. Refinements were made until I finalized the visual structure for PayGo.
Style Guide
Next, I built a comprehensive visual system in Figma encompassing colors, typography, and icons sourced from Lucide icons. This framework guaranteed design consistency throughout all interfaces while fully complying with both Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and Google's Material 3 standards for mobile applications.
High-Fidelity Designs
With PayGo's visual language defined, I translated the wireframes to high-fidelity mockups. Each element was meticulously designed to balance visual appeal with usability, delivering a polished and intuitive interface.
High-Fidelity Prototype
After designing the high-fidelity screens, I linked them to build an interactive prototype, showcasing key features and interactions. This model simulated the tailored user journey, serving as an essential tool for usability testing and providing a realistic glimpse of the final product.
Phase 4: Testing
Usability Testing
To validate the high-fidelity prototype’s performance and user experience, I conducted further rounds of usability testing, both remotely and in-person. These sessions focused on refining key interactions, while assessing task efficiency, interface intuitiveness, and user satisfaction.
Observing participants’ interactions and gathering their feedback helped uncover subtle usability issues and opportunities to enhance engagement.
Key Insights & Refinement
Key insights included:
Based on usability study insights, I iteratively refined the high-fidelity mockups. Before-and-after comparisons revealed improved usability and accessibility.
Home Screen
Improvement:
- Increased font weight of secondary CTA buttons from medium to bold.
Bottom Sheets
Improvement:
- Fixed vertical alignment of sheet titles.
Transfer Status Screen
Improvement:
- Increased font weight of secondary CTA buttons from medium to bold.
Qualitative Feedback
Users appreciated the innovative, intuitive, and clutter-free design.
Some early adopters noted:
- “I like that the 'Send Money' button is highly accessible, and that you're presented with a modal to choose the type of transfer to initiate, unlike other apps that bombard you with all available options on a single screen.” - Ndubuisi, Customer
- “The password-protected hidden balance feature is a nice touch. I sometimes hand my phone over to my siblings to make a transfer, so that privacy layer is actually useful.” - Niyi, Customer
- “I love how easy it is to navigate through screens. The layout feels familiar yet more streamlined than other banking apps.” - Tunde, Banker
- “I like how everything is grouped logically. Transfers, cards, and payments all feel easy to manage.” – Rachael, Customer
Some expert UX reviewers noted:
- “The flow between screens is well thought out. Each modal feels focused on a single action, which improves clarity and reduces overwhelm.” – Eniola, UX Researcher
- “The app has a solid foundation for enhancing the banking experience with its clean UI and clear transaction flows. The form and feedback modals are clean, and I like that you've used clear hierarchy and grouping to guide attention.” – Amarachi, Senior UI/UX Designer
- “Impressive design with a focus on simplicity! The minimalistic approach handles complex financial tasks well.” – Adedoyin, Product Manager
Challenges Faced
Designing PayGo meant striking the right balance between core banking features and a smooth, user-friendly experience. Through iterative testing, I discovered that key actions needed more visual emphasis, which led to ongoing refinements to achieve clarity without sacrificing simplicity.
Key challenges included:
- Feature Overload: Incorporating key banking actions without overwhelming users with choices required thoughtful prioritization.
- Iterative Refinement: Adapting the app based on diverse user feedback across several testing phases was essential but challenging.
- Security vs. Simplicity: Ensuring robust security features, like multi-factor authentication, without complicating the user experience.
These challenges guided the design to focus on a seamless, secure, and intuitive experience that serves all user needs while keeping the interface clean and simple.
Lessons Learned
Testing with real users provided invaluable insights into how individuals interact with mobile banking apps. Each user’s experience highlighted the importance of diverse usability testing to fully understand the app's performance in real-world conditions.
I learned that empathy and continuous user feedback are crucial for effective design. By focusing on simplicity, security, and user needs, I created an intuitive and seamless banking experience.
Key takeaways:
- Progressive Disclosure: Revealing information step-by-step helped prevent cognitive overload and made the app easier to use.
- Consistency in Language and Design: Using familiar terms and uniform visual patterns improved trust and reduced confusion.
- Clear Hierarchy: Proper use of spacing, typography, and layout made it easier for users to scan and act quickly.
Thanks for Reading!
Thank you for exploring the journey of PayGo. This project was more than just designing an app—it was an opportunity to redefine how people manage their finances in the digital age. By blending thoughtful design with extensive user research, iterative testing, and an emphasis on security, I turned a complex task into a streamlined, user-focused solution that simplifies banking while offering personalized convenience.
Reflecting on this experience, I’m grateful for how it enhanced my understanding of accessibility, simplicity, and security in mobile banking design. Thank you for your time and interest in this case study. I hope it sparks new ideas for mobile banking innovations, and I’m excited to apply these insights to future projects.
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