Project Overview
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), one of the UAE’s leading financial institutions, approached our team with a pressing need to rethink the user experience of their consumer mobile banking application. Feedback from users highlighted a growing frustration: key features like fund transfers, bill payments, and service requests were either difficult to locate or buried within complex flows.
The core objective was to redesign the application experience, prioritizing ease of navigation, discoverability of essential features, and streamlined transactional journeys—without compromising the security and compliance requirements of a financial platform.
My Role & Contribution
As the UX Designer assigned to the product and design team, I worked closely with the product owners, technology leads (including the CTO), and the customer service insights team. My focus was to drive a research-informed, user-centered design process that addressed user pain points and delivered measurable improvements in experience.
- Conducted UX audit of the existing application to identify friction points in navigation, feature discoverability, and interaction logic.
- Analyzed user complaints and call center logs provided by the customer service team to map frequent issues and emotional triggers.
- Created empathy maps and personas to better understand different user segments—tech-savvy users, regular bill payers, high-frequency fund transfer users, etc.
- Redesigned key user flows, especially for Transfers, Bill Payments, and Feature Discovery (like statements, card controls, or service requests).
- Created a restructured information architecture that reduced cognitive load by grouping features into intuitive, context-aware sections.
- Introduced quick access modules (e.g., Smart Shortcuts, Recently Used Actions) on the home screen to bring deep-linked features to the surface.
- Developed mid- to high-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes to validate improved workflows with internal users and stakeholders.
- Ran remote usability tests and A/B comparisons on redesigned journeys to validate design choices.
- Iterated quickly based on insights, especially around micro-interactions for transfers and payment confirmations.
- Partnered closely with the UI team to ensure the new user experience was visually cohesive with ADCB’s brand while introducing modern, minimal UI elements.
- Advised on UI hierarchy and component consistency to reduce visual noise and enhance accessibility.
- Ensured mobile-specific usability best practices (tap targets, contrast, font sizes) were followed across both iOS and Android versions.
- Delivered annotated design specifications for development teams, ensuring clarity in behavior expectations.
- Participated in design QA reviews during the build to ensure pixel-perfect implementation and adherence to the intended UX.
Impact & Outcome
- Increased visibility and accessibility of core actions like transfers and payments, resulting in reduced task completion time by approx. 40% (as observed in post-launch data).
- Significantly reduced user complaints around “lost” features or complicated flows.
- Achieved higher satisfaction ratings in internal beta testing and early release user surveys.
- Set the foundation for an ongoing modular design system that allows the app to evolve with changing user expectations and business priorities.
Reflection
This project underscored the importance of listening to users—and translating their frustration into clarity and delight. As a UX designer, it was rewarding to tackle real, voiced pain points and deliver a solution that truly improved both utility and usability. Balancing the needs of end-users with the expectations of high-level stakeholders, this redesign exemplified how strategic UX can directly enhance a brand’s digital reputation and operational efficiency.