Bringing tradition to a new digital era.
How I designed a suite of mobile banking apps that eased change aversion and established a user-centric foundation for the company’s expanding app ecosystem.
How I designed a suite of mobile banking apps that eased change aversion and established a user-centric foundation for the company’s expanding app ecosystem.
The previous design team departed before the new version was completed, leaving the update without proper design oversight. Key features lacked thorough conceptualization, yet the decision was made to proceed with the launch despite our newly arrived team's advice to hold off.
This triggered a flood of negative feedback on missing features, subpar implementation, and technical flaws, placing our new arrived team in a difficult position to rebuild user trust.
Founded in 1870, ZKB is one of Switzerland's largest cantonal banks, known for financial stability and sustainability. It offers diverse services, including retail banking, wealth management, and corporate lending, with strong local roots and global influence.
Backed by a government guarantee, ZKB supports economic stability and fintech innovation, focusing on digital solutions like mobile banking to meet modern customer needs.
As one of two designers on the mobile app project, I collaborated with four teams of developers and business engineers to establish a design-first approach, enhancing collaboration and product quality.
This involved structuring design steps to align with business and development needs, from concept to launch, while fostering user-centricity across the organization.
The organization was not operating with a user-centric focus, and the failed update—driven by a business decision—provided an ideal opportunity for change. As a bank, they were accustomed to cautious, business-led decisions and were hesitant to allow design to take the lead.
We went from pitching decisions to a group of engineers and developers, needing to present every change to build their trust. Over time, as positive reviews started to flow in, confidence in our design-led approach grew, paving the way for a user-centered shift.
The result is a fast and easy-to-use app family with a fresh look that complies with the latest brand guidelines. The users can onboard themselves on the app with the digital onboarding.
They are packed with features and are based on a design system that we also developed from scratch, with reusable elements that will enable consistent and user-centered development in the future.
Since joining the project in 2021, we’ve developed more than 20 products across three apps. Additionally, our quick payment app, ZKB Twint, achieved the highest sales volume in Switzerland in 2024.
A wealth of features and a mobile-first strategy made the app the sole entry point to users’ accounts, driving a remarkable increase in app usage since we joined the project in 2021.
The cherry on top was a study from the HSLU - Hochschule Luzern naming us the most popular mobile banking app in Switzerland—a proud moment for me and my team after all we had battled through.
