Overview
Banco Sabadell’s mobile app no longer matched the bank’s innovative growth or users’ expectations. Competitors offered sleek, user-friendly banking apps that drove stronger digital engagement.
As the Product Designer leading this project, I was responsible for the end-to-end design process—from user research and problem framing, to interaction design, UI design, and prototype testing—delivering a modern, accessible, and user-centered experience aligned with the brand.
Discover - Research & Insights
The project began with a comprehensive UX research phase to identify user needs and usability gaps:
Competitive Benchmarking: Analyzed leading mobile banking apps to spot UX/UI trends, industry standards, and best practices.
User Interviews: Conducted 10 in-depth interviews with frequent users. Insights revealed a strong need for mobile investment management and more streamlined flows for recurring payments.
Heuristic Evaluation: Performed a usability analysis that exposed pain points such as unintuitive navigation and overly complex money transfers.
Define - Pain Points & Opportunities
From the research, I synthesized the main user pain points and design opportunities:
Complexity: Difficulty locating essential features.
Disorganization: Lack of information hierarchy and clear structure.
No Personalization: Absence of tailored recommendations, shortcuts, or adaptive experiences.
This step established the problem statement and set the foundation for the product strategy.
Design - From UX Flows to UI System
Based on these findings, I designed solutions to improve usability, navigation, and visual consistency:
Navigation Design: Introduced a persistent bottom navigation bar with the five most-used sections (Finances, Cards, Home, Benefits, Procedures).
Wireframes & User Flows: Created low-fidelity prototypes to validate the information architecture and interaction patterns.
UI Design & Visual System: Developed a style tile and high-fidelity UI screens with accessible typography, touch-friendly components, and brand-aligned color palettes.
Also, I created different options to ensure consistency across the interface. Whether it's consolidating texts into a single typography with its different variations, establishing approved contrasts for future applications, or developing a consistent system of icons, the aim is to ensure that, even while navigating through different parts of the flow, users recognize that they are still within the same app. The selected color codes were taken from the current design system of Banco Sabadell.
Prototype & Test - Iteration Through Feedback
I built an interactive prototype in Figma and conducted usability testing sessions. Feedback informed multiple iterations, refining task flows and ensuring a smoother end-to-end user journey.
Outcomes & Learnings
The redesigned app delivered:
A simplified navigation structure, making core tasks faster and more intuitive.
A consistent and scalable UI system, aligned with design system best practices.
An improved user experience that reinforced Banco Sabadell’s digital innovation positioning.
Key learning: Continuous user feedback was essential to ensure the product balanced business goals, technical feasibility, and user-centered design.
By prioritizing essential features, we enhanced the perception of simplicity in a feature-rich app through clearer navigation, improved accessibility, and a unified visual experience that builds user trust and engagement.
