SBI's Rapid Banking Transformation

State Bank of India, serving millions of customers, faced a critical user experience crisis:

• Fragmented Experience: Users juggled between two separate mobile apps for different banking needs
• Outdated Interface: Legacy UI patterns created friction in daily banking tasks
• Complex Navigation: Information architecture failed to support modern mobile banking behaviors
• Trust issues: Users hesitated because the experience didn’t feel consistent or reliable.
• Lengthy workflow: The number of steps slowed users down and led to drop-offs.

I made three key strategic decisions:

• Prototyping over documentation: With only 20 days, I built a 120-screen low-fidelity prototype that acted as a living spec, cutting heavy documentation by about 40%.
• Progressive disclosure: Instead of showing everything at once, I broke the experience into smaller, related steps so users could focus without feeling overwhelmed.
• Aligning stakeholders through visuals: Since requirements were still unclear, I used quick visual iterations to drive decisions. This helped the team align and sign off in 10 days instead of dragging out discussions.

Trade-off: I went broader rather than deeper in early research to hit the timeline, with a plan to run deeper user studies after launch.

Challenge: Users dropped off after a few screens
Anything beyond four screens felt overwhelming and slowed people down.

Action: Redesigned critical flows to complete in four steps or fewer.

Challenge: Navigation and terminology were inconsistent
Menus were hard to find, labels changed across screens, and users had to stop and think about where to go next.

Action: Introduced clear, easy-to-access menus and consistent terminology across the platform so users could move confidently without relearning the interface.

Challenge: Forms were long and hard to understand
Users struggled with non-intuitive forms and unnecessary questions.

Action: Simplified forms to be shorter, clearer, and focused only on required fields.

Unified Navigation Architecture

• Added subtle haptic feedback on successful authentication to build confidence without adding extra steps
• Introduced context-aware navigation that adapts based on what the user is doing
• Used color-coded sections to help users orient quickly:
  • Blue for accounts
  • Green for transfers
  • Orange for payments

Smart Transaction Flow

• Pre-filled forms using past transaction patterns, reducing manual input by around 60%
• Added inline validation with clear, helpful error messages, including local language support
• Showed a real-time balance preview during transfers to reduce hesitation and errors

Trust-Building Security Layer

• Used visual security cues like animated lock icons during secure sessions
• Provided transaction receipts with QR codes for easy offline verification

Information Architecture Highlights

• Reduced menu depth from five levels to a maximum of three
• Added clear back and cancel options at every step so users never felt stuck

Delivered Outcomes

• Merged two separate apps into a single, unified experience
• Cut development time by using detailed, shared prototypes
• Client approved and commissioned an additional app consolidation project