Everyday banking people could trust.
Banco de Fomento Angola, one of the country's largest banks, set out to modernize how people bank day to day with a brand-new mobile app. I joined the engagement as Lead Design Consultant through Sparck (BJSS), embedded within a Deloitte Digital team, and owned the experience design of the journeys at its heart, working directly with the bank's managers, Deloitte's product managers and business analysts, and the engineers who built it. The brief was never a single screen. It was a set of connected journeys, held together by a shared design system, that had to carry account management, payments, credit, savings, and foreign operations behind one experience customers could trust.
BFA Mobile App. Not one screen but a connected platform, carrying identity, everyday banking, payments, credit, savings, and foreign operations behind a single system.
At a glance
My role
Lead Design Consultant
Company
Sparck (BJSS)
Engagement
Embedded with Deloitte Digital
Client
Banco de Fomento Angola
Location
Lisbon · Luanda
Year
2022
Scope
A transformation, not an app.
BFA serves private and corporate customers across the Angolan market, where a banking product has to work for first-time digital users and treasury teams alike. Modernizing that meant more than shipping screens. It meant designing journeys that behaved consistently, and extending the shared design system they were built on so the product could keep growing without fragmenting.
I was brought in to lead that experience design. I set the interaction models, drove the UX strategy for the core journeys, facilitated the workshops that aligned stakeholders, and translated business and regulatory requirements into flows a customer could follow with confidence. My job was not to draw one screen well. It was to give the bank a way of designing that would hold as the platform grew.
Responsibilities
The Challenge
Why this had to earn trust, not attention.
For many BFA customers, this app would become their main way of dealing with money. In a market where digital banking was still maturing, a new app is not a novelty. It is a test of whether the bank can be trusted somewhere new. That raised the stakes on every decision.
Banking is also one of the most regulated experiences there is, and the rules do not bend to good design. So the work meant holding several forces in balance at once: serving customers without breaking compliance, and satisfying the business without overwhelming the person on the other side of the screen. People did not need something clever. They needed to feel certain.
Balancing complexity and simplicity
Banking involves intricate processes, especially for corporate users. The work was designing flows that simplified complex financial operations without stripping out the functionality people depend on.
Security and compliance
Strict banking regulation meant every flow had to meet compliance standards while still feeling smooth, particularly for sensitive operations like international transactions and credit-limit adjustments.
Aligning multiple stakeholders
Working with BFA managers, Deloitte analysts, and engineers meant balancing business requirements, regulatory constraints, and user needs. Clear communication and iterative testing kept everyone aligned.
Research & Discovery
Standing on real evidence.
The project opened with a discovery phase built on the framing, personas, service blueprints, and research Deloitte Digital had already produced. Rather than start from a blank page, I facilitated the workshops and ran the sessions that validated and sharpened that direction, so the design decisions I took stayed evidence-based, customer-centred, and aligned with the bank's vision.
Personas and segments
Using existing personas to understand how private and corporate customers actually behave, and what each expects from a bank.
Service blueprints
Reviewing the end-to-end banking experience to surface pain points, inefficiencies, and the moments where trust was won or lost.
Stakeholder workshops
Aligning with BFA leadership, product owners, and customer service teams so features mapped to real business objectives.
User interviews and testing
Sessions with private and corporate customers to validate the findings and uncover what the research had not yet caught.
Scenarios and key decisions were agreed as documented user stories before each journey was designed.
Key Insights
01
Trust is the product. In banking, confidence in what will happen next matters more than any single feature.
02
Corporate and private customers share an app but not a mental model. The platform had to serve both without compromising either.
03
Anxiety spikes at money movement and credit. Those are the moments that needed the most clarity and reassurance.
04
Compliance steps read as friction unless they are designed as part of the experience, not bolted on top of it.
05
Consistency is a trust signal. When every journey behaves the same way, the whole bank feels more dependable.
06
A first release is a foundation. The real value was in patterns the bank could reuse for services not yet built.
Design Principles
The rules every decision answered to.
Before interface work began, I set the principles that would govern the journeys. They were not values on a wall. They were the filter I used to resolve trade-offs whenever business, engineering, and customer needs pulled in different directions, and the language that kept a cross-functional team designing toward the same idea of trust.
01
Design for trust
Every screen had to make the customer feel in control of their money. Clear state, honest language, and no surprises, especially around balances, fees, and confirmations.
02
Reduce cognitive load
Banking is dense by nature. Each step was measured against a single question: does this help the customer move forward, or does it make them stop and worry?
03
Make financial tasks predictable
The same action behaves the same way everywhere. Predictability is what lets people act confidently with real money.
04
Progressive disclosure
Show what is needed at each step and reveal detail on demand, so complex operations like foreign transfers never arrive all at once.
05
Consistency across journeys
Shared components and patterns meant transfers, credit, and savings all felt like one bank, not a set of separate products.
06
Accessibility
Legible type, strong contrast, and generous targets, designed for a diverse customer base with a wide range of digital confidence.
07
Error prevention
The safest error is the one that never happens. Sensible defaults, validation, and confirmation kept customers from costly mistakes.
The Design System
Extending an established design language.
BFA already had an established style guide and visual language. My contribution was to extend and operationalise that foundation as the product evolved: expanding the component library where new journeys needed it, creating reusable interaction patterns, and translating the existing visual language into scalable product experiences, all while maintaining consistency across every customer journey.
It made the platform scalable
New services could be assembled from parts that already existed, so the bank could keep adding without starting over each time.
It made the experience consistent
Typography, colour, spacing, and behaviour were defined once. A button, a field, a confirmation looked and worked the same in every journey, and that sameness is what customers read as trust.
It accelerated engineering
Because components were designed to real technical constraints and named the same way in design and code, handover stopped being a translation exercise and became a shared language.
It protected future work
The patterns outlast any single feature. Services designed after I left could inherit the same decisions, keeping the platform coherent as it grew.
The system board. Type, colour, spacing, components, patterns, and illustrations in one place.
Type scale
Colour
A primary brand orange, a supporting navy, and a full semantic set for info, success, warning, and error, so status is communicated the same way across every flow.
Spacing & components
Expanded the library where needed
Where a journey needed something new, from foreign-operations fields to credit-limit controls, I expanded the existing library to the grain of what was already there, so nothing felt bolted on.
Maintained consistency
I worked within the established tokens and rules, and with engineers, so new patterns stayed consistent with the platform and technically feasible as it grew.
Created reusable interaction patterns
I defined predictable, error-proof interaction models for the journeys I designed and fed them back, so the whole platform could reuse them.
Building the Platform
Organized by what customers do, not by screen.
The product was designed around customer capabilities. Each one solved a real problem in how people manage money, and each was built from the same components so the whole platform felt like a single, dependable bank.
One platform, connected journeys
Identity
Access & security
Accounts
Everyday banking
Payments
Transfers & beneficiaries
Credit
Cards & limits
Savings
Deposits & planning
Foreign ops
Cross-border
Identity & security
Trust starts before the first transaction. I designed onboarding, channel subscription, and account recovery to get customers in quickly and securely, and to let them unblock access without a trip to a branch.
I treated confirmation codes and verification steps as part of the experience, not an interruption, so security reassures rather than obstructs.
Everyday banking
The account view is where customers live. I organized balances, movements, and account details so the most important number is always the clearest, and the path to the next action is never hidden.
I turned opening and managing sub-accounts into a self-service task, giving customers control that previously meant a call or a queue.
Making money movement understandable
Transfers are where anxiety is highest. I designed the money-movement journeys around what customers repeat, so beneficiaries, saved accounts, and scheduled payments cut the friction out of recurring interactions and paying someone you pay often takes seconds and feels safe.
Foreign operations were the most regulated flow in the app. I mapped the full journey with the compliance and engineering teams, then designed it to stay clear and compliant, guiding customers through currency and requirements one confident step at a time.
Helping customers make confident credit decisions
Credit is where clarity matters most. I designed card management to put usage against limit in a single glance, so customers always know where they stand before they spend.
Requesting a higher limit is an intimidating, heavily regulated ask. I shaped it into a guided, compliant flow that communicates risk plainly and turns the request into a decision customers can make with confidence.
Savings and long-term planning
I framed term deposits and savings accounts around the customer's goals rather than the bank's products, making rates, terms, and maturity legible so people could plan with a clear picture of what their money would do.
Every commitment closed on an explicit, reassuring confirmation, the same pattern used across the platform whenever a customer takes a consequential action.
The complete transfer journey, mapped end to end. Designing the flow, not only the screens, is what kept every path consistent. Click to open.
The credit-limit increase flow, including the regulated checks and confirmation steps that had to feel reassuring rather than obstructive. Click to open.
Platform Consistency
One navigation, one set of rules.
A platform this size can only stay coherent if navigation and interaction are shared, so I drove consistency into the product itself. A single menu gave every service the same home, so customers learn the app once and carry that understanding into features they have never used.
The reusable components and interaction models did the quiet work of consistency. A confirmation, a list, a form field behaves identically whether a customer is moving money, opening an account, or adjusting a card, and that sameness is exactly what makes a bank feel dependable.
Design Decisions
The decisions that shaped the platform.
A banking platform is defined less by its screens than by the principles behind them. These are the decisions that set the direction.
Decision 01
Prioritize clarity over density.
Why
Banking apps tend to pack every number onto every screen. For customers making real financial choices, more information often means less confidence.
Trade-off
It meant harder editing decisions and more screens in some flows, and defending that restraint with stakeholders who wanted everything visible at once.
Outcome
Screens where the most important number is always the clearest, and the next action is never buried.
Decision 02
Reduce anxiety through progressive confirmation.
Why
The riskiest moments in banking are money movement and credit. Customers needed to understand what would happen before it happened, and to see clearly that it did.
Trade-off
Adding confirmation and review steps runs against pure funnel efficiency. We accepted a slightly longer path in exchange for customer confidence.
Outcome
Consequential actions open with a clear review and close with an explicit success state, the same way every time.
Decision 03
Design journeys as reusable patterns, not one-offs.
Why
Each journey was a template for services not yet built. Designing them as reusable patterns on the shared system, rather than as isolated features, kept the expanding platform consistent.
Trade-off
It meant more upfront thinking per flow and close coordination with the system's owners, rather than shipping each screen in isolation.
Outcome
Interaction patterns that made every subsequent journey faster to design and consistent to use, contributed back to the design system.
Decision 04
Treat security as part of the experience.
Why
Compliance and verification are unavoidable in banking. Designed as interruptions, they erode trust. Designed into the flow, they build it.
Trade-off
It required working closely with compliance and engineering to shape regulated steps rather than simply inserting them where the rules demanded.
Outcome
Verification and confirmation that reassure customers instead of blocking them, without compromising the bank's obligations.
Working Across Teams
Alignment was the real design work.
Embedded within a Deloitte Digital team, I worked shoulder to shoulder with product managers, business analysts, engineers, and the bank's own stakeholders. Getting that many people to a shared understanding was as much of the design work as the interface itself.
“In banking, the experience is only as trustworthy as the alignment behind it.”
Product managers
The PMs held scope and delivery. I worked with them to sequence the journeys and keep design decisions tied to what the team could realistically ship.
Business analysts
The analysts brought the research, personas, and service blueprints that gave the work its evidence base. I validated and translated that thinking into journeys customers could actually use.
Engineering
The components I added to the system were built with engineers, not handed to them. Designing against real technical constraints meant new patterns integrated cleanly and stayed feasible as the platform grew.
Client and compliance
The bank held the market knowledge, the strategic intent, and the regulatory line. I facilitated the workshops that turned that into agreed priorities, and designed regulated flows alongside compliance so requirements were shaped in early, not patched on at the end.
Impact
A foundation the bank is building on.
The project was still in active development when my engagement ended, but the foundations set a clear direction for BFA's digital transformation. The bank has since taken the app to market, promoting it and its new functionality to customers.
The new BFA app, now live and advertised on the bank's website.
A modern banking experience
Streamlined journeys made essential services more accessible, efficient, and secure for private and corporate customers alike.
Scalable and consistent
Journeys built on and contributed back to the shared design system, keeping the growing platform coherent and quicker to extend.
Optimized operations
Clearer flows for accounts, transactions, credit, and onboarding reduced friction in key processes and improved customer engagement.
Stronger collaboration
The project built an effective cross-functional practice across design, analysis, engineering, and bank management that outlasted any single feature.
Reflection
Designing for money is designing for trust.
Designing a bank taught me that the product is not the interface. It is the confidence a customer feels when they move money, take on credit, or commit to a plan. Every decision carries a weight that consumer products rarely do, because the cost of getting it wrong is someone's savings, not a lost session.
It also changed how I think about scale. What mattered most was not any single screen but the reduction of uncertainty: giving customers a system predictable enough to trust, and giving the bank a way of designing that would hold as the platform grew. I learned to work at the level of the system and the decision, not the artefact, and to do it with the people who have to build and govern what I design.
That way of working is the thread that runs through the rest of my portfolio. Whether it is an airline, a global operations organization, a regulator, or the AI products I work on now, the job is the same: make something complex feel certain. Complexity is not resolved at the screen. It is resolved in the thinking beneath it.
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