AIB is facing competitive pressure from mobile-first challengers like Revolut and Monzo. This joint AIB-Globant initiative aimed to define the MVE for Mobile 4.0. The project was structured across three layers: Programme for strategic direction, Experience Design for solution definition, and Implementation Squad for development. I worked within the Experience Design layer, collaborating with service designers, researchers, content strategists, and the design system team, responsible for one scenario end-to-end, from conceptualisation through high-fidelity iteration.
The delivered solution received board approval and provided the design foundation for AIB's subsequent product iterations and UI component library.
Feature Adoption Intent90%+
Willing to use Savings Spaces and Spending Insights, validating core design direction.
Competitor Migration Intent60%+
Would migrate from Revolut back to AIB if these features were delivered.
Traditional Banking Apps Are Being Outpaced by Mobile-First Competitors
Allied Irish Banks (AIB) is one of Ireland's largest financial institutions, serving millions of personal and business customers. Its mobile banking app has become a key entry point for daily financial management, with over 1 million downloads on Google Play.
Despite its large user base, AIB faces threats from mobile-first competitors such as Starling Bank, Revolut, and Monzo. These new players offer seamless digital experiences, while AIB's mobile app remains at an earlier 'Mobile 2.0' stage: fragmented features, complex flows, and an experience rooted in traditional banking system logic - feeling outdated and unappealing to a new generation of users.
Current AIB 2.0 App InterfaceAIB's Positioning Relative to Competitors
To address this challenge, AIB launched the Mobile 4.0 project in 2024, aiming to redefine the next-generation mobile banking experience and translate the future digital banking vision into an actionable product direction.
RESEARCH
From Existing Research to Design Opportunities
When I joined, the project was at the transition from exploration to concept design. My main work was to synthesise existing research outputs, understand core gaps, and confirm the scope of design I was responsible for.
The Globant CX team had already built an experience journey framework for AIB covering three phases: Everyday Money, Life Finances, and Financial Future. The MVP phase focused on the first two phases - addressing the most pressing financial pain points while leaving room for future expansion.
The team broke this down into five core scenarios (Everyday Money, Saving for mortgage debt, Consolidate debt, Customer support, Youth account) and divided ownership. I was responsible for Scenario 1: Everyday Money - the everyday spending experience design.
AIB Universal Journey Framework
Multi-Channel User Research
Before I joined, the Design Research team had completed an initial round of user research across three channels: customer support records, an online survey, and an existing experience evaluation. Users consistently reported recurring pain points around functional limitations and experience quality. I worked from this raw data to extract key findings relevant to Scenario 1, distilling them into three structural themes as the core input for the design work ahead.
Customer Support RecordsQuantitative Signal
Call centre complaints + online complaints + support tickets
Login failures are the highest-frequency calls - PAC code loops and 3DS push failures prevent users from completing basic operations
International transfers and adding new payees require a Card Reader plus desktop - users call in only to find it can't be done in the app
Encrypted merchant names (e.g. LIM*RIDE COST) trigger false fraud reports; 25% of users call in to trace unknown transaction status
Online SurveyQualitative Signal
User-expressed needs & competitor perception
Users want to know "how much can I still spend", not just see their balance - strong proactive spending awareness needs but no tools to support it
After My Money Manager was removed, users migrated to Revolut to track AIB transactions - AIB's insight layer replaced by a competitor
Users want savings goal reminders and progress visualisation - saving behaviour is hard to sustain without feedback
Existing Experience EvaluationObservational Data
UX Audit
Initiating a transfer requires a minimum of 27 taps; the same action on Revolut takes just 9 steps
Core action discoverability is extremely poor: entry points for adding payees, setting up payments, and managing controls are scattered or inconsistent
6 payment paths (transfer, bill, contact, Zippay, etc.) each with inconsistent interaction logic - high cognitive load
Laid out horizontally across 4 CX Map phases (Spend → Control → Manage → Save → Life), with user goals, current actual steps, emotion curve, core pain points, and opportunities annotated in layers. The emotion curve drops continuously from the moment the user opens the app - with no recovery - revealing the complete absence of any 'delight moment' in the user journey. Red tags mark steps with clear breakpoints; blue tags mark relatively usable steps.
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EXPERIENCE STAGES
Everyday Money
Life Finances
EXPERIENCE OBJECTIVES
Spend my moneyPay people & businesses
Control my moneyCut back spendingControl my spending
Save to goalSave enough for rainy daysPay in and move money
EXPERIENCE GOALS
Complete transfers or payments quickly, check balance at any time
Understand where money goes, build spending awareness
Save towards a goal, see progress and distance remaining
CURRENT STEPS
Open app → Login failsPAC code loopCheck balance via Quick BalancePay & Transfer → 6-path choiceManually enter IBANSelfie Check verificationTransfer complete
View transaction historyNo categories - only "withdrawals & transfers"No spending trend chartNo budgeting toolsUsers switch to Revolut for analytics
Savings account completely disconnected from main account
OPPORTUNITIES
Biometrics to replace PIN/PAC verification
Recent payees one-tap payment on home screen
Reduce Pay flow steps
Add new payee in-app (no Card Reader needed)
Rebuild Spending Insights
Monthly spending summary push card
AI auto-flag unusual spending
Customisable budget settings
Income vs. expenditure visual trends
Savings Pots supporting multiple parallel goals
Round-up: auto-save on every transaction
Goal progress bar + completion date prediction
Emergency fund guided setup flow
Critical PainpointMajor FrictionOpportunityRed tagsteps with clear issuesBlue tagrelatively usable steps
Based on the current-state Journey Map analysis and cross-stage pain point comparison, three critical structural problems emerged - together explaining why AIB's current experience consistently generates frustration and churn.
THEME 1 Core Flows Are Excessively Complex
Login failures and Card Reader dependency push core task paths far beyond industry standards
THEME 2 Financial Insight Layer Completely Absent
AIB proactively abandoned this layer - users have already filled the gap with competitors
THEME 3 Savings Automation Tools Missing
Users explicitly expressed wanting goal-based savings and automation rules, but tools are entirely absent
Competitor Benchmark Analysis
We benchmarked Revolut, Monzo, Starling, and N26 - studying how industry-leading products surface financial information in layers, and how they structure home screens and core interaction flows.
Three common patterns emerged: financial awareness surfaced on the first screen, core actions completed within 5 steps, and savings automation as standard. These three points define users' baseline expectations and point directly to where AIB's current experience most needs to catch up.
1
Home Screen Financial Display
Financial Dashboard
All competitors surface "remaining available amount" and "today's / this month's spending" directly on the first screen - users can perceive their financial state the moment they open the app, without entering any sub-page.
2
Transaction Information
Merchant Logo + Real Name Recognition
Encrypted merchant codes are decoded into real names and brand logos, with transaction status and failure reasons annotated - eliminating user confusion about unfamiliar charges.
3
Spending Analysis
Multi-dimensional spending trends vs. historical
All provide week / month / year time-dimension switching, using historical averages as a reference line - letting users instantly judge whether current spending is high, rather than only seeing absolute amounts.
4
Payment & Transfer Flow
Core transfers completed within 4–5 steps, entirely in-app
Recent contacts pinned to the top, multiple payment channels (contacts / QR code / link / @username) offered in parallel - no need to switch platforms or hardware devices.
P2P Instant Transfer (Revolut) offers contacts, QR code, @username, and payment link in parallel - making the transfer experience feel as everyday as sending a message.
5
Savings Features
A complete savings behaviour system
Pots/Spaces create mental accounts, Round-up automatically accumulates spare change, Rules trigger savings on conditions, Lock constrains withdrawals until a deadline - together converting savings intent into sustainable habit.
Conceptualisation
From Scenarios to Wireframes
1 Define Persona
Extract representative user types from research data
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2 Build Narrative
Set specific contexts and trigger events for the persona, letting behaviour unfold naturally
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3 Map Touchpoints
Map each behaviour in the narrative to product features and UI validation
Scenario 1: Everyday Money Experience
The service designer first defined target persona types and scenario narrative directions based on research data, covering the Spend → Control → Save experience phases. We then worked together to identify the feature capabilities each narrative node needed to validate.
Persona Definition
Research revealed a recurring user type: has savings intent but lacks spending insights and tools, reacting with anxiety to unexpected expenses. We built the persona Sarah, 33, a nurse with stable income but no bandwidth for financial details. Her pain points map directly to the three structural gaps, allowing one scenario to validate payment, spending insight, and savings simultaneously.
Narrative Design
The scenario follows: pay a bill → view spending analysis → set a budget → set up auto-saving, connecting Spend → Control → Save. A sudden €250 car repair bill triggers Sarah's shift from passive checking to active management. We chose this trigger because "mid-month surprise at low balance" and "not knowing where money went" were the top two pain points in research.
I broke down the narrative into specific behaviour steps and feature UI touchpoints.
Behaviour Breakdown: First, Sarah's "unexpected expense" story was broken down into detailed behaviour modules, clarifying her thoughts and actions at each stage of the crisis.
Touchpoint Mapping: These behaviours were then mapped to specific UI touchpoints, ensuring product logic directly responds to her evolving financial intent.
How might we help users in everyday spending scenarios complete payments frictionlessly, perceive their financial state in real time, and build sustainable saving habits without adding cognitive load?
Direction 01
Payments & Transfers
Users can complete payments and transfers quickly - frictionless login, core actions within one screen, recent contacts pinned to reduce repeated steps
Face ID LoginSimplified Transfer Flow
Direction 02
Spending Insights
Users perceive their spending state from the very first screen - knowing where their money went, how much they can still spend, and making adjustments through proactive insights
Income & Spend OverviewTransaction DetailsSpend VisualisationBudget Awareness
Direction 03
Savings
Users set goal-based savings, reducing execution effort through automation; milestone nudges guide funds toward more suitable long-term savings products.
Lo-fi wireframe prototypes were built around 3 themes to validate key interaction flows and visual language. Click a category on the left or scroll the mouse wheel within the module to switch views.
03 VALIDATION
Scenario-Based Testing With 40+ Users
To evaluate early concepts and assumptions and uncover behavioural insights, we conducted in-depth scenario-based user interviews with 50+ participants across varying financial situations.
Scenario-Based User Interviews
To support the interviews, I worked with another UX designer to build scenario flows using our wireframes, gradually aligning with the research team to ensure consistent test objectives. The test script progressed linearly through Sarah's scenario - 10 nodes, each presenting an interface while validating a specific design hypothesis.
Methodology
60-minute moderated interview
Based on 5 real financial scenarios, each corresponding to a key money management moment
Participants used think-aloud protocol during the experience, followed by reflective discussion
Focus on validating user comprehension, trust, emotional response, and feature adoption intent
Participants
52 participants, spanning a range of age groups from youth to older users
Tools
Figma prototype, Zoom, screen recording
Research Objectives
Validate Concept Value
Can users clearly understand the purpose and value of each scenario, and consider these features relevant to their real financial needs?
Identify Friction & Usability Issues
Can users move through the entire flow smoothly? Is each step clear and comprehensible, with minimal cognitive load?
Assess Emotional & Behavioural Response
Do these features make users feel more in control and confident, and willing to use them consistently for daily financial management?
Probe Questions
Comprehension
"What's the difference between Current Balance and Safe to Spend?" "What's the difference between Total accessible funds and Available funds?" "Is this information clear? Where does it confuse you?"
Value
"How do you usually budget? Would you use an app for this, and why?" "This spending analysis feature - do you find it useful or not?" "Are you familiar with the concept of Spaces? Have you used a similar feature on Revolut?"
Behaviour
"Would you use this category labelling feature to correct spending records?" "If this automation rule were available, would you set it up? Why?" "Between Rainy Day and Revolut's Pockets, which would you prefer?"
In testing with 52 users, over 90% expressed willingness to use Savings Spaces and Spending Insights features. 60%+ said they would reduce or replace their use of Revolut and other digital-first banking apps if AIB delivered Spending Insights. However, three issues recurred throughout testing and need to be prioritised in the next phase: unclear information hierarchy, terminology comprehension barriers, and insufficient feature discoverability.
Key Findings
THEME 1Core FlowsRelated Findings
Simplified transfer path well received - user behaviour validated the design decision
1Users focused on Current Balance first, ignoring Safe to Spend - information hierarchy needs rebuilding
2Terminology confusion was the most frequent feedback
THEME 2Financial Insight LayerRelated Findings
Transaction detail with map - brings users greater peace of mind
"If AIB could do this, I wouldn't need Revolut" - strong signal of willingness to return to AIB
385% preferred pie charts over line charts - core need is compositional perception, not trend
THEME 3Savings Automation ToolsRelated Findings
Nudge cards received positive responses but should be brief and scannable
4Clear age divide: younger users wanted custom rules, older users preferred presets - use preset templates to lower the barrier to entry
ITERATION
Iteration
Based on validation findings, I iterated designs across three directions: information hierarchy, spending insights, and savings automation, directly translating user feedback into specific interface changes. Meanwhile, the Design System team was iterating on the new visual language and component library, and I applied parts of the new component system during the Hi-Fi phase. Value Stream designers were also advancing interface designs across feature domains in parallel - my Hi-Fi output served as the experience baseline for Scenario 1, handed off to them for implementation by User Story.
Hi-Fi Design
HOME
Validation found users prioritise total balance first, with terminology confusion as the most frequent feedback. Accordingly, the information hierarchy was rebuilt - account structure consolidated into Accounts, with Safe to Spend and Available funds demoted to secondary information.
TRANSACTION
Users expressed during validation that they "really liked seeing detailed information including a map in the transaction details". Accordingly, both the transaction list and detail view were comprehensively upgraded - replacing encrypted codes with real merchant information and geographic location to eliminate confusion about unfamiliar charges.
FINANCE
The Finances page integrates spending analysis, filtering, and proactive insights within the same flow. Users start from a monthly overview, drill down precisely to specific categories or cards via Filter, and the system simultaneously pushes personalised Spending Breakdown recommendations alongside the analysis results.
NEST EGG
"Spaces" was renamed to Nest Egg to better capture the emotional meaning of savings. The creation flow defaults to preset templates, lowering the barrier for older users. Meanwhile, a "custom rules" entry point is retained to meet younger users' need for personalised control.
RESULTS & Next Step
Results
In testing with 52 participants, over 90% expressed willingness to use Savings Spaces and Spending Insights, and 60%+ said they would reduce reliance on Revolut. These signals directly validated Scenario 1's core hypothesis: rebuilding the financial insight layer can pull churned users back into AIB.
The Hi-Fi prototype and CX Map were included in the complete Mobile 4.0 vision presentation to the board. The project received board approval and moved into development.
Delivered a fully annotated Figma prototype, core interaction documentation, and co-organised the Feature Roadmap with the team.
Next Steps for the Team
After completing the Hi-Fi iteration for Scenario 1, due to Irish banking regulatory restrictions on third-party vendor participation scope, I was unable to continue into the subsequent development phase. My work focused on the MVE phase, establishing the experience direction and design foundation for Mobile 4.0. Subsequently, Value Stream designers advanced implementation based on my experience solutions, the Design System team synced new components to the global component library, and the Implementation Squad began development by User Story. The spending category structure and savings components I designed in Scenario 1 will continue to be developed further. Mobile 4.0 is expected to launch in the second half of 2026.
Pay & Transfer 
View Payment History 
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