Banco Santander
Impact
- Designed custom modular native app experiences used across 10 countries in Europe and America
- Contributed to the global design system (Flame), including documentation and testing used by 70+ teams worldwide
- Helped shape dark mode standards to improve accessibility and visual quality, impacting 170M+ users
- Pioneered ML-driven Virtual Assistant experiences to automate support and enhance user financial agency
Project
overview
Background
Banco Santander was carrying out an innovation initiative to centralize and modularize digital banking across 10 countries, reducing duplication while supporting a global design system used by 70+ teams and 170M+ users.
The Challenge
Support several teams and manage multi-country stakeholders to streamline expectations across different countries.
Unifying a Fragmented Giant
Simplifying complexity
Transforming high-complexity legacy processes into simple, transparent, and accessible digital experiences.
Identified friction
- Global Misalignment: Inconsistencies in user experience and features across different countries
- Cognitive Overload: Users reported high friction due to dense, confusing legacy flows
- Market Pressure: Rapid growth of digital challenger banks threatening traditional leadership
- Technical Debt: Massive legacy structures hindering product agility and innovation
The project aimed to modernize legacy banking experiences and maintain market leadership against the rapid rise of digital challenger banks.
Product design work
I led the design of core banking experiences for Santander’s global digital transformation, harmonizing a complex ecosystem of 10+ countries into a unified, scalable mobile experience for iOS, Android and Angular.
I also helped shape the dark mode and made contributions to the global Design System.
Main supported teams
- Global Position
- Cards & Accounts
- Settings
- Payments
- Virtual Assistant
Conversations with stakeholders where crucial to understand technical limitations and anticipate friction.
VIRTUAL ASSISTANT: PIONEERING INTELLIGENT BANKING
At a time when AI wasn't yet part of the daily conversation, we integrated Machine Learning to transform the banking experience. Our goal was to bridge the gap between complex data and user understanding, creating an early-market advantage through predictive insights and automated assistance.
Goals:
- Designing transparent interfaces to help users trust Machine Learning-driven suggestions
- Leveraging ML to provide users with proactive control over their financial health
- Simplifying high-complexity flows by anticipating user needs through intelligent patterns
Other mentions
Khoros Community champion
Actively contributed to shape the knowledge community by documenting relevant topics related to design and redesigning the tool.
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