emmanuel
All work

UBA Mobile, concept redesign

Breathing new life into a legacy banking app

One of Africa's biggest banks, and a mobile app that wasn't keeping up. A user-led redesign making the experience more intuitive, modern, and trustworthy.

Role
Lead designer (concept)
Industry
African banking
Type
Self-initiated redesign
Platform
Mobile, light and dark mode
Redesigned Transfers screen Redesigned UBA home screen Redesigned Payments screen

Problem

A major bank's app felt dated and stressful, with red everywhere and everyday tasks buried.

Solution

A user-led redesign of onboarding, sign-in, home, transfers and payments, saving red for the moments that need it.

Result

Interactive prototypes in light and dark mode showing calmer, faster everyday banking.

The problem

UBA is one of Africa's biggest banks, but its mobile app falls short of modern user expectations. As a long-time customer, I found the outdated design and frustrating experience disappointing, something many users echoed. The dominance of red throughout, while brand-consistent, evoked the wrong emotions: stress, error, danger.

Home

The old home opened on an error card and hid everyday actions in a sideways scroll. The redesign puts the balance, five quick actions and recent activity on one screen, and keeps red for debits and alerts.

The redesigned UBA home with balance, quick actions and recent transactions
The existing UBA home screen with an error card and a sideways services row
Drag to compare the existing home with the redesign.

Transfers

Sending money used to start with a bank carousel and stacked forms. The new flow starts with search and recent recipients, grouped into all, favourites and contacts, so repeat transfers take fewer taps.

Existing Send Money screen with a bank carousel; personal details blurred
Send Money, before
Redesigned Transfers screen with search and recent recipients
Transfers, after

Bills and payments

Pay Bills was a long list of vague categories, many sharing the same icon. Payments now pins the most frequent actions at the top and names everything else by what people actually pay for, with automatic network detection for airtime and data.

Existing Pay Bills screen with a list of categories
Pay Bills, before
Redesigned Payments screen with frequently used actions
Payments, after

Onboarding and sign-in

I reimagined the sign-in pagination and tackled red's dominance on input fields, aligning onboarding with modern standards.

Existing onboarding
Redesigned onboarding
Existing UBA sign-in screen
Sign-in, before
Redesigned UBA sign-in screen
Sign-in, after
Redesigned UBA sign-in, second state
Sign-in, after
Light mode prototype Dark mode prototype

Conclusion

This redesign is more than a visual upgrade. It's a user-centred transformation. Every change was made with the user in mind, from removing outdated features to introducing modern, industry-aligned solutions.