2024 ~ Mobile app design

NatWest Spending Subcategories

Role

Product Designer

Team

3 Experience Managers

Timeline

2 months

Skills

UX Design

UI Design

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Brief

Improving clarity and confidence in everyday financial decisions

NatWest customers were increasingly using the app to understand and manage their day-to-day spending, particularly as cost-of-living pressures grew. However, the existing transaction categorisation experience lacked clarity and consistency, making it difficult for users to trust the insights provided or meaningfully act on them.

This project focused on improving how spending was categorised and presented within the mobile app, with the aim of helping users better understand where their money was going and feel more in control of their finances.

I worked on this project as the sole UX Designer, collaborating closely with Product and Engineering to design a solution that balanced user clarity, technical feasibility, and regulatory constraints.

NatWest customers were increasingly using the app to understand and manage their day-to-day spending, particularly as cost-of-living pressures grew. However, the existing transaction categorisation experience lacked clarity and consistency, making it difficult for users to trust the insights provided or meaningfully act on them.

This project focused on improving how spending was categorised and presented within the mobile app, with the aim of helping users better understand where their money was going and feel more in control of their finances.

I worked on this project as the sole UX Designer, collaborating closely with Product and Engineering to design a solution that balanced user clarity, technical feasibility, and regulatory constraints.

Challenge

Designing for trust in a highly data-driven environment

While transaction categorisation already existed within the app, several challenges limited its effectiveness:

  • Users struggled to understand why transactions were assigned to certain categories

  • Manual recategorisation was possible, but unintuitive and under-used

  • Inconsistent patterns across the experience increased cognitive load

  • Trust in the accuracy of insights was low, reducing perceived value

From a delivery perspective, the team also needed to work within the constraints of an existing third-party categorisation system, limiting control over underlying logic and data accuracy.

The challenge was not just to redesign UI components, but to create a clearer, more trustworthy experience that worked within real technical and regulatory boundaries.

Discovery

Understanding how people interpret personal finances

We began by reviewing the existing experience end-to-end, mapping key user journeys such as:

  • First-time exposure to spending insights

  • Reviewing spending by category

  • Manually re-categorising transactions

  • Setting and monitoring budgets

Alongside this, we explored competitor patterns and internal research insights to understand how users mentally model their spending and what signals increase trust in financial data.

This discovery phase highlighted a key tension: users wanted both simplicity and accuracy, while the system itself operated with inherent ambiguity. Any solution needed to acknowledge this without overwhelming users.

Key decisions

Improved onboarding flow

We consolidated fragmented categorisation flows into a more coherent experience, reducing unnecessary variation and helping users build a consistent mental model of how spending data worked across the app.

This meant prioritising predictability over bespoke interactions, even where more complex options were technically possible.

Designing for trust, not just control

Rather than over-emphasising manual controls, we focused on improving transparency through clearer labels, supporting copy, and subtle guidance patterns. The goal was to help users understand why a transaction was categorised a certain way, not just change it.

This reduced friction while reinforcing confidence in the system.

Simplifying budget indicators

Budget progress indicators were redesigned to be easier to interpret at a glance, using consistent visual language across categories. This helped users quickly understand their spending position without needing to interpret multiple competing signals.

Outcome

Increased engagement with spending insights at scale

The updated categorisation experience launched to NatWest customers and led to clear signs of increased engagement:

1.57 million new visitors to the spending tab within the first three months (+25%)

145,000 manual transaction categorisations in the first 30 days

10,100 users setting budgets within the first three months (+7%)

These outcomes suggested improved clarity, trust, and perceived usefulness of spending insights within the app.

Reflection

Using design to give users feeling of control

This project reinforced the importance of designing for confidence as much as functionality, particularly in financial products where ambiguity can quickly undermine trust.

Working within the constraints of third-party systems highlighted the value of early technical alignment and clear communication around limitations. The next iteration of this work would explore more personalised guidance over time, helping users proactively understand and adjust their spending patterns based on behaviour.

Testimonial

"We were pleased with how she approached the project and how quickly she grasped the task. She then presented the results of her exploration to all the designers on the Mobile team including the design manager (client). General feedback was the thoroughness of her exploration and the rigour of approach was better than some more experienced designers.”

- Agile Program Manager