Ferratum, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, was founded in May 2005 and has expanded its operations to over 25 countries. The company has a background in lending and financial services.

Ferratum has developed its own proprietary core mobile banking platform, called the Mobile Wallet. The Mobile Wallet is set to be rolled out throughout Europe and will be at the center of Ferratum's customer communications.

Products: Ferratum Prime Mobile Wallet (later on rebranded as Sweep Bank)
Type: B2C, Personal Finance, Lending Products, Mobile App
Role: Lead Designer
Duration: 2017 - 2021
Expertises: Product Design, UX Design, UX research, Design System, Motion Design
Outcome: 10,000+ downloads in the first launch week (Latvia); +20% onboarding boost across all channels

Design problem and team setup

First launched in 2017, Ferratum Mobile Bank aimed to revolutionize the banking industry by offering a full online onboarding experience, unlike traditional banks which usually require a branch visit. Customers could get fast access to an IBAN bank account and other services similar to what traditional banks offer.

However, by 2018, Ferratum Mobile Bank had failed to gain enough momentum and was unable to attract enough new customers. Onboarded customers also seemed to be neither engaged nor active.

Group-wide, no design system was established, so the look and feel of Ferratum products varied across different channels. The production time and quality of design work were severely affected by this.

I was leading a team of six in-house designers, and 3-4 outsourced designers (UI designers, graphic designers) who were called in as needed.

My main responsibilities included:

Designing the new Ferratum Prime app, which succeeded the 2017 Ferratum Mobile Bank. I prepared wireframes, prototypes, and conducted usability tests, working closely with our UI talents to create a world-class UI. I also provided the majority of the animation/motion work for the app.
Building the first-ever Ferratum DS.
Mentoring junior designers on the team.

Working process

I could summarise my process into two parts: “Define & Scope” and “Detail Design”.

2.1. Creating visual library / design system

All existing artifacts from all channels (web, mobile app, social media, advertising) were collected and analyzed for UX/UI shortcomings and inconsistencies. A selected group of employees and customers were interviewed for feedback and insights.

We set up a centralised Sketch design library, with appropriate components for each platform and standardized design tools (Sketch + Abstract, Invision, Zeplin, Usabilityhub).

The design drivers of the DS were fast, simple, relevant, calmness, and joy.

Functional patterns included what users want/need, such as checking account balances, navigating, and getting cash.

Perceptual patterns included what users feel and do intuitively, such as typography, color palette, and motion.

2.2 Interaction design

The interface concept and sketch were done by an outsourced designer. I contributed by providing direction and filtering proposed UI elements through our DS to ensure consistency across platforms and accessibility compliance.

I was fully responsible for the motion aspect of the app.

2.3 Usability study

We conducted a thorough study using prototypes with polished design, with myself and a UX researcher conducting several batches of interviews (each batch consisting of 5 interviews) depending on our capacity and budget.

Test methodologies included heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthrough, and accessibility testing.

2.4 Refining

If the designs passed the usability test, we prepared the assets for production. If they did not pass, we revisited our prototypes and improved the user flows and layout, then conducted another round of usability tests.

Outcome

The entire onboarding process was redesigned and relaunched with the goal of a frictionless onboarding experience. Local strong authentication solutions (such as Finnish TUPAS, Latvian SmartID, and Swedish BankID) were used, eliminating the need for cumbersome video calls or document uploads.

The process was also transformed into a web-based service, which helped with scalability for future market rollouts. The USPs were communicated more effectively at the beginning of the flow, and various UX/UI issues were addressed.

In addition to onboarding, the app's features and products are now designed around user stories with a clear purpose. The screens have been decluttered to remove an overwhelming amount of information. The theme of sustainability has been promoted and used as an accent in the design language.

The Ferratum Design System is a comprehensive resource for designers, providing guidelines and resources for all channels. This includes design tokens, a tone of voice guide, motion, and information architecture. Using the Ferratum DS has improved ROI by making it easier to launch new products and channels, standardize design language, increase working efficiency, and improve overall UX by taking design quality to the next level.

The Ferratum Mobile Wallet was successfully launched in Latvia in 2020, with over 100,000 downloads, and is set to launch in other European countries in 2021. The Ferratum web channel has driven sales up by an average of 20% across all active countries.