Services
UX Design
Category
Banking & Finance
Client
Barclays Bank
Time
2 Weeks
It takes 11 steps to send money to someone I paid yesterday.
Barclays is one of the UK’s most widely used high street banks, but its mobile app experience feels outdated, especially when compared to modern digital banks like Monzo and Starling. The payment flow in particular felt frustrating, requiring up to 11 steps to pay someone you’ve already paid before.
This project aimed to explore how the app’s payment, card control, and direct debit experiences could be simplified and modernised to match today’s user expectations.
When a Simple Task Feels Needlessly Complicated
Despite being one of the UK’s largest banks, Barclays’ mobile app struggles to keep up with the expectations set by modern digital banking. Through a combination of personal experience and reviews from real users, a consistent theme emerged: routine tasks were harder than they needed to be.
Users found that common tasks like paying recent contacts or managing direct debits were buried in clunky interfaces, often requiring double the number of taps compared to apps like Monzo or Starling. Navigation patterns felt inconsistent, and visual cues were often lacking or unclear.
Fixing the Friction: What This Redesign Set Out to Solve
Understanding the Journey
To pinpoint where Barclays' payment journey was falling short, I mapped out the entire end-to-end flow a user takes to send money to a recent payee , capturing every screen, tap, and decision along the way.
To provide better context, I also compared the same journey in Monzo and Starling, two digital-first banks known for their seamless user experiences. The difference was clear: while Barclays required more steps and screen transitions, Monzo and Starling prioritised quick access to recent contacts, offered more intuitive layouts, and presented clearer payment summaries.
When Everyday Banking Becomes a Chore
Wireframes
After uncovering how clunky and time-consuming the existing Barclays app flow was, I began sketching out what a simpler experience could look like. My focus wasn’t just on making it “prettier” — it was about redefining what users saw first, how quickly they could get to familiar tasks, and how smoothly they could move between screens without second-guessing themselves.
Instead of surfacing marketing content or rarely-used features, the new layout prioritised recent activity, quick access to payment options, upcoming bills, and helpful insights like monthly spending comparisons. The goal was to make the app feel proactive, not reactive.
Next, I tackled the payment journey. Based on my earlier flow mapping, I stripped back the 11 steps into a more direct path. Rather than making users navigate multiple screens to reach a contact they’ve already paid, I imagined a scenario where the app anticipated intent, presenting a list of recent payees the moment you tapped “Pay.”
Where Vision Meets Reality
After refining the flows and structure through wireframes, I transitioned into creating high-fidelity mockups. This stage was all about visual clarity, brand consistency, and usability. While the Barclays brand already had established colours and fonts, I modernised the interface to better reflect a digital-first experience
Redesigning The Homepage
In the current Barclays app, core banking actions are buried beneath multiple layers. Finding basic info like card controls, viewing upcoming direct debits, or even sharing your account details requires unnecessary taps and time.
Action-first layout: Card controls, recent transactions, and upcoming debits are visible the moment you log in.
Mini widgets: These smart blocks surface key info—like bills due, spending insights, or card freezes, without the user needing to search.
Quick-share feature: A dedicated share icon lets users instantly send account details or request payments, a function that was previously buried.
By bringing these features, cognitive load was reduced, increased daily usability, and empowered users to act faster, with fewer steps.
Less Steps. Less Friction
The redesigned payments page focuses on speed, convenience, and reducing friction.
By surfacing your most recent payees at the top, the user no longer needs to dig through multiple screens. Whether you're splitting a bill with a friend or paying a recurring invoice, the process is now just a tap away.
This approach tackles a major usability flaw in the original Barclays app, where key actions like sending money to a familiar contact required 11 clicks and multiple screens. Now, it’s all where it should be, front and centre.
Card Controls, Right Where You Need Them
No more hunting through settings just to freeze your card.
In the redesign, card controls were brought straight to the home screen, making it easier than ever to lock your card, view details, or report an issue. With just one tap, users can access essential card actions, right from the screen they land on.
This shift saves time and reduces anxiety in urgent situation,whether you've lost your card or just want to check your limits quickly.
Stay Ahead of Your Bills
Managing upcoming payments shouldn’t feel like a guessing game.
The redesigned homepage introduces a Direct Debits widget—a compact but powerful feature that gives users a clear view of their upcoming bills and subscriptions, right when they log in. No more digging through menus or searching for payment schedules.
By surfacing this information early, users can plan ahead, spot unusual activity, and feel more in control of their finances from the very first screen.
Reflection & Learnings
While usability testing wasn’t conducted for this case study, the next logical step would be validating these changes with real users to measure efficiency, satisfaction, and task success.
Each of my design decision was shaped around real user frustrations, based off of user reviews and my own personal experience, from excessive payment steps to the lack of homepage functionality. By bringing core features like recent payees, card controls, and direct debits to the forefront, the redesign reduces friction and improves everyday usability.
This project allowed me to look critically at a real-world product used by millions and explore how good design could simplify essential tasks.