In Kazakhstan's market
VTB Bank Kazakhstan is part of VTB International Financial Group — one of the largest banking networks in the CIS. Operating in the country for over 16 years, the bank serves both retail and business clients through 12 regional branches and a steadily expanding digital ecosystem.
16 yrs
Monthly active users
≈ 120K
Regional branches
12
Renovating a major Russian bank for Kazakhstan’s fintech landscape
Jira, Notion
Pixelmator
Spline
Adobe (Illustrator, Photoshop, ME, AE)
Sept 2024 - Jun 2025 (9 Months)
Duration
Figma
Tools
Motion Design & Illustrations
Prototyping
System Design
Design strategy
User research
My role
Redesigning the online banking experience to align with Kazakhstan’s evolving digital market. The goal was to increase user adoption by improving key financial flows - including deposits, transfers, currency exchange, and account onboarding - through data-driven design, user research, and iterative testing.
Objective
The product relied heavily on outdated native OS components (MUI, HUG) from earlier versions. The existing design system was incomplete, inconsistent, and lacked scalability — making it difficult to maintain visual and functional coherence across screens.
1. Design Legacy
At the time of the redesign, the app was temporarily unavailable on major app stores. This required the adoption of a Progressive Web App (PWA) approach to ensure continuous access and maintain usability standards.
4. Limited Accessibility
Most of the core operations were handled through third-party providers, which slowed down processing times for basic actions like money transfers or card issuance. While this was not a direct design responsibility, many UX issues stemmed from these performance constraints.
3. Outdated Technology Stack
The product relied heavily on outdated native OS components (MUI, HUG) from earlier versions. The existing design system was incomplete, inconsistent, and lacked scalability — making it difficult to maintain visual and functional coherence across screens.
2. Overcomplicated Flows and Interfaces
The main challenges
To address these challenges, we redesigned the system from the ground up — focusing on scalability, usability, and faster product iteration.
The Solution
3. Improving Agility with PWA Technology
Migrating to Progressive Web App (PWA) technology reduced time-to-market by allowing updates and UI adjustments to be deployed instantly — without waiting for App Store or Google Play releases. This approach ensured faster iteration and a smoother user experience across platforms.
2. Simplifying User Flows and Interfaces
Collaborating closely with frontend and backend teams, we optimized the logic behind key interactions — hiding redundant elements and surfacing only what users needed at each step. After several rounds of user research and usability testing, we refined the flows to make the UI more intuitive, efficient, and visually clear.
1. Building a Scalable Design System
We developed a new design library with custom, platform-independent components to replace outdated native OS elements. This allowed for a consistent and adaptive interface across all devices and operating systems. The transition to PWA technology further supported this flexibility.
As a result, the redesign reduced user drop-off, shortened task completion time, and increased conversion rates for deposits and transfers. The launch of online digital card issuance also contributed to a notable rise in new active clients and overall platform engagement.
The updated design library helped unify UI components and significantly reduce time-to-market. While the brand colors and visual identity remained unchanged, the UI was modernized with refined iconography, a 3D glass-like aesthetic, and the new corporate typeface VTB Sans, replacing the default Inter. Transitioning to a variable-based color system also enabled a seamless introduction of dark mode.
During the project, a complete redesign of the online banking experience was delivered, with a primary focus on the core products — transfers and deposits. In addition to improving existing features, several new ones were designed from scratch, including digital card issuance and multi-currency accounts.
Delivering measurable growth through a full UX and visual overhaul of VTB Online’s core banking experience.
The Results
2. Lack of perceived benefit — The interface didn’t highlight profitability. By emphasizing potential income through an interactive calculator, we expected to increase user motivation to open a deposit.
2. Made earnings tangible through calculators
We introduced interactive calculators that let users instantly see how term, amount, and currency affect their income. This increased engagement, trust, and overall understanding of profitability.
- User survey: measured clarity, convenience, and motivation to open a deposit.
- Behavioral analysis: conducted usability testing with 7 participants before and after the redesign.
- Data analysis: reviewed key product metrics, including total users, drop-off rate, and CTA click-through.
Methodology
1. Overloaded interface — The process contained too many mandatory fields, discouraging users from completing the flow. Simplifying the path by reducing the number of steps and visible inputs could minimize abandonment.
Hypotheses
Example #1
Low conversion rate for deposit openings, with a high drop-off on the second step — filling in deposit parameters and calculating potential earnings.
The problem
The solutions
VTB Deposits
Example: opening a new deposit
3. Enhanced clarity and motivation
We emphasized CTA visibility and displayed projected earnings upfront, helping users clearly see the benefit of opening a deposit and encouraging them to take action.
1. Simplified deposit flow
We reduced the process to just three essential screens, keeping only the core input fields and removing distractions. This shorter, cleaner journey reduced user fatigue and improved completion rates.
- User satisfaction (UX survey) improved from 5.2 / 10 to 8.7 / 10.
- Drop-off rate on the calculator step decreased from 38% to 11%.
- Drop-off rate on the conditions step fell from 46% to 14%.
- Time to complete a deposit decreased from 8 min 40 sec to 4 min 11 sec.
- Deposit openings increased by +405% (from 43 to 217 in first month).
Key metrics
These changes made the deposit feature faster, clearer, and more motivating — ultimately driving higher engagement and user trust in the product.
The redesign of the deposit flow led to significant improvements in user behavior and product performance.
The results
↑ +3.5
User satisfaction
8.7 / 10
2x faster now
Time to success
8:40 → 4:11
↓x3.2
Drop rate
46% → 14%
+405% in first month
Deposit openings
43 → 217
2. Progressive field disclosure
Introduced step-by-step field appearance as users fill out information. This approach made the process smoother, more predictable, and less cognitively demanding, helping reduce early abandonment.
User observation: validated assumptions about where users got stuck or abandoned the process.
Heuristic review & UX audit: identified friction points in the form’s visual hierarchy and flow.
Data analysis: examined metrics such as total users, form drop-offs, and CTA click rates.
Methodology
Users rarely used the interbank transfer feature, despite it being a key service. The drop-off rate was especially high at the step where users had to fill in multiple mandatory fields and enter the transfer amount.
The problem
The interface was overloaded with required fields mandated by new National Bank of Kazakhstan regulations. As a result, the transfer form stretched across up to three full screens vertically.
This made the process seem complicated and time-consuming — users often lacked the patience or motivation to complete it for what should have been a simple action.
This made the process seem complicated and time-consuming — users often lacked the patience or motivation to complete it for what should have been a simple action.
Hypotheses
Example #2
Although the redesign covered all transfer types, this case focuses specifically on interbank transfers — one of the bank’s core services.
The solutions
VTB Interbank Transfers
3. Simplified confirmation step
Replaced multiple agreement checkboxes with a single hyperlinked consent text on the confirmation screen.
This small change reduced clutter and made the interface more concise while maintaining full compliance with regulatory requirements.
This small change reduced clutter and made the interface more concise while maintaining full compliance with regulatory requirements.
1. Adaptive field visibility
Reduced the number of visible fields depending on the type of recipient (individual / business, resident / non-resident).
In the old design, all fields appeared at once, regardless of relevance, overwhelming users. The new logic now displays only what’s necessary.
In the old design, all fields appeared at once, regardless of relevance, overwhelming users. The new logic now displays only what’s necessary.
- Full compliance with all National Bank of Kazakhstan data and legal requirements.
- Simplified user journey through progressive field disclosure and optimized screen logic.
- Drop rate fell from 55 % to 18 %
- Average completion time decreased from 10min 30s to 6min 20s.
- Successful transfers increased almost 4× — from 714 to 2,982 monthly transactions.
Key metrics
These improvements made interbank transfers faster, simpler, and more transparent — encouraging users to adopt one of the bank’s key services more actively.
The redesign of interbank transfers significantly improved both usability and performance, while maintaining full compliance with National Bank of Kazakhstan regulations.
The results
↑ +3.5
User satisfaction
8.4 / 10
≈2x faster now
Time to success
10:30 → 6:20
↓x3
Drop rate
55% → 18%
+317.6% in first month
Successful transfers
714 → 2,982
