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Goal Account

KCB Goal Account: Open a Goal Account screen with a piggy-bank illustration
KCB Goal Account: set a goal form with name, amount, period and maturity date
KCB Goal Account: My Goal Account dashboard with a savings goal card and Top-up, Withdraw, Statement and Edit actions

About the project

Modernising savings for the East African market #

Moving KCB's digital banking from a transactional utility to a goal-oriented financial partner. Live for millions of users across five countries.

Role
Senior Product Designer. Research, UX and UI, strategy
Platform
iOS and Android, KCB Mobile App, live on both stores
Scale
Millions of users in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan
Domain
Tier-1 banking, goal-based savings
01 · Challenge

Beyond the balance #

Despite being a Tier-1 bank, KCB saw a gap in active savings. People moved money through the app but had no reason to save in it. Three frictions defined the problem.

  1. 01

    Low visibility

    A balance is not a plan. People had no sense of progress toward anything, and no sense of control over what they had put aside.

  2. 02

    Rigidity

    Traditional savings products assume a salary on the same day each month. Most of the informal sector earns in bursts, and the products punished that.

  3. 03

    Cultural fit

    Standard banking did not recognise the goals people actually save for: land, school fees, a wedding, an emergency cushion.

02 · Research

Three sources of insight #

Business and stakeholders. Across seven business units the core tension was liquidity for the user against retention for the bank. I designed a flexible withdrawal with the interest impact shown in real time, so informed consent satisfied both sides.

User psychology. Interviews with seven users over eleven days revealed the "saving feels like losing" gap. I moved from a text-heavy ledger to a visual progress path with milestones at 25, 50 and 75 percent, so small wins get an immediate reward.

Regional nuance. In East Africa saving is often communal or intermittent. A flexible top-up lets people contribute any amount, any time, without penalty.

Context over universalism. What works for a European banking app does not work for a Tier-1 bank in Africa.

Research board: seven user interviews over eleven days, interview goals and five insights
Seven people, eleven days, five insights that shaped the goal journey.
03 · Execution

From paper to millions #

Engineering. Optimised for low bandwidth and older devices: progress animations tuned for 3G, edge cases mapped for mid-top-up timeouts and multi-currency display.

Product. Defined the MVP with product managers: individual goals first, social savings deferred. A stable release over feature breadth.

Compliance is the UI. As the bridge between Legal and the user, I turned dense regulatory text into an onboarding flow people can read: rates and terms without fine-print anxiety.

Information architecture: home, goal creation and goal dashboard branches with the fields under each
Information architecture. Three directions, one day.
Paper sketches of the goal account screens, five iterations over twelve days
Paper first. Five iterations over twelve days, used to align the business units before any pixels.
Mid-fidelity wireframes for opening a goal, saving and amending a goal name
Mid-fidelity wireframes for the three core tasks: open a goal, save, amend.
04 · Impact

Results at scale #

  • −20%Goal-related support tickets after self-service withdrawals and edits shipped, measured against the pre-launch baseline.
  • 5 marketsKenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan. A primary driver of KCB's digital deposit growth across the region.
  • More loginsVisual milestones brought people back to check on progress, not just to move money.

Trust is the primary interface. In banking, clarity about your money matters more than animation.

Prototype board: the clickable prototype of the goal journey used for testing
The prototype used for testing before build: open a goal, save, amend, withdraw.