NatWest: Digital Onboarding Application
Streamlining £250M + Commercial Financial Applciation
Role
Lead UX Designer
Company
NatWest
Platform
Web Application
Focus Area
Digital Transformation
User Experience
Value Proposition
Background
NatWest's digital asset finance application process was experiencing critical user experience failures, particularly in the team member information capture stage. With over 70% of users dropping out during this crucial phase, the bank was losing significant business opportunities and requiring extensive manual intervention from relationship managers.
Business Context:
Commercial finance applications for businesses with £250M+ annual turnover were requiring 80%+ manual intervention from relationship managers - highly skilled professionals whose time was being consumed by basic form completion assistance rather than strategic client relationship building. This operational drain was unsustainable and directly impacted NatWest's ability to scale their commercial finance operations effectively.
Key Challenges:​
A poorly designed modal interface was hiding critical context, creating confusion, and fundamentally breaking the user experience for enterprise clients who expect sophisticated, intuitive digital banking solutions that match their operational complexity.
Before:
The team page with no idication on who and what information is required.
Before:
The form appeared as a pop-up where user had to close the form in order to check other teams information.
Challenges
-
70% + Applicants Dropout Rate:
Massive user abandonment at the team information capture stage, directly impacting business conversion.
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Lack of Transparency:
Limited information or no information about required documentation upfront
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Modal Interface Issues:
Pop-up design hid critical context with long scroll requirements, confusing users.
-
80%+ Manual Intervention:
Data entering required by relationship manager to complete applications.
User Feedback
"I need to know what information is required in advance. Which documents..."
" How do I know what's left to be completed?"
"How do I know what information to ask my colleague or directors if I am filling it for them?"
"I won't know their personal details..."
​
Proposed Wireframes:
The team page lists the information of the individuals with clear indication of who has "completed" and "not completed".
Also, the application gives clear indication of what informations are required before completing the form.
​
Proposed Wireframes:
Instead of pop-up interaction, users are able to switch between the different users application form.​
Approach
Phase 1:
UX Design & Implementation
Discovery Workshop
Conducted collaborative workshops with UX, Product Owners, and Business Analysts to understand user stories, field requirements, and content alignment with legal team specifications.
Low-Fidelity Wireframing
Created initial wireframe concepts and iterated based on legal team requirements, focusing on information hierarchy and user flow optimisation.
User Testing
Partnered with external agency for usability testing and Conducted usability testing with 25 business users, focusing on user journey clarity, content comprehension, and task completion efficiency.
Iterative Refinement
Refined designs based on user feedback, including critical micro-improvements like changing CTA button text from "Next" to "Next steps" for clarity.
Usability Testing Session
After:
The journey was improved through usability testing & user feedback and in built.
Process & Outputs
Key Design Solutions
Interface Restructuring
Eliminated the modal popup approach, providing full context visibility and structured information hierarchy that matched user mental models.
Transparency & Control
Implemented clear completion indicators, upfront time/document requirements, and enhanced user control with add/edit/delete functionality.
Critical Improvement
Removed 1000+ irrelevant fields from the application through user testing insights, dramatically simplifying the user experience whilst maintaining regulatory compliance.
Phase 2:
Strategic Value Proposition
Following the successful UX transformation, led executive-level workshops using human-centric storyboarding techniques to secure budget approval for broader digital initiatives. Traditional wireframes were too complex for senior stakeholders, so storyboarding helped distill user journeys into compelling narratives that resonated with executive priorities.
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Organisational Impact:
Organisational Impact: The storyboarding methodology proved so effective that NatWest subsequently hired an external agency to implement this approach across multiple product teams organisation-wide.
What I Learned
User Context is Critical
The dramatic improvement from 0% to 80% user satisfaction demonstrated that understanding user context and eliminating unnecessary cognitive load is paramount in complex financial applications.
​
Details Drive Results
Small improvements like changing button text from "Next" to "Next steps" had significant impact on user completion rates, reinforcing the importance of precise microcopy.
Strategic Communication Matters
The follow-up work on Solution Finder demonstrated that creating storyboarding techniques for executive communication proved that different stakeholders need different ways to understand user experience work. This methodology became so valuable that the organisation invested in scaling it company-wide, leading to agency adoption across multiple product teams.
Business Impact
Operational Efficiency
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Team page became simple and intuitive to complete
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70% reduction in manual input effort for relationship managers
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Significant decrease in support calls and customer confusion
Scalable Solutions
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Form design patterns applied across other SME products
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Saved time on design, production, and testing for the organisation
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Established reusable design system components
Impacts
1000+
Irrelevant fields removed
80%
User satisfaction increased
(from 0%)
70%
Reduction in manual RM effort
