Rakbank
Role
Principal Designer (solo designer)
Team
Creative Director, Product Owner, Project Manager, Business Analyst, and Engineers and Designers.
Deliverables
Product strategy alignment, roadmaps, user journeys and system flows, cross-functional alignment, conceptual prototypes and experience validation.
Year
2024 – 2025
01 Business Onboarding redesign
Landing Refresh
As the UAE accelerates its digital transformation, RAKBANK saw an opportunity to treat onboarding as a core product capability. Funnel data revealed key drop-offs, leading to a redesign of each step to reduce friction and improve completion rates. A full art direction refresh for the entry point of the product. The hero was redesigned with a full-bleed photography approach and a clear CTA to drive users straight into the onboarding. Below it, three plan cards give users an immediate overview of what’s available.
Comparison table – Desktop
As a key reference point in the onboarding — users often return to this table to check perks and fees before committing to a plan. I redesigned it focusing on typography hierarchy, spacing, colour contrast, and visual grouping. Tooltips were added for complex fee items to reduce cognitive load without cluttering the layout.
Comparison table – Mobile
The mobile version required a complete rethink of the layout to keep the comparison readable on a small screen without losing any information. Column widths, font sizes, and row spacing were all carefully tuned to maintain scannability. The conventional/islamic tab switch was designed so users could explore both options without losing focus.
Form accessibility and step-by-step flow
The original onboarding was a single long-scroll page — difficult to navigate on mobile and with no sense of progress. I broke it into focused single-task screens, introduced a progress bar and back navigation, and redesigned all form components with improved contrast, clearer inline error states, and a lighter visual language.
Custom illustrations and visual identity
Custom illustrations were added to key screens — such as mobile verification and document upload — to break the monotony of form-heavy steps and give each page its own distinct visual identity.
02 Multipartner flow: one application, multiple contributors
RAKBANK multipartner flow was designed to support multiple shareholders completing their sections independently and asynchronously, with no coordination required.
Designing clarity
A persistent status widget (1) gives each participant real-time visibility into overall progress — submitted applications and remaining ownership — so no one loses context. An inline hint (2) removes guesswork from the ownership field by surfacing the exact percentage still available and the input constraints upfront. Forms (3, 4) are structured to reduce cognitive load through clear typographic hierarchy, generous whitespace, and contextual helper text — so the flow feels light and intuitive even when the volume of required information is high.
Qualifying questions
Before the application begins, users answer a short set of questions to determine eligibility and tailor the flow to their specific situation. Each screen focuses on a single question — role, number of shareholders — keeping the experience simple and reducing the risk of errors early in the journey.
Just-in-time guidance
When questions involve unfamiliar legal or regulatory concepts, contextual explainers surface inline — like the UAE Residency Status tooltip — providing the right information at the right moment without pulling users out of the flow.
Shareholder summary and identity confirmation
Before proceeding, the user is presented with a complete table of all shareholders — including name, signatory status, email, and ownership percentage — with the ability to edit any detail inline. They then identify themselves by selecting their name via a checkbox, which triggers a confirmation step to verify their identity and initiate the application. Co-shareholders are automatically notified by email and can complete their sections independently.
Shared progress view
Once the application is initiated, every shareholder receives an email with access to this shared dashboard. At a glance, they can see the full ownership breakdown, track who has completed their section and who is still pending, and send a reminder to those who haven’t acted yet. A transparent and self-managed experience — no chasing, no status emails.
03 Design process
Current journey analysis
Before any redesign work began, the existing onboarding flow was mapped end-to-end across all 7 steps — from landing page to final review. Each step was broken down by screens and content fields to expose friction points, redundant information, and structural inconsistencies. This content map became the foundation for prioritising where to intervene and how to simplify the journey without losing necessary compliance steps.
Design audit
A structured design audit was conducted across the five core sections of the onboarding flow, evaluating each page against key UX principles — navigation, accessibility, readability, content density, CTA affordance, and user control. Findings were documented with specific recommendations per section, giving stakeholders a clear and actionable picture of what needed to change and why.
User journeys
A dedicated user journey was mapped for the multipartner account application flow — one of the most complex scenarios in the onboarding experience, involving multiple applicants, shared credentials, and asynchronous email verification steps. The flow diagram captures all decision points, edge cases, and error states, ensuring every possible path a user could take was accounted for before moving into design.
Results
- Successfully launched a live product, currently in active use with high user satisfaction
- Delivered a design system from scratch — 80+ components, full token architecture, built on Sirio’s brand guidelines
- Designed and shipped 5+ new features post-launch, supporting continuous product growth
- Designed the product marketing website, owning the experience end-to-end from concept to delivery