Lumen Bank

Lumen is a digital bank with more than a million customers in Portugal. I joined as design lead in 2020, when the app was growing fast but had become cluttered with every feature the bank had ever shipped. Spending was easy. Saving was buried three screens deep.

The challenge

Lumen wanted to help customers build healthier money habits, without nagging them. My job was to lead a team of six designers through a redesign of the app's core and to make savings goals a first-class feature.

What we learned

We interviewed customers who saved regularly and customers who wanted to but didn't. The difference was rarely discipline. The people who saved had made it automatic and visible: a separate pot, a clear target and small wins to celebrate along the way.

The approach

We redesigned the home screen around three questions: how much do I have, what's coming up, and how close am I to my goals? Savings goals let customers set a target, round up their purchases and schedule transfers on payday, with a progress ring that fills as they go.

To keep the team fast and consistent, we built a shared component library in Figma and in code, and set up fortnightly testing sessions so every major decision was checked with real customers before it shipped.

The outcome

The new app reached all 1.2 million customers within eight weeks. Customers with a savings goal put away 31% more each month than before, and the app's rating climbed from 3.9 to 4.7.