Designing and Testing Santander’s Money Pots Concept
Role: Lead UI Designer | Stakeholders: Product managers, UX researchers
Method: In-person moderated testing | Principles: User-centered Design, Kano| Tools: Figma
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Overview
As Lead UI Designer, I was responsible for designing the concept for Santander’s Money Pots from scratch — a savings feature that would allow customers to open multiple pots within their current account, each dedicated to a specific savings goal. I created interactive prototypes for in-person customer testing, enabling the team to explore usability, value, and appeal before considering into development.
Introducing Santander’s Money Pots
Money Pots is a proposed feature designed to help Santander customers easily divide their money into separate pots within their current account — whether to save for specific goals like a holiday or car, or to simply manage regular expenses like bills.
By offering a flexible, user-friendly way to organise funds, Santander aimed to improve customers’ financial control and transparency, while also staying competitive with challenger banks like Monzo, who were setting new standards for personalised money management.
Problem Statement
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Customers lacked a flexible way to set aside money for short- or medium-term goals within their current account
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Existing savings products felt disconnected from everyday budgeting and goal-setting behaviours
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Users expected more control and visibility over their savings, similar to what challenger banks were offering
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Without a native solution, Santander risked falling behind on user experience and digital innovation in personal finance
Scope of Work for Money Pots
• Defining design requirements in collaboration with product managers
• Translating user needs and business goals into user flows, wireframes, and prototypes
• Creating high-fidelity interface designs aligned with Santander’s design system and brand guidelines
• Developing interactive prototypes for user testing and stakeholder reviews
• Ensuring accessibility compliance across all designs, following WCAG standards
• Collaborating with UX researchers to plan and iterate based on in-person user testing sessions
• Designing scalable UI patterns for pots creation, management, and visual tracking of goals
• Working with copywriters to refine microcopy, labels, and in-app messaging for clarity and tone
• Presenting design solutions to stakeholders and senior leadership for feedback and alignment
• Documenting design decisions and updates for inclusion in the design system and pattern library
Building on Transactional Patterns for Money Pots
When designing the flow for adding or withdrawing money to a Pot, I focused on reusing and adapting existing UX patterns already familiar to Santander customers. Particularly the flows for transferring or withdrawing funds within current accounts, credit cards and other accounts, I ensured consistency in interaction design and reduced cognitive load for users. This approach not only aligned with Santander’s design system but also allowed for a more seamless integration into the app’s existing money movement experiences, reinforcing user trust and familiarity.
Managing the Pot
I designed the management experience to let users set savings goals, deadlines, automatic payments, round-ups, and lock their pots. These features were refined through user testing and feedback, ensuring they were intuitive, flexible, and aligned with Santander’s app ecosystem.
Validating the Business Proposition through Prototyping
To evaluate the Money Pots proposition and its strategic fit within Santander’s mobile banking offering, I developed a high-fidelity interactive prototype illustrating core user journeys, including pot creation, fund allocation, and savings tracking. This prototype was tested with customers to assess usability, feature discoverability, and alignment with user expectations. By collaborating with researchers, I ensured the prototype reflected realistic scenarios, enabling us to gather insights that informed both design refinements and business viability
User Testing Workshop
We conducted a two-day in-person user testing workshop to gather direct feedback on the Money Pots concept and prototype. Participants explored key journeys while we observed usability, engagement, and comprehension, capturing valuable insights to refine both the design and overall proposition.
Business and Research Goals
The primary business objective of the study was to validate the Money Pots proposition and determine where it could fit within Santander’s mobile banking offering. Alongside this, the research aimed to explore customer perceptions of the feature, understand how customers might use Money Pots for short- and medium-term savings goals, and evaluate use cases through concept testing. The study also gathered Kano model data to assess desirability and prioritise potential functionality.
Kano Insights
✅ The feature exceeded user expectations and introduced emotional and functional value, positioning Money Pots as a differentiator in the competitive banking landscape. The overwhelmingly positive response indicated clear product-market fit for short-term, goal-based savings tools.
Reflecting on Impact
User testing confirmed strong demand for a simple, goal-based savings tool. Customers found the concept intuitive, flexible, and emotionally resonant — especially the ability to manage multiple pots with ease. The feature was seen as both functional and delightful, validating its value and fit within Santander’s broader mobile banking experience
From Concept to Roadmap
Following the success of the in-person user testing and the positive response from stakeholders, Santander made the decision to move forward with the Money Pots feature. As the project transitioned into development planning, the business began exploring a white-label solution to scale the concept across regions while maintaining flexibility.
