Context
BNP Paribas was modernising its retail banking mobile app across several European markets. The existing app had grown organically over years and lacked a unified design language, making it hard to maintain and harder to extend as new features were added.
Challenge
The brief required both a product redesign and a design system capable of serving teams across different countries with varying regulatory and localisation requirements. Every component had to be flexible enough to adapt to market differences while preserving a coherent brand experience.
Role
Senior product designer embedded in the digital banking team. Led the design system work and the core banking flows — account overview, transactions, and budgeting — while collaborating with local design leads in two additional markets.
Process
Audited the existing app across three markets, cataloguing every component and pattern in use. This gave the team a clear picture of where the system had fragmented and which patterns were worth preserving. The audit became the foundation for the new component library.
Ran fortnightly design reviews with local teams throughout the build phase to catch localisation edge cases early — currency formats, text expansion, right-to-left considerations — before they became engineering problems.
Selected Screens
Outcome
The redesigned app launched in two markets on schedule, with a third market following within the quarter. The design system is now maintained by an internal team and has reduced new feature design-to-handoff time by an estimated 35% compared to the previous workflow.
Reflection
Working at this scale taught me that a design system is as much a governance challenge as a design one. The components are only as useful as the processes around them — documentation, review cadence, contribution protocols. Getting those right early is what determines whether a system grows or fractures.