Case study · Fjord Bank · 2025

A banking app people actually enjoy

Fjord Bank’s app had grown for ten years, one feature at a time. In six weeks we turned it into a calm, accessible product, and cut the support tickets by a third.

Research
Product design
Design system

Client: Fjord Bank
Industry: Fintech
Timeline: 6 weeks
Team: 2 designers, 4 engineers

The new Fjord Bank app on a phone, held over a desk. — The new home screen: the balance, the next payment and one clear action.

Results

Three months after the launch

Support tickets per month
Before: 4,200 After: 2,800
Down 33%
Fewer “where is my…” questions after the new navigation.
App store rating
Before: 3.6 After: 4.8
Up 1.2
The best rated banking app in the country.
Monthly active users
Before: 310k After: 402k
Up 30%
People open the app instead of calling the branch.
Screen reader issues
Before: 86 After: 0
Down 86
Audited and fixed, then kept at zero with tests.

Measured by Fjord Bank, comparing Q1 2025 with Q2 2025.

The challenge

Fjord Bank’s app had 140 screens and five navigation patterns. Every team had added its feature where it fit at the time, and after ten years nobody could find anything.

The support team answered 4,200 questions a month, and most of them were the same: where is my card, how do I pay a bill, why can’t I see my savings?

The approach

We started with the people, not the screens. In two weeks we talked to 24 customers and listened to 60 support calls.

Mapped every task to its screen, and every screen to its traffic
Tested the navigation with paper prototypes in three branches
Agreed on one principle: one screen, one job

We didn’t need more features. We needed fewer, in the right place.

Jonas Berg, CPO

The solution

The new app has four tabs instead of eleven menus. The home screen shows the balance, the next payment and one clear action, and everything else is one tap away.

The spending overview with a chart of the monthly expenses. — The spending overview replaced three separate reports.

The design system

To keep the app calm after we left, we built a small design system with the engineers: tokens, 32 components and the rules for using them, in Figma and in code.

Every component was tested with VoiceOver and TalkBack before it shipped, which is why the screen reader issues stayed at zero.

Before and after

One screen, one job

The home screen went from eleven entry points to one clear next step.

Four tabs, not eleven menus
Accounts, payments, cards and help. Everything else is one tap away.
The next action first
The home screen shows the payment that’s due, not the whole history.
Accessible by default
Contrast, focus order and labels tested with screen reader users.

See the prototype

The old app (before): a gray home screen crowded with menus. — Drag the handle (or use the arrow keys) to compare the old and the new app.

The new app (after): a calm home screen with the balance and one action. — Drag the handle (or use the arrow keys) to compare the old and the new app.

Process

Six weeks, from interviews to launch

Week 1–2
Research
24 customer interviews, 60 support calls, a map of every task.
Week 3
Navigation
Paper prototypes tested in three branches, then in the app.
Week 4–5
Design and system
The screens and 32 components, built together with the engineers.
Week 6
Launch
A staged rollout to 5%, 25% and then every customer.

Nora simplified a product that had grown over ten years. Our support tickets dropped by a third, and for the first time our customers write to us to say thank you.