Design expansion into two new markets for one of the largest banks in Dubai

A legacy app that had run its course

The Saudi Arabian app had been the primary banking interface for KSA customers for years, but it was built on an ageing technical framework that had been accumulating features incrementally over time. This had left the app fragmented: complex navigation, lacking bare minimum features like FaceID, and a visual language far behind modern banking standards. App Store reviews confirmed what the team already knew internally.

The obvious solution (that couldn't work)

Emirates NBD had already addressed many of these challenges in the UAE with their recently launched ENBD X app. The proven UAE design system seemed like the answer. But migrating the legacy app to it would have required substantial backend restructuring, costly and in places technically impossible.

Using the Dubai app as the foundation

After initial meetings with the PM, engineering leads, and key stakeholders, we aligned on the approach: instead of trying to fix the legacy app, we would use the Dubai app as the foundation for the Saudi build. We selectively reused the Dubai codebase and rebuilt the rest, faster and lower-risk than patching the legacy app. But UAE and KSA differ in regulation, payment infrastructure, and product decisions, so the first task was mapping what could be reused versus rebuilt.

What started as a design refresh project became a full product reset for the Saudi market, and it landed well. Here's a quick look at where we started and where we ended up.

A phased rollout to balance speed with risk

Given the project's complexity and tight deadlines driven by internal and regulatory requirements, we rolled out in phases. Each phase was designed, validated, and handed off to the development team while I began work on the next phase in parallel. Once development on a phase was complete, I returned to support design QA, ensuring the implementation matched the intended experience before moving to final delivery.

Discovery & mapping audit

The first step was a thorough mapping of the Dubai app against the Saudi market context. Working with PM, product, engineering, and compliance teams in a series of workshops, we reviewed every screen of the legacy KSA app and the Dubai app side by side, tagging each screen as either direct (could be reused from Dubai), localisation (needed adaptation for the Saudi context), or new feature (did not exist in Dubai and had to be designed from scratch). This audit became the shared reference for the entire project.

Phase 1: Direct migration

The discovery audit identified screens where Dubai UX translated directly. No new research needed, the focus was clean specs and losing nothing in translation. With the largest portion of the work scoped and sequenced, we were able to move quickly on these straightforward areas while planning the more complex localisation and redesign work in parallel.

Phase 2: Localisation & redesign

Localisation went well beyond text translation. Session analytics showed that 74% of users in Saudi Arabia primarily used the app for bill and credit card payments, so navigation was restructured to surface these actions more prominently. These high-traffic, high-friction flows were rebuilt end to end in dedicated workshops. These became the most impactful parts of the project.

Phase 3: New features

The project made it clear that updating the UI alone wasn't sufficient, as core functionality was still missing. This phase focused on designing new features, including instant transfers, online service applications, and an explore section.

Validation & testing

Regular design QA sessions with developers and stakeholders ran throughout each phase. Alongside this, I conducted usability testing sessions with Saudi-based users to validate core flows. Task success rates improved significantly compared to the legacy experience.

The finished product

The final experience unified the visual language across both markets while still feeling genuinely local, rather than a repurposed version of the UAE product. Each screen reflects deliberate decisions about what Saudi users need, not just what the design system prescribes.

Launched, rated, and adopted

The launch of the unified ENBD X experience in Saudi Arabia transformed the bank's digital presence from a legacy utility into a market-leading financial product. The result was a cohesive experience that significantly improved how customers interact with the app and reduced the overhead for future market launches. While the exact metrics are under NDA, the outcomes below reflect the real direction of impact post-launch.

Reflections & takeaways

Managing a launch like this taught me that the hardest part of the job isn't the design itself, but keeping everyone aligned. Stakeholders in Saudi Arabia and Dubai had different priorities, regulatory constraints, and perspectives on what the product should be. Navigating those differences without compromising the product's integrity required constant trade-offs, and it was one of the most valuable learnings from this project.

The most important decision was choosing to build on the Dubai foundation rather than attempting to revive the legacy app. Aligning on that direction early, and getting all stakeholders on board before execution began, shaped everything that followed and prevented the project from turning into an expensive patchwork effort.