Introducing HDFC Smart Widgets
Introducing HDFC Smart Widgets
Introducing HDFC Smart Widgets

HDFC BANK · 2026

Banking that doesn’t wait for you to open the app.

Banking that doesn’t wait for you to open the app.

Banking that doesn’t wait for you to open the app.

HDFC Smart Widgets is a product-innovation concept I explored during my UI/UX internship at HDFC Bank. I explored how frequently used banking services can be brought closer to users. Making everyday banking faster, more contextual and intelligent.

HDFC Smart Widgets is a product-innovation concept I explored during my UI/UX internship at HDFC Bank. I explored how frequently used banking services can be brought closer to users. Making everyday banking faster, more contextual and intelligent.

HDFC Smart Widgets is a product-innovation concept I explored during my UI/UX internship at HDFC Bank. I explored how frequently used banking services can be brought closer to users. Making everyday banking faster, more contextual and intelligent.

Fintech UX

Fintech UX

UX Research

UX Research

Product Strategy

Product Strategy

ROLE

Design Intern

YEAR

2026

TOOLS

Figma · Claude Code · ChatGPT · After Effects · Gemini

Figma · Claude Code · ChatGPT · After Effects · Gemini

The question that started it.

I kept catching myself doing the same thing. Unlock the phone, find the app, wait for it to load, tap through two screens and only then do the five-second thing I opened it for. The banking was never the work. Getting to the banking was.

I kept catching myself doing the same thing. Unlock the phone, find the app, wait for it to load, tap through two screens and only then do the five-second thing I opened it for. The banking was never the work. Getting to the banking was.

What if the most frequently used banking actions didn't require users to open the banking app at all?

What if the most frequently used banking actions didn't require users to open the banking app at all?

The opportunity.

Banking stopped being a destination a while ago, it’s a habit now. In one ordinary day, someone might:

Banking stopped being a destination a while ago, it’s a habit now. In one ordinary day, someone might:

Scan a QR code at a café scanning-qrTransfer money to a friend Check their balance send-moneyPay a bill pay-billsReview a recent transaction transactions

…and every one of those starts with the same trip through the same app.

…and every one of those starts with the same trip through the same app.

Why it matters to the bank?

The argument was never “we saved few seconds.” It’s that every saved moment is a moment the customer spends with HDFC instead of other fintech payment apps: more touchpoints, stronger habit and a bank that looks like it belongs on a 2026 home screen.

The argument was never “we saved few seconds.” It’s that every saved moment is a moment the customer spends with HDFC instead of other fintech payment apps: more touchpoints, stronger habit and a bank that looks like it belongs on a 2026 home screen.

Improves Engagement

Increases
Repeated Usage

Strengthens
Habit Formation

Modernizes HDFC’s
fintech perception

So I stopped looking at banks.

I looked at what people already reach for in a hurry: payment apps, wallets and the widgets sitting on their home screens, and saw which financial actions were considered worth putting one tap away and which ones everybody still buried.

I looked at what people already reach for in a hurry: payment apps, wallets and the widgets sitting on their home screens, and saw which financial actions were considered worth putting one tap away and which ones everybody still buried.

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The goal wasn't simply to identify which apps had widgets. I wanted to understand what types of financial interactions deserved to be surfaced outside the app.

The same four ideas kept surfacing.

The competition wasn't really about having more features. It was about reducing the distance between intention and action.

Frequency

Convenience

Habit

Speed

Asking real people.

I didn’t want to design off a hunch, so I ran a short survey on how people actually use their banking and payment apps. The goal wasn't to ask whether people liked widgets, It was to understand their behaviour.

Counting the seconds.

Then I timed it. The same task, a simple payment, once in HDFC Mobile Banking and once in PhonePe: open the app, wait, navigate, tap the feature, perform the action.

Then I timed it. The same task, a simple payment, once in HDFC Mobile Banking and once in PhonePe: open the app, wait, navigate, tap the feature, perform the action.

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HDFC app

HDFC app

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PhonePe app

PhonePe app

Four seconds sounds like nothing. Multiply it by every day of someone’s life and it stops sounding like nothing. Small friction compounds.

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When an action is performed repeatedly, even a few seconds of friction can become meaningful over time.

From shortcuts to intelligence.

A widget that saves a tap is useful. A widget that already knows it’s the 28th and your card bill is due is a different product. The part of this concept I found most interesting wasn’t the shortcut, it was what happens once the surface starts paying attention, responding to context and behaviour instead of just displaying a number.

A widget that saves a tap is useful. A widget that already knows it’s the 28th and your card bill is due is a different product. The part of this concept I found most interesting wasn’t the shortcut, it was what happens once the surface starts paying attention, responding to context and behaviour instead of just displaying a number.

From concept to interaction.

Rather than hand over static screens, I built it. The prototype below is the real thing. Move through a payment from the widget and see how far you get before you’d have needed the app at all.

Rather than hand over static screens, I built it. The prototype below is the real thing. Move through a payment from the widget and see how far you get before you’d have needed the app at all.

Reflections.

Speed is a trust argument, not a spec.

Speed is a trust argument, not a spec.

People don’t abandon an app because it’s slow. They abandon it because slow makes it feel like a chore. The four-second gap was the easiest thing to measure and the hardest thing to argue with.

People don’t abandon an app because it’s slow. They abandon it because slow makes it feel like a chore. The four-second gap was the easiest thing to measure and the hardest thing to argue with.

The useful research wasn’t inside banking.

The useful research wasn’t inside banking.

Home-screen behaviour had already decided what deserves to be one tap away. I mostly had to read what was sitting there.

Home-screen behaviour had already decided what deserves to be one tap away. I mostly had to read what was sitting there.

Build it if you can.

Build it if you can.

A working prototype settled questions a deck would have kept alive for weeks.

A working prototype settled questions a deck would have kept alive for weeks.

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