What if the bank branch wasn’t really a branch anymore?

Today it’s a paper token, a long wait, and hoping it’s the right counter.

3 customers aheadToken A-042 · about 12 min

Arun Kumar is readyYour RM · Cabin 3 at 11:30

Documents checkedPAN, salary slips, Form 16

20 steps to Cabin 3Indoor directions on

HDFC BANKOne phygital journey, from the app to the branch and back.

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HDFC BANK · 2026

Future of Bank Branches

Banking moved into our phones. The branch never really caught up. Over eight weeks at HDFC Bank I reimagined what a branch is for, and designed HDFC Connect: the part of the app that walks you through a visit, before, during and after.

Service Design

Product Design

Phygital Design

ROLE

Design intern, UX & service

DURATION

2 Jun – 31 Jul 2026

TOOLS

Figma · After Effects · Gemini · Claude Code

0:00 / 0:00

Banking moved. The branch didn’t.

Payments, transfers and investments take a few taps now. But a home loan, a locker or a signature still means a trip to the branch, and that’s where the journey breaks. Which branch offers it? What do I bring? Which counter? What happens after I leave?

The branch isn’t irrelevant. It’s disconnected from everything around it.

People still want the branch.

For trust and for the decisions that feel too big for an app.

Out of every 100

0of 100

customers still visit a branchto fix problems and make the big financial decisions.Source: Accenture, 2023

Eight weeks, seven phases.

From global benchmarks to a finished concept film.

2 Jun15 Jun20 Jun27 Jun30 Jun7 Jul14 Jul31 Jul

Research & discovery

Future technologies

Ecosystem mapping

Current branch analysis

Future scenarios

3–5 future branch concepts

Concept & story

Final direction

Experience design

Customer journey

Visual development

Environment & UI concepts

Concept film

Script

Research & discoveryFuture technologies · Global benchmarks · Future of retail spaces · Banking trends

Built around the bank, not the customer.

Walk into a branch today and it’s laid out like an org chart: loans, gold loans, teller, customer care. But nobody walks in thinking “I need the loans department”. They think “I’m buying my first home.”

Branch Manager

Loans desk

Gold loans

Teller

Customer care

Forex

Lockers

Relationship manager

The branch today, laid out like an org chart. Every desk is a department.

The same branch, rearranged.

Routine banking moves to self-service at the door. The space it frees up goes to the conversations people actually come in for.

Drag to turn it. Tap a room to fly in. Switch between today’s branch and the future one.

Six places, one purpose each.

Instead of departments, the branch is organised around what you came to do.

01 · Concierge

The branch was only half the problem.

Even a perfect branch can’t tell you it’s the right one or what to bring. So the second half lives in the app: HDFC Connect, a thread that starts before you arrive and doesn’t end when you leave.

The App and the Branch aren’t two channels. They’re two halves of the same visit and each one hands you to the other without starting over.

01 / 05Book

You book on the sofa. The branch gets ready.

In the appPick Whitefield, Monday, 10:30. Documents listed.

In the branchArun’s calendar blocks the slot, and your file is ready before you arrive.

IN THE BRANCH

RM desk · 10:30 held

Pick Whitefield, Monday, 10:30. Documents listed.

/01 · HDFC Connect

A branch tab, inside the app you already use

HDFC Connect puts your live token, upcoming bookings and every branch service in a new tab of HDFC’s mobile banking app.

/02 · Explore

Start from what you need

Loans, cards, investments and banking, each with a one-line promise instead of a department name.

/03 · Know before

Know it before you go

Rates, processing time and the exact documents to bring, so the visit is one visit.

/04 · Book

Pick the branch and the slot

Live slots from the branch’s calendar. The wait is decided before you leave home.

/05 · Booked

Booked, with a checklist

The confirmation lists what to bring and adds the visit to your calendar.

A branch tab, inside the app you already use

The people behind the desk.

Relationship managers juggle half a dozen portals just to see who’s sitting in front of them. Their dashboard puts it on one screen.

Less time navigating systems. More time advising.

RM ConsoleWhitefield BranchAKArun Kumar

TODAY · MY QUEUE

Meera S.A-041

Locker renewalWith Priya

Dhanush MA-042

Home loanChecked in

Rahul V.A-043

Fixed depositBooked 11:00

Portals open: 1 6

DDhanush MSavings · Regalia card · with HDFC since 2019Goal: first home

DOCUMENTSPAN cardSalary slips · 3 monthsAddress proofForm 16Last visit · eligibility checked for ₹50L

SUGGESTED FOR DHANUSH

Home Loan Standard8.40% · 30 yearsShare

Systematic Investmentfrom ₹500 / monthShare

Proposal PDF · shared in chat

Dhanush has arrived · Token A-042 · Home loan

Try HDFC Connect.

An interactive prototype of the full flow will live here.

Reflections

Ask what the branch is for, not what it looks like.

I stopped redesigning the floor plan and asked what a branch should do now. That question shaped everything after it.

Digital when it makes sense. Human when it matters.

Routine tasks belong on a phone. Big decisions deserve a person, and a room.

Design the gaps between channels.

Most of the friction lived between the app and the counter, so that is where HDFC Connect lives.

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