HDFC Bank · Smart Widgets

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

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HDFC BANK · 2026

HDFC Smart Widgets

HDFC Smart Widgets

HDFC Smart Widgets

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:

An ordinary day
8:40
am
Scan a QR code at a café
Open appWaitNavigateTap featureDo it
Trip 1 of 5 through the same app
1:15
pm
Transfer money to a friend
Open appWaitNavigateTap featureDo it
Trip 2 of 5 through the same app
4:30
pm
Check their balance
Open appWaitNavigateTap featureDo it
Trip 3 of 5 through the same app
7:45
pm
Pay a bill
Open appWaitNavigateTap featureDo it
Trip 4 of 5 through the same app
10:30
pm
Review a recent transaction
Open appWaitNavigateTap featureDo it
Trip 5 of 5 through the same app

…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.

PhonePe medium widget
PhonePe
One tapSend moneyScan & payCheck balancePayment history
One tap away, across 7 widgets5 of 7 put Scan & Pay on the home screen. Only one showed the balance.
Scan & pay5/7
Send money4/7
Check balance1/7
Payment history1/7
Bill payments1/7
Request money1/7
Pin icon image

01

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.

Q1 · Which actions do you perform most often?
0%scan a QR code to pay. Every single person we asked.
QR Scan & Pay
17 · 100%
UPI transfer
8 · 47.1%
Balance check
8 · 47.1%
Transaction history
3 · 17.6%
Bill payments
2 · 11.8%
Recharge
1 · 5.9%
Credit card payment
0 · 0%
17 responses · 70.6% aged 18–24 · 70.6% students

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.

HDFC appfrom its icon
0.0s
9:41
FaceTime
Calendar
Photos
Camera
Mail
Notes
Reminders
Clock
News
TV
Games
App Store
Maps
Health
Wallet
Settings
Search
HDFC Bank
HDFC BANK
Pay & transfer
Scan & Pay
Send Money
Cards
Pay Bills
Accounts
History
Rewards
Recharge
Open the app0.0s
Wait0.6s
Navigate3.2s
Tap Scan & Pay5.6s
Scanner opens6.4s
PhonePefrom its widget
0.0shalf the time
9:41
PhonePe widget
FaceTime
Calendar
Photos
Camera
Mail
Notes
Reminders
Clock
News
TV
Games
App Store
Maps
Health
Wallet
Settings
Search
Opening scanner
Tap the widget0.0s
Wait0.6s
Scanner opens3.0s
Payments a day4
Most people we asked make 3–5 a day.
1.6 ha year, waiting on the slower path
4 s × 4 × 365 days

Four seconds sounds like nothing. Small friction compounds.

Pin icon image

02

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

Designing the widget.

Four actions, picked by the survey rather than by me. Scan & Pay goes first, and gets a small widget of its own.

Four actions, picked by the survey rather than by me. Scan & Pay goes first, and gets a small widget of its own.

Scan & Pay
UPI Transfer
Recent Transaction
Check Balance
HDFC Bank App
01
Brand first. The navy header and the HDFC mark read as the bank at a glance.
02
A red–blue seam, taken from the HDFC mark, splits the brand from the actions.
03
Scan & Pay goes first: 100% of the people we asked use it most.
04
Check balance: a frequent action for 47.1% of people.
05
UPI transfer: frequent for 47.1%, too.
06
Recent transaction, 17.6%: one tap back to the last payment.
Light and dark bodies, so it sits on any wallpaper.

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.

8 smart widgets · tap to explore
Spent this month
₹18,450
12% vs last month
Smart insight
Top: Dining · ₹4,280
HDFC Bank App

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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