Canadia Bank 5.0

Modernizing Cambodia's Largest and Oldest Bank for the Digital Era

CanaPoints screen
Login screen
Home screen

Problem & Opportunity

Modernize the Oldest Bank, Keep Every User Live

The problem was a legacy app built on a webview architecture with severe UI debt, causing performance latency, high drop-off rates, and a weaker brand position against native competitors in today's mobile banking market.

The opportunity was to architect a complete native experience from the ground up, rather than layering new work onto the legacy product, to modernize Canadia Bank, Cambodia's largest and oldest commercial bank, without disrupting everyday banking for existing customers on the live app.

Legacy Canadia Bank home screen, before the 5.0 redesign.

Legacy Canadia Bank home screen, before the 5.0 redesign.

My Role & Team Structure

Senior UX/UI Lead

Led a five-person design team from concept to release.

  • UX/UI execution for Canadia 5.0
  • Hiring and building the design team structure
  • Design system governance
  • C-level and management alignment
  • Design quality across team work

Product Delivery Pipeline

  1. Requirement
  2. UX/UI Team
    • PO/PM Team
    • Mobile Team
    • Backend Team
    QA Team
  3. Release

Design Team Structure

Senior UX/UI LeadMe
  • Senior UX/UI Specialist
    • UX/UI Specialist
  • UX/UI Specialist
  • UX/UI Generalist

Goals, Constraints & Success Metrics

Modern UX Without Trading Off Trust

Success meant a native app people could rely on every day at the bank Cambodians have trusted longest and use at the greatest scale: modern enough to compete, careful enough for existing customers, and secure enough for the bank to stand behind.

  • Replace the legacy webview with native iOS and Android UX that does not compromise the bank's security posture
  • Design for continuity, including existing customers who may be older and less comfortable with abrupt change
  • Match the clarity, speed, and polish expected in today's mobile banking market
  • Build a design system early so the team can ship coherent work faster after launch, not only at launch
Canadia Bank headquarters

Design System & Conventions

Scalable Foundations for Speed and Consistency

I defined shared terminology, core flow patterns, UI states, and reusable assets before feature work spread across teams. That kept design and delivery aligned, so teams fixed fewer mismatches and shipped coherent banking screens faster.

Writing and Format Conventions
Shared Icon Library
Type, Spacing, and Grid
Brand Color System

Key Feature 1

Designing an App That Feels Truly Native

Designed the experience to lean on native platform capabilities: gestures, local cache and storage, and biometric login, so banking felt fast and familiar instead of like a website in an app shell.

Feature 1 flow step 3

Screens auto-advance

Challenge
After pay, merchant logos lagged on success and transaction screens
Approach
Cache thousands of merchant logos in local storage
Outcome
After pay, logos show instantly on success and transaction list

Key Feature 2

Making Banking Feel Personal

Designed personalization so customers can shape their banking home: background and elements, their profile picture, and cultural assets that match Chinese luck beliefs many users hold.

CanaPoints screen

Screens auto-advance

Challenge
Many customers bring Chinese luck beliefs into banking
Approach
Offer cultural assets: Feng Shui imagery, image variety, upload, and emoji
Outcome
Home can reflect belief and identity, not only bank chrome

Key Feature 3

Making Everyday Banking Clear and Engaging

Studied local and international fintech, then designed the everyday path: get set up, move money, understand it, and optional CanaPoints play when they want a little fun on top.

Home screen

Screens auto-advance

Challenge
Core money tasks had to work before anything clever mattered
Approach
Benchmark local and international fintech, then nail onboarding, receive, send, and bill pay
Outcome
Everyday banking stays reliable for real life

Impact & What I Learned

A Modern Banking App People Trust and Keep Using

Modernize Industry-standard clarity, speed, and polish vs market peers
4.3 / 100K+ Ratings and downloads across the App Store and Play Store
8 months Full native rebuild delivered to UAT at national scale
System Design system that keeps shipping consistent long after launch

The Takeaway

Collaboration across teams is delivery leverage, not just a soft skill. Clear direction, respect, and a motivated team move a tight banking timeline further than process alone.

Thank You