Vortx

B2B SaaS Fintech Product

How We Made Teller Transactions 30% Faster and Trained Staff 2.5x Faster for a UK Building Society

The client, a UK-based building society, was struggling with an outdated teller interface that caused frequent delays, errors, and confusion among staff. I led the redesign of their internal teller system to simplify workflows, minimize manual steps, and ensure compliance was built into the interface itself.

Through stakeholder interviews and user observation, we identified key bottlenecks — including excessive navigation between modules, unclear transaction statuses, and non-intuitive compliance prompts. I redesigned the user flows, created high-fidelity UI screens for core teller tasks, and introduced contextual guidance throughout the system.

After implementation, average transaction time dropped by 30%, and the organization reported that new staff training time was reduced by 2.5x — thanks to the clearer interface and streamlined task logic. The platform is now used daily by 500+ staff across 20+ branches, improving both speed and accuracy in day-to-day banking operations.

About the Client

The client is a well-established building society in the UK, known for serving thousands of members through its network of physical branches. With a strong focus on community-based financial services, the organization was looking to modernize its internal tools to keep pace with evolving customer expectations and operational needs.

Their existing legacy teller system, which staff relied on for everyday transactions like deposits, withdrawals, and account verification, had become increasingly outdated. It was not only slow but also fragmented across multiple interfaces—leading to increased errors, longer training periods, and low user satisfaction among staff.

This redesign was part of a broader initiative to standardize and improve teller operations across a group of two to three affiliated building societies under a shared technology and service framework. The goal was to create a solution that could scale, adapt to different branch needs, and dramatically improve frontline efficiency without requiring intensive retraining.

The Challenges

1. Complex workflows for common actions

Everyday tasks like deposits, transfers, and account lookups required multiple steps across disconnected modules, increasing the time taken per transaction and raising the risk of errors.

2. Outdated, non-intuitive UI causing training delays

The interface was cluttered and difficult to navigate, especially for new hires. Staff needed printed guides to complete basic tasks, making onboarding time-consuming and inefficient.

3. Inconsistent layouts and poor accessibility

There was no visual hierarchy or design system in place. Font sizes, button placements, and colors varied across screens, making it hard for staff to locate key actions and reducing usability with accessibility needs.

4. Staff frustration and growing internal support queries

As the system aged, staff increasingly relied on IT support to resolve simple issues or clarify workflows. This not only slowed down service but also placed a strain on internal support teams.

Our Role

We were brought in as the design partner to completely overhaul the UI/UX of the teller interface used across branch locations. Our mission was to transform a dated, inefficient internal system into a streamlined, user-friendly platform tailored to the real-world needs of banking staff.

We worked closely with stakeholders and subject matter experts to understand daily workflows, pain points, and compliance requirements. Our goal was clear: optimize the teller experience to reduce transaction time, minimize operational errors, and significantly cut down staff training time—all while ensuring the system could scale across multiple affiliated building societies.

From early research and user flow redesigns to high-fidelity UI development and validation, we led the end-to-end product design process.

Our Approach

Designing for internal tools like a teller system required us to deeply understand the workflows, pressures, and expectations of frontline banking staff. Our approach combined hands-on research with thoughtful UX strategy and precise UI execution. We focused on solving the root causes of inefficiency and error—not just giving the system a new coat of paint.

We broke down our process into four key phases:

Research & Audit

001

What we did

Conducted interviews with tellers, managers, and IT

Mapped key workflows

Identified pain points and unnecessary steps

UX Strategy

002

what we did

Consolidated key actions into a unified dashboard

Reduced click-depth for top-used features

Introduced role-based UI(Manager, Teller and Safe Manager

UI Redesign

003

What we did

Built a modular component library in Figma

Focused on clarity, speed, and accessibility

Introduced smart alerts and confirmations to reduce errors

Handoff & Support

004

what we did

Delivered developer-ready assets with clear interaction specs

Created comprehensive design documentation for consistency

Provided post-launch support for adoption and feedback

Results

The redesigned teller system delivered measurable improvements across efficiency, accuracy, and usability. By streamlining workflows and introducing a clearer, more intuitive interface, we helped reduce the average transaction time by 30% and cut internal support queries by 60%. The improved UI also accelerated onboarding—reducing new staff training time from 10 days to just 4. Most notably, there were zero reported errors in high-risk actions like large cash transactions and customer verification post-launch, reflecting the system’s reliability and clarity under pressure.

1.

30% faster average transaction time

2.

60% drop in staff support tickets

3.

Cut staff training time from 10 days to 4

4.

Zero reported errors in high-risk actions

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