STARLING

IMPROVING AND EXPANDING A BANKING APP EXPERIENCE

Problem 

Starling Bank was founded in 2014 by Anne Boden. It’s the first bank to be founded by a woman. Since then, Starling has rapidly grown and expanded to serve 4 million UK customers. I joined the Starling product design team in February 2023 as their first dedicated content designer. With only two content-minded people in the room – myself and a customer experience writer – our first and biggest challenge was to tackle the lack of awareness about our team and the content inconsistencies that had grown alongside the app.

Solution 

First, we got to work implementing content practices and processes. We worked closely with product designers, managers, and other stakeholders to establish a more cohesive approach to product development and design that meant the content team were involved from the early days, instead of being looped in at the last minute.

Next, we created the Starling content design system in order to document our established content and writing styles. The system covers everything from punctuation and formatting, to product word lists and accessible writing guidelines.

Alongside these bigger, strategic pieces of work, I also took the lead when developing content for new products, feature updates and accessibility improvements. As well as supporting the wider bank with other content needs such as writing web copy, terms and conditions documents and providing writer training to a number of different teams.

Impact 

The content team at Starling is thriving and expanding. Since I started we’ve hired two more content people and awareness of our capabilities has grown across the bank. We’re now able to get involved in more impactful product design and research projects while also maintaining and improving a consistent and accessible app experience.