How We Built My Year On Kuda

Like every edition before it, the 2024 Kuda Spending Report went viral. Let’s take you behind the scenes of our annual social media phenomenon.

Since 2019, the Kuda Spending Report (My Year On Kuda) has evolved to help our users make sense of their money and celebrate their financial achievements every year. With questions like “What do our customers need to know about their financial year?” and “How can we deliver that in the most meaningful way?” guiding our approach, we focused on making the 2024 edition of My Year On Kuda feel more personal and engaging than ever before.

Here’s how we built the 2024 edition of My Year On Kuda, as told by some of the people who made it happen.

Finding Meaning In Data

We decided quite early in the process to focus on highlighting data that told the clearest and most impactful stories about our users’ financial habits. We also chose to personalise as many insights as we could to show how the users’ spending habits had changed in a relatable and relevant way.

It wasn’t just about numbers, it was about telling data stories that matter to people.

Gabriella (Data Lead): We really did want to show everyone how they’ve used their money in 2024 and leaned a lot into the heartbeat of money movements made with Kuda: transfers, savings, bill payments, overdraft. More so, we showed users how their money behaviour changed from 2023 to 2024 — super interesting and one of our most shared insights!

Scott (Product Lead, Growth): We have so much interesting data available to us, and I think that was the toughest part from a Growth Product side — choosing the right insights to make sure that the report wasn’t too overwhelming for users.

Karen (Product Designer, Growth): This year, we really wanted the report to feel like a conversation with the user. It wasn’t just “Here’s your data.” It was “Here’s what your data means.”

What Users Want To See

Once we defined the data, our focus shifted to answering one big question: How can we make this report really resonate with our users? The answer was designing every part of the report with the user front and centre. We revisited the copy, visuals, and navigation from 2023 and refined everything we could.

Gabriella (Data Lead): This was a combination of things: building on the report and momentum from last year (learning what resonated most with users, what insights were most viral etc), leveraging our understanding of spending behaviour, as well as including additional requirements that had come from the Product & Growth teams. The fact that we’re all users of Kuda ourselves helped shape the perspective of what would be valuable to present — what we’d like to know ourselves!

Scott (Product Lead, Growth): We looked at what users enjoyed talking about most from last year’s report and started from there, picking out the biggest conversation starters — betting, overdraft, transfers. We also spoke to some users, which helped us shape the foundation of the report. From there, we enhanced several of those insights based on our most popular products and added some extra bits.

A Narrative That Feels Like A Journey

The story began with content — literally. The challenge was turning complex, data-heavy insights into simple messages that users could digest easily.

Damilola (UX Writer): Since 2019, there have been several revisions to My Year On Kuda — what data to include, what’s most meaningful to users, etc. Deciding how to say the right thing, at the right time, in the right tone, while keeping it useful to users was interesting.

Abiola (UX Writer): While millions of people use Kuda as their everyday banking app, they use it differently. The core story was about showing each customer what they did with their money in a clear, non-judgmental way.

The Vision Behind The Look

Of course, no project comes without challenges, and the design process was no exception. Personalisation at scale, tight deadlines, and technical limitations were just some of the hurdles the product and motion design teams faced.

Busuyi (Motion Design Lead): The vision for motion design was simple: make it relatable to our customers’ relationship with money and, more importantly, how they spent it over the past year. Kuda is a vibrant and fun brand, so we brought that to life with thoughtful animations, dynamic illustrations, and colour coordination across pages.

Karen (Product Designer, Growth): The biggest challenge was trying to create a personalised experience for millions of users while maintaining consistency. With the limited time we had, I had to generalise some aspects of the design. Hopefully, we can use dynamic content generation to make the experience even more tailored next year.

Coding Under Pressure

Building an engaging user experience was just as difficult on the technical side as it was on the creative side. With ambitious goals for interactivity and seamless integration of personalised data, our engineering team had to come up with innovative solutions to bring this vision to life.

Chibuike (Backend Engineer): Our biggest challenge was the lack of test data. Without a big query account for our test environment, we had to get creative. Using a data mocking library, we simulated real user data to ensure everything worked seamlessly. It felt like we were building a bridge while crossing it, but we made it happen.

Uyi (Lead Software Engineer): Another challenge was balancing speed with quality. The designs called for intricate animations, but the timeline was tight. Despite the pressure, the team delivered all features without compromising on the quality we were striving for. It felt like a race against time, but we crossed the finish line together.

Lazar (iOS Engineer): A key challenge was definitely making the presentation layer both user-friendly and visually engaging. We focused on enhancing the user journey to ensure a seamless experience while viewing and sharing report stories.

From The Web To The App

Last year, the report was only accessible on the web, but this time we decided to take the big step of delivering a purely in-app experience. With 98% of our users interacting with us through the Kuda app, it made sense to place the report in a place users are familiar with. The app’s flexibility allowed us to include interactive features like animations and shareable screens.

Ikenna (Product Manager, Growth): The decision to show the report on the app this year was based on improving accessibility, engagement, and user experience. Also, as part of our mobile-first strategy, prioritising in-app experiences aligns with our long-term goal of making the app the primary channel for user interactions.

Zeyad (iOS Engineer): We had an opportunity to deliver a more immersive and personalised experience through the app. Using native animations and transitions allowed us to highlight user milestones in a visually appealing and interactive way, ensuring users could easily access their reports.

What We Learnt

Every project teaches us valuable lessons, and this one was no exception. Looking back, we agree that starting the project earlier would have given us more time for revisions. A more extensive usability testing phase, especially with live data, and better alignment with expectations between teams early on would have minimised delays and unnecessary back-and-forth.

Uyi (Lead Software Engineer): Starting earlier would have made a big difference. It would have spread out the workload, reduced stress, and allowed for more refinements.

Zeyad (iOS Engineer): If I could go back, I’d advocate for more time dedicated to usability testing with a broader range of users and devices before the final release. While the report looked great and performed well, a wider testing phase might have more optimization opportunities.

Karen(Product Designer, Growth): Start early to get more time to shape and personalize the user’s experience and also discuss all the constraints with engineers so there won’t be so much back and forth.

Chibuike (Backend Engineer): I’d start the project earlier, maybe in October, so the team has more time to develop and address any issues that could come up.

What We’re Proud Of

The results speak for themselves. My Year On Kuda launched smoothly and user engagement exceeded expectations:

• 200K users viewed it over 400K times.
• It was shared over 100K times, reaching about 25 million people.

Knowing users loved the report validated all the effort we put in. Seeing the shares and the feedback was amazing.

This success wasn’t just about numbers. It shows the heart of what we do at Kuda: helping users take control of their finances in a way that feels personal and empowering.

Looking Ahead

My Year On Kuda represents more than just numbers. It reflects our mission to help customers take control of their finances. As we look ahead in 2025, we’re eager to build on this success and create an even better experience for you. 💜