challenge
In 2010, DBS Bank was preparing to leap into its digital future—but its online presence was still rooted in a static, fragmented experience. Across its five key markets, consumer banking touchpoints were inconsistent, impersonal, and underperforming. Customers struggled to complete tasks, access relevant services, or feel any sense of relationship with their bank. Internally, the bank needed to rethink not just what to build—but how to build for coherence, relevance, and customer trust across a complex regional landscape. DBS engaged frog to help lead a transformation that would lay the digital foundation for its customer-facing platforms—both in function and form.
Client
DBS
Format
Multichannel
ACTION
As Creative Director at frog Shanghai, I led the end-to-end visioning, strategy, and design delivery for what became DBS’s first major leap into human-centered digital banking. Through immersive fieldwork across five markets, we surfaced key behavioral, emotional, and functional barriers to adoption. This insight-driven foundation shaped a cohesive experience strategy—anchored on personalization, progressive engagement, and trust-building over time. Our work included: 54 customer interviews and 38 stakeholder sessions to unify perspectives across business, tech, and brand A modular interaction model that grew in intimacy—from anonymous visitor to recognized user to authenticated customer A complete design language system (DLS)—defining components, templates, and tone of voice to empower future teams, evolving a print-dominant visual design to a digital optimised one. Design of the “Your DBS” experience: a personal dashboard designed to adapt over time based on behavior, goals, and relationship stage Continuous customer validation and iteration to refine designs before delivery Our design sprints integrated strategic messaging, UX architecture, visual design, and digital editorial voice—delivered with velocity and vision across cross-functional teams in Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China.
RESULTS
This foundational program set DBS on the path from a fragmented digital presence to a unified, human-centered banking experience—laying the groundwork for the bank’s broader transformation agenda. The platform launched as the first customer-facing embodiment of DBS’s new design direction: personalized, intuitive, and regionally adaptable. A modular front-end system and design language enabled internal teams to scale, iterate, and expand offerings across five markets. The customer experience strategy redefined how DBS built trust digitally, shifting from transactional to relational engagement. Most significantly, this design leadership helped deliver on a bold promise set by DBS’s CEO—to become the world’s best digital bank within the decade. In 2016, DBS was named the World’s Best Digital Bank by Euromoney—ahead of its 2020 target. It went on to win again in 2018 and 2021, cementing its position as a global leader in digital banking.
LEADERSHIP LENS
This program was as much about transformation of mindsets as it was about technology. Through Clarity, we aligned global ambition with regional user realities. Through Cadence, we integrated rapid delivery with deep research and iterative validation. And through Care, we challenged institutional assumptions—crafting an experience that placed relevance, respect, and relationship-building at its core. This work seeded DBS’s decade-long transformation into one of the world’s leading digital banks—and showed what’s possible when design is not decoration, but direction.
