Replace menu navigation with a single device gesture

Submitted through the COP31 Sustainable Transformation Awards · SKD Türkiye (WBCSD Global Network Partner)

The company is a Turkish bank in the financial institutions sector, with more than 1,000 employees and a mobile banking application used across the country.

In digital banking, instant access is a key priority. Behavioural analysis of the mobile application showed that customers expected a more practical route to the transactions they use most often: money transfer, payment by QR code, and cash withdrawal and deposit by QR code. Reaching any of those transactions meant working through several levels of standard menu navigation on every occasion.

The work was not carried out to meet a legal requirement or a sector regulation. It was set up purely as a customer experience improvement, with the aim of shortening the time customers spend reaching frequently used transactions and of increasing the effective use of digital channels.

The starting proposition was deliberately simple: beginning a banking transaction should require a natural physical movement rather than navigation through menus. The feature went live on 28 October 2025, and 2025 is used as the base year against which subsequent usage data is assessed.

The company positions the work under United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure, with indirect contributions to the goals on sustainable cities and communities and on responsible consumption and production, because banking services become reachable independently of time and place.

Location of the initiative: Türkiye — nationwide, across the customer base of the company's mobile banking application

This feature turns the shake gesture of the handset into a shortcut to a selected banking transaction. Shaking the device opens the transaction the customer has assigned in advance, with no menu navigation in between.

Two separate assignments are possible. One transaction can be attached to the login screen, so that it opens before the customer reaches the application home page, and a different transaction can be attached to the home page itself. The transaction set covers payment by QR code, cash withdrawal and deposit by QR code, and money transfer.

Configuration sits inside the customer profile menu, where the assignment can be changed at any time. That keeps the shortcut under the customer's control rather than fixing it at installation, and it is the element that turns a gesture into a personalised experience rather than a standard one.

Discovery is handled inside the application itself. The in-application financial assistant, ViBi, prompts customers towards the feature. This matters because a gesture-based shortcut is not visible in the interface in the way a menu item is, so adoption depends on the customer being told it exists.

The component was built as a modular addition to the existing mobile banking infrastructure rather than as a separate product, and it required no additional physical infrastructure investment. The architecture allows further transaction types to be added to the shortcut set without redesigning the trigger mechanism.

Because the trigger depends on device motion sensors, the component was developed to behave identically across handset brands and models, and compatibility with new devices and operating system versions is assessed on a continuing basis.

Figure 1: Before and after: the previous route to a QR code payment ran through login, all transactions and QR transactions; with the feature, shaking the device opens the payment screen directly

Figure 2: Settings screens where the customer assigns one transaction to the login screen and a second to the application home page

Sustainability Impact

Climate

The initiative is an enabler rather than a direct abatement measure, and the company is explicit that no GHG Protocol-type environmental calculation is applied within its boundary. Measurement rests on the mobile analytics infrastructure and usage data, with 2025 as the base year.

Any effect on the company's own Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions is indirect. It arises from the wider shift of routine transactions into the digital channel, which makes banking services reachable independently of time and place and removes the need to reach a physical service point for a routine payment or transfer.

No channel-shift or avoided-travel data is attributed to the feature, and the company makes no climate claim for it.

Social

The measurable effect is on accessibility and ease of use. Since the launch the feature has reached approximately 1.5 million uses, which the company reads as evidence that it has become part of everyday digital banking rather than a feature that is tried once and abandoned.

Personalisation is the mechanism behind that adoption. Customers choose which transaction each of the two screens should open, so the shortcut reflects individual usage patterns rather than an average customer profile.

Consistency of behaviour across handset brands and models is treated as an accessibility requirement rather than a technical detail, because a gesture that works differently on different devices would exclude part of the customer base.

Performance is monitored through four indicators: total use count, the personalisation preference rate for the login screen and the home page, the rate at which customers reach the feature through the in-application financial assistant, and the distribution of use across transaction types such as QR code payment, QR code cash withdrawal and deposit, and money transfer. Customer feedback is fed into the same cycle.

Business Impact

Benefits

The clearest benefit is adoption. Approximately 1.5 million uses have been recorded since the feature went live, and analytics show that customers use it most actively for the transactions where speed matters most.

The feature increases the effective use of digital channels and shortens transaction times, which supports operational efficiency in the channel mix by keeping routine activity inside the self-service application.

No additional physical infrastructure investment was required, because the component was built on the existing mobile banking platform. That keeps the cost of reaching new customer groups low and makes extension to further transaction types a development task rather than an investment decision.

The personalisation data has secondary value for product management: preference rates show which transactions customers most want within reach, which informs prioritisation of later work.

The technical knowledge built during development forms a reusable base for further user experience features in the same application, so the return is not limited to this single component.

Costs

The cost base is development and assurance effort rather than capital expenditure. Design, mobile development, testing, security assessment and go-live were carried out by internal user experience, mobile development, quality assurance, information security and operations teams working to a shared release cycle.

The recurring cost is compatibility work. Because the trigger depends on device motion sensors, behaviour has to be normalised across handset brands and models, and development and test cycles continue as new devices and operating system versions appear. This is an ongoing commitment rather than a one-off qualification exercise.

Discovery carries its own cost. A gesture shortcut has no permanent presence in the interface, so the in-application financial assistant has to promote it; without that promotion the feature would be configured by only a small share of customers and the usage case would not hold.

Costs are contained by the modular design on existing infrastructure, which avoids a separate platform, and by reusing the same analytics infrastructure that already serves the application.

The initiative required 551 hours of internal effort, covering analysis, mobile development, UI design, functional and integration testing, UAT and UAT support. Mobile development accounted for the largest share of the overall effort. Run cost and payback are not disclosed.

Impact Beyond Sustainability And Business

Co-benefits

The technical knowledge gained forms a scalable foundation for later user experience work in the same application, so the component acts as a template for gesture-driven and personalisation-driven features rather than as a closed piece of functionality.

Because the shortcut removes navigation steps, it lowers the effort required to complete a routine transaction, which is of most value to customers who find multi-level menu structures difficult.

The modular architecture means new transaction scenarios can be attached to the same mechanism, and the company states this as a short-term objective rather than a completed result.

Potential side-effects

A motion-triggered shortcut can be activated unintentionally, which places more weight on the confirmation steps and the security review that precede any transaction. The security assessment stage in the release process exists for this reason, and it cannot be shortened as further transaction types are added.

Dependence on device sensors introduces a fragmentation risk. Handset behaviour varies between brands, models and operating system versions, so a feature that performs well at launch can degrade quietly as the device base turns over unless compatibility testing continues.

The benefit only reaches customers who discover and configure the shortcut. Without in-application guidance the feature would deepen the experience of already engaged digital customers while leaving less confident users on the original menu route, which would widen rather than narrow the gap between customer groups.

Typical Business Profile

The model suits retail banks and other financial institutions that operate a proprietary mobile application with an in-house development capability, where a small number of transaction types account for a large share of session volume.

It is most relevant where the application already has an analytics infrastructure capable of measuring transaction frequency and personalisation preferences, because the case for the shortcut rests on knowing which transactions customers repeat.

Delivery engages digital banking product management, user experience design, mobile development, quality assurance, information security and operations functions working to a shared release cycle. A separate innovation unit is not required.

Approach

1. Analyse transaction frequency before designing anything: Use application analytics to identify the handful of transactions that customers repeat most often and measure how many navigation steps each currently takes, so that the shortcut is aimed at real usage rather than assumed usage.

2. Choose a trigger that is natural rather than visual: Select a physical device movement that customers can perform without looking at the screen, and confirm that the sensors needed are present across the handset base already in use.

3. Assign the shortcut to more than one entry point: Allow one transaction to be attached to the login screen and a different transaction to the application home page, so that the shortcut works both before and after the customer reaches the main interface.

4. Put configuration in the customer profile: Place the assignment inside the profile menu where it can be changed at any time, so that personalisation is self-service and does not require a support interaction.

5. Build the component as a modular layer on the existing application: Avoid a separate platform or additional physical infrastructure, and structure the component so that further transaction types can be attached to the same trigger later.

6. Normalise behaviour across the device base: Run development and test cycles across handset brands, models and operating system versions, and set up a standing process to re-qualify the trigger as new devices and operating system releases appear.

7. Route the release through security and quality assurance: Assess the risk of unintended activation and confirm the transaction confirmation steps before go-live, and repeat the assessment whenever a new transaction type is added to the shortcut set.

8. Instrument discovery and manage the feature as a living product: Prompt customers towards the shortcut through the in-application financial assistant, then track total use count, personalisation preference rates, the assistant referral rate and the distribution of use by transaction type, and feed customer feedback back into the development cycle.

Stakeholders Involved

• Project leads: The work was developed under the coordination of the Digital Banking and Distribution Channels division, with senior management support as part of the company's digital transformation vision. Requirement definition, design, development, testing, security assessment and go-live were sequenced by that division rather than delegated to a single technical team.

• Company functions: User experience and interface design, mobile application development, quality assurance, information security and operations teams delivered the component jointly and now sustain it. Digital banking teams own customer requirement definition, experience design, product management and prioritisation, while the technical development teams are accountable for delivering the component securely and at the performance level the application requires.

• Main providers: No external solution provider is identified in the source material. The component was delivered with the company's own mobile development, testing and security capability on its existing mobile banking infrastructure.

• Other: Customers are treated as an active stakeholder rather than an audience. Their mobile banking usage habits and transaction volumes shaped the design, and their feedback is taken into the continuous product development cycle alongside analytics data, so that the transaction set attached to the shortcut can be revised as behaviour changes.

Key Parameters To Consider

The feature went live on 28 October 2025 and 2025 is the base year. Results are read against the period following go-live rather than against a modelled counterfactual.

Measurement is based on the company's digital analytics infrastructure and usage data. No environmental calculation standard of the GHG Protocol type is applied within the project boundary, which limits what can be claimed on climate grounds.

The modular architecture is the parameter that governs scaling: because no additional physical infrastructure is involved, extension to new customer groups and new transaction scenarios is a development decision rather than an investment decision. Adding new transaction scenarios is stated as a short-term objective and has not yet been completed.

The binding technical constraint is device diversity. Preserving identical behaviour across brands, models and operating system versions requires a continuing test programme, and this is the parameter most likely to be underestimated by another organisation copying the approach.

Implementation And Operations Tips

Measure preference rates, not only usage volume. A total use count shows that a feature works; the split between login screen and home page assignments, and the distribution across transaction types, shows which parts of the design are actually carrying the benefit.

Plan discovery as part of the product, not as a campaign afterwards. A gesture has no permanent place in the interface, so the in-application assistant that surfaces it is as important as the trigger itself.

Start from behavioural data rather than from the gesture. The shortcut only pays back if it is attached to transactions that customers already repeat many times a month.

Budget for continuing compatibility work from the outset. The development cost is visible at launch; the cost of keeping identical behaviour across a changing device base is the one that persists.