PRODUCT DESIGN
RESEARCH
UX
I designed a cybersecurity solution for the largest bank in Russia, helping protect their customers from phone scammers.
This is one of my favourite projects because it proved that product design can truly help people by protecting them in real-life situations they can’t handle alone.
Research
First, I conducted in-depth research and found that 89% of fraud cases involved social engineering. This meant we had to understand how human psychology worked and why people believed scammers.
Then we conducted 18 in-depth interviews with victims of phone fraud. I also spoke with several psychologists, psychotherapists, and bank security staff, and found that in the moment of fraud people lose their critical thinking and cannot protect themselves.
As a result, we found that for psychological reasons people cannot recognise fraud in the moment, and afterwards they cannot get their money back because it is technically impossible. And anyone can become a victim.
Product Design
Customer Journey Map
It’s clear that to help a person recognise fraud, we need to warn them. But this raises two key questions — when and how?
I sketched a simple CJM of a fraud victim, and it revealed something important: warnings given before fraud don’t work — people won’t remember them when it matters most. Warnings given after are already too late.
That meant we had only one real chance: to warn people in the very moment of fraud!
But to do that, first we need to recognise that fraud is happening. A tough challenge, right?
That meant we had only one real chance: to warn people in the very moment of fraud!
But to do that, first we need to recognise that fraud is happening. A tough challenge, right?
Standard Phone Scam User Flow
I mapped out the user flow of a standard phone scam and came up with three triggers that, when they happen one after another, strongly suggest the person is talking to a scammer:
Then I noted what we could do at each step after detecting the trigger — warn the victim and pause the transfer to buy time and give the person a chance to cancel it:
Early Interfaces
Here are our first interfaces, which we put together into a prototype for user testing:
User Testing
It's impossible to fully recreate the situation in which our product would actually be used — during testing, the person knows they're safe and can't reach the same emotional state they would be in during a real scam.
Still, we ran a series of tests and, despite the limitations, got some interesting results. During testing, we realised that our warnings were not clear or noticeable enough. If a person didn’t notice them in a calm environment, the chances of noticing them while under stress are even lower.
Final Deliverable
We decided to make the following changes:
Replace the orange colour with red to increase the urgency of the interface and create stronger contrast with its normal state
Add a “Cancel Transfer” button so the user can stop the process at any time quickly and easily, made this button more noticeable and clearly visible
Introduce a pop-up dialog with a scary image in the middle of the transfer process to intentionally interrupt the flow and snap the user out of it
Add a confirmation dialog before completing the transfer to interrupt the user once again and draw their attention
Redesign the final screen, leaving only the message about the paused transfer and a single CTA button — Cancel Transfer
Update the banner about the paused transfer: now the user can cancel the transfer with just one click, even directly from the app’s home screen
The final version showed excellent results — all respondents noticed that the interface was trying to warn them, understood what was happening, and knew how to stop or cancel the transfer at each step of the process.
Extra Features
While working on the solution, I realised it still has some weak points. Of course, our solution makes scams more difficult to carry out, but the risk of becoming a victim still remains.
So we came up with a few more ideas and features that can work on their own or together to significantly lower the risk of phone fraud:
Takeaway
This was a truly interesting and emotional project — one that proves design isn't just about crafting interfaces or moving pixels around in Figma.
I’d love to share some of the most insightful things I learned along the way:
When solving product challenges, your broader knowledge matters a lot. In this case, my background in psychology, forensic psychiatry, criminology, law — and even AI — turned out to be surprisingly helpful
Empathy is crucial in design — especially when the product touches on sensitive topics
A good product solution isn’t always (or only) about the interface — it's about how smartly the product fits into the real-life context
It's incredibly important to spot the flaws in your own solution — that's how you improve it
Dark patterns can be used for good. In this case, modal windows and attention-grabbing buttons that disrupt the flow actually helped snap the user out of the scammer’s spell
An emotional interface doesn’t always mean friendly or joyful. Sometimes, like here, scaring the user a little can actually save them