Summary & Key ROI
Kiwi, a next-generation payment platform in India, introduced the country’s first UPI-enabled credit card. To make this new concept instantly understandable, the team redesigned their onboarding with Lottie animations—making it lighter, faster, and far more effective.
File size reduced by more than 80%: Replaced heavy MP4s and GIFs with 700KB Lottie animations
70% faster QA turnaround with backend-deployable animation updates
10% drop in customer support tickets related to onboarding confusion
3X increase in funnel conversion within 60 days of launch
Seamless cross-team collaboration using LottieFiles’ preview, asset management, and private workspaces
A Fresh Approach to Credit in India
Kiwi is a fast-growing fintech startup making waves in India’s payment ecosystem. As the country becomes increasingly fluent in UPI (Unified Payments Interface), Kiwi is pioneering a new use case: a UPI-enabled credit card that brings the convenience of UPI to the world of credit-based transactions.
As an emerging brand, Kiwi’s tone is youthful, energetic, and engaging. Motion design plays a key role in shaping that brand identity not just visually, but also in how the product communicates with users. Every animation adds personality and clarity to the customer experience.
The Challenge: Designing User Onboarding to Explain, Guide, and Build Trust
When Kiwi set out to launch India’s first UPI-enabled credit card, they faced a unique challenge: how do you help users instantly understand a product they’ve never seen before? The onboarding needed to do more than just creating a great first impression. It had to explain, guide, and build trust in just a few seconds.
The team knew motion could be a powerful ally, turning abstract concepts into something users could understand at a glance. But their first approach with traditional walkthroughs using MP4s and GIFs came with a cost: heavier files, slower load times, and performance drops on certain devices.
They needed a way to keep the experience lightweight animations and visually engage users without sacrificing speed.
That’s when they turned to Lottie animations.
“The moment we started experimenting with Lottie, we knew it was the right fit. We reduced our onboarding animation size to just ~700 KB, and could push updates instantly without a full app release.” Shruti Sudha Sahu, Sr. Motion Designer at Kiwi
The Solution: Lightweight, Secure, Scalable Motion
Switching to Lottie was the turning point. The lightweight format meant onboarding animations could be reduced to just ~700 KB, load instantly, and be triggered dynamically from the backend without any app release required. This flexibility also slashed QA time by 70%, allowing the team to test and update animations in hours instead of days.
Using the LottieFiles for After Effects plugin with built-in Lottie export, the team managed to streamlined production. Designers could work in their native tools, export directly to Lottie, and share animations in a private LottieFiles workspace. This kept everything secure during development while giving product managers and developers a live preview to review and approve changes on the spot.
The results spoke for themselves. Within 60 days of launching the new animated onboarding:
Customer support tickets tied to onboarding dropped by 10%
Onboarding funnel conversion tripled, as users understood the product faster and with less confusion
With this powerful solution, Kiwi transformed its onboarding from a hurdle into a signature brand moment that both educate and delight users.
What Kiwi Learned While Bringing Motion to Life
One of Kiwi’s key learnings was that, what looks perfect in After Effects doesn’t always translate seamlessly into production, especially for users on low-end Android devices.
To keep animations smooth, lightweight, and delightful across all screens, the team now:
Designs with Lottie in mind from the start, ensuring compatibility from the beginning of their process.
Avoids heavy effects like 3D layers, raster images, or expressions that can impact performance.
Strikes a balance between visual flair and efficiency, prioritizing a smooth experience for mobile-first audiences.
By building with these principles, Kiwi ensures their animations not only look good, but perform flawlessly in the hands of every user.
A Brand That Moves with Purpose
Unlike many payment platforms, Kiwi doesn’t just focus on transactions—it emphasizes delight and storytelling at every customer touchpoint. Motion design is central to this.
“LottieFiles isn’t just a design tool—it’s a bridge between creativity and implementation. - Shruti Sudha Sahu, Sr. Motion Designer at Kiwi”
From onboarding animations to micro-interactions, Lottie has become a cornerstone of Kiwi’s design system. It enables the team to express their playful brand voice in a way that’s lightweight, scalable, and performance-optimized. Looking ahead, Kiwi plans to harness Lottie even more to unlock creativity and craft a product experience that brings smiles to users’ faces.
