ANNA’s design philosophy: an interview with ANNA’s Andy Moore

What’s ANNA’s core design philosophy, and how does it guide your work?

We believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to build a business and thrive, whatever their background, ability, or experience. Starting a company or being self-employed can feel daunting, so we've designed ANNA to feel like having a real human personal assistant who's always there for you, anticipating your needs and answering your questions.

Other financial apps and accounting software are often too complex, creating yet another barrier when you're just trying to get the job done. Fundamentally – everything we do is driven by making business finances easier to understand and more accessible.

What’s your approach to making complex financial tasks feel simple?

ANNA has a unique chat-based interface – think WhatsApp for business banking. For non-technical users, it's immediately familiar. You can access all features and services just by typing, so you don't need to know where things are, buried in menus. You don’t have to understand how complex systems work. Just type what you need, and ANNA guides you through everything step by step.

Which accessibility principles shape how you see the future of the app?

No one should feel left out, lost, or left behind. I like to think ANNA democratises business ownership through intelligent, inclusive technology that removes traditional barriers. This starts with our chat interface, which combines AI automation with easy access to specialised human support when needed. We're now experimenting with voice interactions and using AI to adapt to our customers' varying needs and levels of business understanding.

What design choices help small business owners save time and reduce stress?

From a design perspective, we made some deliberate choices to prioritise speed and intuition. Instead of traditional menu structures and form-based interfaces, we designed around natural language input, allowing users to type what they want in their own words. This design decision eliminates the cognitive load of learning where features live or remembering specific workflows.

We also designed the system to build contextual knowledge about each business, so the interface becomes more intelligent and predictive over time. Rather than making users navigate through multiple screens to pay a supplier, they can simply type 'pay John £500 for the website work' and ANNA handles the rest.

The bigger design philosophy here is about removing friction at every touchpoint. We automated the things that create stress – chasing invoices, bookkeeping, tax deadlines – so the interface becomes less about managing complexity and more about enabling quick, confident decisions. The design literally gets out of the way so business owners can focus on what they do best.

AI is a hot topic. What would be the most impressive problem AI could solve within running a business?

Running a business is all-consuming, and we want customers to spend less time using ANNA and more time growing their business and doing what they love. The opportunities arising from agentic AI are exciting – we're focused on building an intelligent service that can access business data and take actions on behalf of business owners. Imagine voice commands through the app or over the phone or any connected device, automated email handling, booking system management, and seamless client interactions, all working together with minimal input from the business owner.

What is your one golden rule for design?

Dog-fooding. I know it's obvious, but you absolutely have to live with your product and use it every day to make it better. There's no substitute for experiencing your own design decisions firsthand.

What one mistake do most designers make?

Designing in a vacuum. Too many designers create beautiful interfaces without properly understanding how real people will use them in messy, stressful, real-world situations.

What achievement at ANNA are you most proud of?

Honestly, I'm most proud of how far our product has come while staying true to our design principles. We've built something our customers absolutely love, and that genuine affection from users – that's the ultimate validation for any designer.

Do you dress as a designer? (blue workshirt, Breton top, New Balance trainers, tiny beanie)

Not anymore – I'm too old for that. Kind of like an ageing hipster. Although, to be fair, I do have a pair of New Balance trainers. Because they’re comfortable of course 😉