UX design case study — Improving a KYC flow of a FinTech app

Popoola Abdussalam

Published in

Bootcamp

6 min readNov 19, 2022

Improving the KYC flow of a Fintech app to increase user onboarding rate

Risevest KYC case study image cover — Case study cover

Problem: No KYC flow prompt after sign up which reduces the conversion rate

Solution: A KYC flow that can be answered within 5 minutes to increase user conversions (by ~20% +)

Duration: One week
Role: UX Designer

Project overview:

Risevest is a fintech app that helps Africans invest their money in dollars — a stable currency to escape inflation.

I remember signing up for Risevest in 2019 when they give a very high referral commission to get new users — good ‘ol days.

The aim of this case study is to explain my process and solutions for improving the KYC flow of Risevest.

Short Story

I downloaded the app on my phone after a long while and I noticed.
After the sign-up process, no questions were asked.

PS. I used a new email and it still didn’t prompt the KYC process

“Maybe this app doesn’t need my personal information”
…I thought to myself

I couldn’t be more wrong.

There was a setup guide telling me (the user) what to do next and how to verify the account.

Screenshot of the setup guide from risevest — Setup Guide for Risevest

That was great news, but it felt off.

“Why did I have to sign up and feel at rest only to realise I can’t use the app until I finish my verification?”

I did my research and found from a survey by Signicat in 2020 that 56% of respondents had abandoned an online finance application, up from 40% in the same survey in 2018.

So, just like me…

There is a high chance that in every 10 sign-ups, an average of 5 people won’t complete the KYC process.

“How can I improve that?” I asked myself.

This is where I did…

Competitive analysis on other fintech apps

Competitive analysis of apps in the FinTech investment industry — Competitive Analysis

I found out that all of these apps have a KYC process included with their user onboarding process so, within a few minutes, the user is set up.

I also read the reviews on Risevest from AppStore.

Appstore reviews for Risevest — Appstore Reviews for Risevest

The majority of the complaints were about not being able to complete verification and the wallet fund was left on hold.

So, I had a goal…

CREATE A KYC FLOW THAT WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE ONBOARDING PROCESS TO MAKE ACCOUNT SETUP VERY EASY FOR NEW USERS

With a goal in mind, here were my KPIs:

• Reduce the time it takes to get an account signed up and set up(using as few screens as possible)
• Allow the user to be able to skip a requirement for later if the document isn’t available at that moment
• Make sure that non-tech-savvy people can get set up without issues

Thinking of potential solutions (Ideate)

I used the ‘crazy 8’ framework I learnt from the Google UX course.

I only come up with 6 ideas within 8 minutes though.

Crazy eights ideation for Risevest — Crazy eights ideation framework

Then I moved on to create the information architecture to understand how all of the screens would be placed sequentially.

User flow/User journey with Information Architecture

Then I made some wireframes sketches to understand and try different takes on how the screens would look

Wireframes for Risevest app — Wireframes for the Risevest app

I also created a low-fi prototype to start adding context to the design.

Low fidelity screens — Low Fidelity Screens / designs for the Risevest case study

High-Fidelity Designs:

As we hop on to this phase, let me explain my design decisions.

PS. I made sure to follow the current design patterns used on the Risevest app — it looks good, so why not?

Progress Screen:

Users Perspective — “After signing up, am I done?”

No, but you’ll soon be because you’ve completed 1 out of the 3 steps to setting up your account.

Guess what?
- You can complete all of these within 5 minutes.
- Or skip this now to complete it later

Why is this important?
- Showing the time it takes lets the user know how fast they can finish up
- Providing options to skip for later gives the user sense of control

Progress page of risevest before — The progress page before — which is waaay after the onboarding

Progress page after redesign with key point in the image to take note off. — I included the progress page with the onboarding so it feels very seamless

Progress bars to show progress:

Just like having early wins with a client would keep them working with you…

The same applies to digital products as well, the fact that the user sees fast progress would make he/she interested in completing it.

Progress bar to show progress in the KYC process — Progress bar for Risevest app

Improving the UX copy:

When I first used the app, I was so confused about some things that I had to email support to make sure my onboarding process was going great.

PS. I just sent my NIN to verify my account because it said pending from the app — But STILL!

So, from that experience, I made sure to improve the copy where necessary.

ID Verification:

Final progress screen:

With an update on what’s happening behind the scenes to keep the user reassured.

Final progress screen = 1

Other screens:

High Fidelity screens for Risevest app — High Fidelity Prototype

Learnings & Takeaways:

I got to understand the importance of the KYC process in Fintech businesses, after reading lots of articles to understand the importance of KYC
Less is not always more:
I used to think the lesser the screens are, the more likely users would finish the onboarding process fast.

But working on this project showed me that the aim should be creating clear copy and designs so the user doesn’t spend time overthinking what to do next.