Identity Verification - BNPL
Capiter is a marketplace where MSMEs can order inventory, obtain delivery, and access Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) financing facilities via one single platform.
Capiter uses KYC to verify the identity of merchants to provide them with credit services through its mechant app.
Overview
What is KYC & why is it mandatory?
Know Your Customer(KYC) is the process of verifying the identity of customer. The objective of KYC is to prevent Banks/NBFCs from being used, by criminal elements for money laundering activities. It also enables banks to understand its customers and their financial dealings to serve them better and manage its risks prudently.
In a nutshell, a financial institution or a business/corporate uses KYC for,
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Building and Verifying a Customer’s Identity
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Understanding Customer’s Activities
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Evaluating the risks involved with the Customer’s Activities
KYC at Capiter
Capiter is a marketplace where MSMEs can order inventory, obtain delivery, and access buy-now-pay-later (SNPL) financing facilities via one single platform.
Capiter uses KYC to verify the identity of merchants to provide them with credit services through its mechant app.
I was tasked to design a prototype for a KYC flow (provided) for the Buy Now Pay Later project. For this project, my goal was to find out how the flow would work, what problems a user might have, and what features and components developers would need to implement before getting into production.
Role & Timeline
My Role
Designing the feature end-to-end, working closely with engineering to craft the KYC experience in detail.
The Team
Solo designer, with guidance from a Lead designer, 1 UX researcher, 2 Product Managers, 7+ engineers, 1 copywriter.
Timeline
January 2022 - Feb, 2022 ; launched in Egypt
DESIGN PROCESS
Understand
Research
Design
Prototype
Handoff
Evaluate
Business requirements
User research
Competitive Analysis
Analysis of latest trends
Sketch
Wireframe
High fidelity
Define final theme
Handoff designs
Ensure successful implementation
Usability testing
Iterate
Problem
Users
Brainstorm
Prototype
Content finalization
User flow
Desk research
Project Goal
Create smooth & hassle free KYC journey for merchants of Capiter to easily onboard & avail the Credit service
Performed Research
Before jumping into the designs & flows, I wanted learn about the people who will be using the products, their needs & pains. The UX Research team at Capiter did an on ground research to understand the merchant's behaviors, needs, thoughts, and motivations.
User Interviews
Capiter’s UX research team conducted a research involving 49 merchants. This helped us understand the problems underlying with the product we were gonna build.
USER DEMOGRAPHICS
It is worthy to note that SMEs are highly skewed at the geographical level since almost half of them is concentrated in the three governorates of Sharkeya, Cairo and Gharbeya.
01
Age
03
Education
02
Location
04
Income
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USER SAMPLE
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Questions Asked
To get started, Users were initially asked briefly about the below stated questions for KYC.
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Do you own a bank account?
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What do you know about Identity verification 7 digital identity verification?
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Have you ever used any digital platforms for identity verification? Share your experience of that
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Are you comfortable sharing your documents with Capiter?
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What documents are you comfortable sharing for the identity verification?
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How easy or difficult you find to use digital products?
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What would be the most comfortable way to finish your KYC?
Insights
81 %
merchants said yes to owning a bank account. But their major transaction happens in cash to avoid the tax compliance. & hence a major population of merchant are unaware of new changes & reforms in the banks & financial sector
61 %
Of merchants accepted to know about identity verification. A lot of people had prior experience of doing digital & in person Identity verification. Merchants from rural areas who don't even own a bank account had no clue about ID verification on a digital platform.
Lengthy process
Most merchants familiar with identity verification somehow complained about it be a very lengthy & tiresome process.
Fear of data leaks
Interviews revealed that one of the main concerns merchants had was data leaks. All users mentioned how trust was the most important factor when it came to trusting someone with their money
PS - One merchants said that he needs assurance that we won’t send his documents and orders details to tax authorities
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Understanding the why is crucial
A few users highlighted how one of their biggest frustrations with other existing platforms was not knowing why some services request personal information without telling them the reasons.
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Documents to be submitted
When asked about the documents they could submit to get credit their answers was as follows:
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49
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38
11
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49
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38
11
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49
Non-tech savvy & low digital financial literacy
While the merchants were comfortable using digital products for the marketplace, ordering inventories, they had little to no experience of using a fintech product. They felt apprehensive about about the online payment modes, because they think that the money will get stuck or the amount will go to someone else or someone is tracking their transactions. Their IDs can be misused
Different methods preferred for KYC
Merchants seem to be happy with existing way of identity verification for other portals at capiter. While a few segment of merchants seemed to be excited about the e-kyc & wanted to try it out. While the rest were more inclined towards doing in person KYC or hand holding KYC. A larger part of the merchants were comfortable with the existing system of calling at Capiter & Capiter doing Identity verification on their behalf (no app activity involved).
Initial Challenges
Through the initial research by the UX team, a lot of desk research & talking to the stakeholders , I came up with these major challenges which are listed below.
1. Lack of digital literacy
Most of the b2b merchants are not tech savvy. A lot of them were small business owners from rural & suburbs where digital literacy is not that high
2. Low financial inclusion in Egypt
Low literacy rates in rural & suburbs & even in urban areas for that matter amongst the small scale merchants & & heavy reliance on the informal sector limits their financial knowledge
3. Lack of consumer trust in financial services
Merchants feel apprehensive about the online payment modes, because they thinks that the money will get stuck or the amount will go to someone else or someone might be tracking their transactions.
4. Documents
A major population of merchants were not willing to submit the guarantor’s national ID, utility bill & tax card for KYC. Merchant’s aim to hide business licensing for tax avoidance - Changing with new tax reforms. Also, merchants don't usually have latest paper receipts with them all the time & hesitated to submit the Utility & any other kind of bills.
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Goals
User flow
During the understanding phase, with the given requirements, challenges & insights from the research, we brainstormed & created a basic user flow for KYC to help us determine how many screens are needed, what order they should appear in, and what components need to be present
Competitive Analysis
To get more insights on the existing KYC trends, I began by conducting a competitive review. I looked at other traditional Buy now pay later platforms and banking platforms to see what they were doing well, and what could be improved on. Studying their strengths & weaknesses to orient everyone to the competitive landscape and get an idea of what user experiences are standard for the market I am designing for.
All the platforms that I studied offer full in-app processes that make opening an account almost instantaneous. These platforms have embraced new technologies for online identification purposes such as video identification and photographing ID documents accompanied by a verification payment and claim that creating a new account be it takes between 4 to 10 minutes.
Each app declares that they have a simple and unique KYC and onboarding process. I spent some time comparing them to each other and found out the following information:
Comparison of functionalities
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Design Principles
After understanding more about the users I was designing for, I laid out some design principles to be followed throughout the design process
AVOID INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Provide only necessary inforation what
users need to know & not everything. Else
this ight lead users feeling overwheled
with inforation.
BE TRANSPARENT
Transparency builds trust. It's imperative that we are empathetic & understanding of our merchants. It's our responsibility to be clear & transparent about their documents, why are we taking them & how are we using it.
FEEDBACK
Every interaction, every update ust have
a feedback, otherwise the user will be lost
PROVIDE GUIDANCE
Provide only necessary inforation what
users need to know & not everything. Else
this ight lead users feeling overwheled
with inforation.
RECOGNIZABLE CTAs & TEXTS
Buttons should be recognisable and big enough to be clearly seen on a screen. Use big bold text to convey important actions
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Optimize for easy understanding of complex ideas & keep it intuitive & simple
Designing the product
After the user & desk research & a lot of brainstorming, with the data & insights we gathered, I started diverging & exploring wide range of possible solutions. Testing, iterating, working & discussing through the problems.
01. Multiple KYC options
Keeping in mind the user pains, we came up with 3 ways for integrating KYC, 2 of them could be done from the app & one would be continuing the traditional way of doing KYC at Capiter.
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Self KYC
This would be an in app method where user can log into the Capiter's merchant app & can complete KYC by submitting their selfie & National ID. This was aimed for the users who are comfortable using digital platforms & can perform the needful on their own.
Agent visit KYC
This would be an in app method where user can log into the Capiter's merchant app & can complete KYC by submitting their selfie & National ID. This was aimed for the users who are comfortable using digital platforms & can perform the needful on their own.
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Calling at Capiter
For our less digitally advanced users, we provided an easy way to do KYC by simply by calling us & scheduling the date & time for the agent visit.
02. Educating users
One of my primary goal while designing was to educate users on what we are doing & providing answers to what they might ask
Buy Now Pay Later - HOME SCREEN
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The homepage of financial services by Capiter would provide them with all the necessary informations on KYC & credit
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Providing FAQ section for users to provide answers to might ask
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A help section within the page for any guidance or enquiry
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A video explaining the process briefly to get clarity on things
FAQs for instant answers to what users might ask
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Video for explaining the whole process
Help for calling & live chat assistance 24*7
03. What documents?
One of the toughest task was to finalize what documents to ask for & how to present it to the users so that the users are not overwhelmed with it.
There where 5 main type documents required to reach a level of identification accuracy. But from our research, merchants were all against submitting the Guarantor's national ID & tax card.
WHAT WE DID?
We revised our ways & finalized the rest of the documents except national ID & user selfie to be optional. This helped us keeping the process short, saving user's extra effort & help users reach their goal faster.
Before
Final
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04. Self -KYC
Self KYC is a 2 step process where user needs to upload their national ID & selfie which is instantly verified at our our end. The self-KYC is briefly broken down into 4 parts
Method -1
01. ENTRY POINT
Requirements before starting
To design the entry point for self-KYC, we wanted to address these requirements before the user proceeds into the task
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How many documents will I need to upload?
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What documents do I need to provide?
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What if I don’t have all of the documents right now?
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Do I need to follow a particular order for uploading my documents?
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What if I want I want to explore other methods when I am in midst of another method?
The process
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Providing the right amount of information on what, how many & when
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A chatbot-like experience to guide the applicant
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From a progress step approach to an info page, to keep the process short & simple
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Removing unnecessary graphics & information to only what is needed for the users to see
First approach
Second approach
Final
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providing an idea of what documents needs to be upload beforehand
Option to change KYC method
providing an idea about the time to complete the task
02. National ID
Requirements
To design the flow, we wanted to make sure we address these requirements
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Make sure they capture & upload the ID the right way
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Providing clarity on why they need to submit this document
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Make sure they upload both front & back
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What if they didn't click the image right & want to click it again?
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How to they know if they have captured it correctly?
What we did
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THE INSTRUCTIONS
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For the users to get clarity on how to upload their documents, we provided them with a few instructions to go through.
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Use visual graphics to reduce complexity
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Add to this, we also provided a short video reference for the process in the later iteration
Before
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After
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Icons for easy scannability
Video for more knowledge
why do I need to upload this document?
Front & back text for easy identification
instruction on how to capture
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Customizing the camera for more accurate picture
Camera & capturing
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Uploading the image
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Providing users option to retake photo & upload it only when they are fully contented
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Using question based approach for the user to know if they have captured the photo & details correctly
question based approach for the user to know if they got it right
Option to retake photo
03. Selfie
Requirements before starting
To design the flow, we wanted to make sure we address these requirements
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Why do I need to provide my selfie?
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How should I upload my selfie?
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What if I want to click another shot if I don't get it right the first time?
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How do I know if I have completed it successfully?
What we did
THE INSTRUCTIONS
For the users to get clarity on how to upload their documents, we provided them with a few instructions to go through. Add to this, we also provided a short video reference for the process
Before
After
Icons for easy scannability
Video for more knowledge
why do I need to upload this document?
Customizing the camera for more accurate picture
instruction on how to capture
Camera & capturing
Uploading the image
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Giving the user ownership to upload their photo when they are fully contented
Asking questions for the user to understand the requirement right before hitting submit
Option to retake photo
Option to retake photo
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Confirmation
Letting the user know their documents have been successfully submitted
04. FINISHING SELF ID VERIFICATION
Providing feedbacks & letting the user know of the task completion or otherwise to help them understand what is going on. I wanted to keep this page as simple as possible without much distractions
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Letting the user know what is happening
Letting the user know how long they'll have to wait
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confirmation on success
Final Screens - self KYC
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05. The Agent visit KYC
The second method to complete KYC at Capiter is the Agent Visit method. Agent visit method involves submitting the documents directly to the agent of Capiter who will visit your premises. To avail this service, the users needs to select agent visit method while doing their KYC. This is a two step process which requires choosing a preferred date & time slot for the agent visit.
01. Date & time slot selection
Requirements
To design the flow, we wanted to make sure that the user easily understands
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they understand the requirement well to choose the date & time to schedule a visit
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they understand what they are doing
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ability to modify date & time once selected
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Anytime the user should be able discard the existing method & start over
The process
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Booking the slot
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Initially the flow was spread on two pages.
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Followed by a confirmation box for adding the right amount of friction to ensure that the merchants understand what's being asked of them
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Anytime the user can discard the existing method & start over
Initial designs
change methods
Following card based approach for easy information grouping & readability, I merged the designs into a single page. This will save user extra clicks to select or change a date or time
Final
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Adding just the right amount of friction
Notification
Notification can be seen on the merchant side of the app on the day of verification when user opens the app
Merchants also get a message & call before the identity verification slot begins
Notification
Method - 2
Final Screens - agent visit KYC
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5. The error handling
A key challenge with mobile app is that it is network dependent. Aside from the ideal state (online) there's a range of states users might end up in where network is patchy, content is loading or things fail. How might we reduce user anxieties during moments of failure and give them a clear way ahead?
Network challenges
Content loading
Failed/ error states
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Network errors
These errors are shown when the entire content of the page fails to load. To not make it a dead end, users have a clear CTA to 'Retry' loading the page or can leave the KYC flow & move back to Capiter home. The illustrations and copy is light hearted to reduce user anxiety.
Toast errors
Toast errors are used when a user takes an action and the action fails to get completed. Toast come in as a layer on top of the existing screen so that the context is retained and the user can reattempt the action easily.
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Edge cases
Three crucial edge cases, where a document could not be verified or the task completion was failed. The illustrations and copy is light hearted to reduce user anxiety.
Testing, Feedback & Iteration
In a few days after shipping the designs, I sent the design out for testing with the users. From our data we could see that the document upload step in the form had a drop-off rate of ~37%. So improving this part of the form would provide the most value to both applicants and the business. An on ground usability testing confirmed that merchants were confused while uploading the National ID. I had to quickly investigate and get to the root of the problem in order to fix the issue.
Problem -1
Users couldn't figure out there was a change in page after uploading the front of the National ID & hence even after successful submission they tried to upload the front of the ID again.
Problem - 2
The camera screen being similar for both front & back confused the users to assume that both the screens are same. The users simply don't read. And hence, hey missed the text used to identify the front & back camera page
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Problem - 3
No confirmation message after uploading the front & back of the ID
The final revised design
For the final design, we made 2 major changes for there to be no confusion on what documents to be uploaded
CAMERA LAYOUT
For the final design, we made the camera screens for front & back similar to the national ID front & back layout. This could help the users easily distinguish between both the camera screens.
Before
After
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Uploading...
Addition of a uploading screen & task completion screen to signify the completion of the action just performed i.e. the front of national ID successfully submitted for verification & to signify the change in page
Final Screens
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Learnings
EARLY DOCUMENTATION
In the early stages of a project, we need to do a better job of documenting and organizing our knowledge and findings. Understanding the problem, early research and discussions, competitive analysis, success metrics, testing results etc. None of this could be found very easily in a single, handy location.
A FORMALIZED DESIGN QA PROCESS
When pieces of the product are handed off to QA by the front end team, designers aren’t always brought in to assist with the testing. This can result in us later finding design problems, specifically some of the more aesthetic issues that other team members may not notice. While the back-and-forth we have with developers often help in refining these details, we had no established process and things were slipping through the cracks. Moving forward we plan to have a specific Design QA step in the process where designers sign off on the dev work.
Iterations
An amazing user experience can only be provided by following an iterative design process. Brainstorm as much as you can with the stakeholders . This is the only way you can come up with great solutions to the underlying problems & build good experiences.
Business Impact
The product was launced in May 2022 in Egypt
MERCHANTS
onboarded 30k+ merchants in the span of 2 months on the Buy Now Pay Later project of Capiter. 6K+ merchants out of which were new customers to Capiter.
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INCREASE IN ORDERS
Merchant app activity increased by 11%. As a result we are seeing a positive lift in total orders on the merchant app.
Working with the content
After designing the high-fidelity, the screens were worked in Arabic to provide the vernacular support to our users
