Cryptocurrency Financial Institutions
WhaleFin KYC
My Role
WhaleFin App/Web KYC V2.0 Upgrade, optimizing the overall KYC process, refining overseas user scenarios and researching pain points, improving KYC completion rate, significantly reducing usage barriers, and effectively improving the conversion rate of registered users completing KYC.
Company
AmberGroup
Role
UX Designer
Researcher
Year
2021 - 2022
The Challenge
WhaleFin is like other financial institutions that require completion of KYC verification in order to use its services on mainstream cryptocurrency exchanges around the world. KYC stands for "Know Your Customer" and refers to a mandatory process of verifying the identity of customers.
This process includes verifying identity documents such as an ID card, a bill with a residential address, or a social security code. However, due to the lengthy verification process and review time, it increases the threshold for users to use the service for the first time. How can user willingness to complete the process be increased?
Discovery
WhaleFin mainly targets emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and Latin America. As the platform is still in its early stages, it is important to reduce KYC usage barriers and improve completion rates in order to attract more new overseas users. Combined with regular operational activities and rewards, more users can be introduced to the platform, incentivizing them to use various platform features from registering accounts, completing KYC, to depositing funds, and ultimately converting these users into real platform users.
After registering an account, users will begin the KYC process, which is mainly divided into three parts: basic personal information, identity proof, and address proof. All proofs need to be uploaded within 30 days, and during user interviews, I found three main core issues:
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The initial use of the App and waiting for approval during the process from registration to identity verification is time-consuming.
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Users who are not familiar with the KYC process when encountering financial products do not have enough psychological expectations and preparation, leading to incomplete verification materials and failure to complete verification.
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In some areas, it is difficult to obtain bills with complete name, date, and address information, and the review time is long (within 10 days), which significantly increases the usage barriers.
New Design Goals
Provide clear guidance while tracking the completion and feedback of different verification stages.
Solution
Before beginning the design process, I analyzed and researched related products in the market, and combined with user demographics and market objectives, broke them down into six core design principles. I didn't just consider the KYC process, but also extended it to "how users can smoothly enter the app." From the moment the user opens the app, I considered how each process can be easily connected, from attracting them to helping them complete all tasks smoothly.
Quickly understand and experience the core value of the product
For first-time users, the core value of the product should be described in a concise and clear manner, while allowing users to directly experience the core functions of the product.
Convenient and consistent operations
The main action button should be fixed in a prominent position at the bottom, making it more convenient to operate. When the information hierarchy is deep or additional operation options are triggered, use sheet panels to avoid interference with the user's current task caused by excessive hierarchy.
Step-by-step and emotional guidance of the process
Long and complex operation processes should be simplified to the utmost, combined with emotional experiences. Positive feedback should be given upon completion of the task, without forcing the user to complete everything at once.
Overall lightening of information
Information should be graded, with the first screen displaying only information that is highly relevant to the main content, and secondary content in the next hierarchy. This reduces the amount of information and leaves more space for the user to focus on the main content.
Highlighting important information
The contrast level of the title, numbers, and main content should be strengthened to highlight the importance of the information.
The most straightforward and simple expression and help
Content descriptions should provide simple and clear help information, described in a way that is easy for users to understand, without using professional terminology.
WhaleFin App KYC
START
Clear instructions should be provided to users before the verification process begins to establish their psychological expectations. Before starting any actions, users should be able to quickly browse through all the preparation materials to help build their cognitive understanding before proceeding when they are fully prepared.
Guidance Before The Start Of Verification
STEP1
Basic Personal Information
STEP2
Identity Verification
All verifications can be completed in just 3 simple steps. Information density, complexity, and redirection on each page should be minimized so that users can complete one task per step. The progress of completion will be displayed at the top of each step. If the current step is not yet ready, users can choose to pause and resume the verification later, reducing psychological pressure on the user.
Top Displays Current Completion Progress
Emotional experience with clear positive feedback when the user completes the task.
Sheet Panel Toggle Option
When there is more information or other operations, use the Sheet panel to switch quickly to avoid disrupting the user to complete the current task.
Reduce resistance and avoid interruption.
STEP3
In the last step, it may be difficult to obtain proof of address, so in addition to uploading, an additional low-threshold option for filling in the address information should be provided. This will allow users to quickly enter the App, and proof of address can be submitted within 30 days.
Uploading or filling in proof of address
All results are clearly trackable.
Homepage Verification Status
Verification Status Details
After submitting all verifications, progress results will be displayed, including incomplete, completed, under review or pending resubmission, and users will be alerted and can easily view them on the home page.
All Verification Status and Notification Reminders
Each status user can view the details, and will also be displayed and reminded when the deadline is approaching 10 days before.
App KYC Main Process
At the beginning of version 2.0, we provide additional rewards to encourage users to complete KYC.
WhaleFin Web KYC
The website was also upgraded at the same time, using the same process as the app, making it easy for users to get started when switching between devices. In addition, the platform launched in Japan, adjusting the overall process from sign-in and sign-up to KYC for the differences in local user habits.
Web KYC Full Process
Japan Region Web KYC Full Process
Result Verification
Within three months, we completed the V2.0 upgrade and before the new version was launched, I drove an overseas user research plan, designed a survey questionnaire, and used the UserTesting research platform to conduct usability tests to verify the design results. We targeted our target user groups aged 24-44 in our target markets such as the Philippines, Brazil, and India, and conducted 20 quick tests on iOS and Android platforms to investigate the overall Onboarding and KYC experience.
The overall rating of each process was evaluated based on satisfaction, ease of use, information clarity, and content attractiveness. The results showed that the Onboarding introduction scored 4.3 (out of 5), account registration 4.5, basic personal information 4.2, identity verification 4.4, address verification 4.1, and reward 4.3, with an overall experience score of 4.3 (out of 5), which met the expected goals.
After the launch in January, we continued to track online data from January to June, and the completion rates of various KYC processes all exceeded 90%. The verification results significantly reduced the user's learning curve and effectively increased the conversion rate of registered users completing KYC by 30%.
