RockWallet- KYC Process Improvements
Business Problem
33% of users from 2019 -2023 have abandoned the Know Your Customer (KYC) process. That means that these users cannot transact on the app, which impacts RockWallet's revenue.
Discovering why users don't complete kyc
To better understand user pain points, I drafted a usability test script and used Userlytics to recruit 10 participants. Users downloaded the RockWallet app and screen recorded their experience using the app. Usability testing revealed flow, copy, and UI issues contributing to low completion rates.
1/10
User successfully completed the KYC process
2/10
Users understood what the app offers
5/10
Users skipped the KYC process unknowingly
8/10
Users described the app as 'sketchy' and 'glitchy'
Translating Insights into a User Persona
After conducting UX interviews, I synthesized all of the findings into a User Persona that represents RockWallet's average user and their pain points, goals, and habits. The average user considered KYC to be mandatory and expects it to be very seamless.
The original flow placed 'Create Your Account' at the end, and the 'Skip' button exited the flow completely-creating confusion.
Identifying Key Problems and Drafting User Stories
As a lead, my responsibility was to work closely with the Product and Engineering team to communicate the key problems we were trying to solve. Each of the 3 key problems below had 3-4 user stories each that the UX/UI team was responsible for creating designs for.
Trust
The onboarding flow needs to be more informative, trustworthy, and have no glitches.
Informative
The onboarding flow should have clear progress bars, supportive messaging.
Educational
The onboarding flow should educate the user of the product offerings.
Wireframes and Getting Early Approvals
In the wireframe stage, I experimented with different ways to improve the onboarding experience. I addressed key usability issues by reordering the flow so that account creation came first—this aligned with user expectations and helped reduce early drop-off.
I also experimented with pop-up confirmations when users attempted to exit onboarding, aiming to prevent accidental exits. Additionally, I tested clearer messaging to notify users when identity verification was about to begin, making the transition feel more transparent and intentional.
Navigating Complex User Profiles and achieving feasiblity
Designing High Fidelity designs wasn't straightforward. KYC logic depends on risk assessments from Sardine and Veriff. Each user's path is shaped by their risk level (High, Medium, Low), Tax ID status, and fraud signals. I collaborated with Product, Payments, and Compliance to design flows that adapt dynamically without sacrificing clarity.
An example of all of the possible paths the app can route the user depending on their SSN status and overall risk profile.
Delivery: High Fidelity Designs
Below are some notable changes that resolve the user pain points stated earlier.
KYC Start Screen
This screen clearly informs the user the start of the KYC process, what's required, and how many steps there are.
I also collaborated with my UI design team to create a custom Lottie file to show a showreel of the steps required.
Progress Bars
After user testing, I decided to use a step by step progress bar instead of the fill up progress bar. Users described the fill up bar feels too 'suspenseful'.
FOMO Pop Ups
The user will now be warned of the consequences of exiting the verification process.
I worked with the marketing team to craft strategic UX writing to try to convince the user to not exit.
Welcome to RockWallet
I advocated the use of more Lottie files to create moments of wonder and delight throughout the onboarding experience.
This screen clearly shows trade limits, clear CTAs, and verification status.
Navigating Technical Constraints and advocating for my design choices
The engineering teams presented several technical constraints working with SDKs (software development kit). Usually, making changes to the SDK is nearly impossible and requires rounds of approvals.
However, I was adamant to include a buffering animation on the screen where the user waits to learn their KYC verification status. Users these days have low tolerance for prolonged wait times so I proposed simple ways we can give the illusion of the passage of time.
My Proposal and Reasoning
“Boredom results from being attentive to the passage of time itself” - William James
I proposed replacing the static check mark with a simple loading icon to give the user a visual indicator that the app is actively verifying their identify. Moreover, I proposed a slide up tray to enable notifications that would would appear if verification takes more than 10 second average.
Beta Testing Results
After about 2-3 months of research, product meetings, wireframing, and testing, I was able to deliver the approved mock-ups to the development team. The testing results indicate that this new onboarding flow will achieve business KPIs and boost KYC success rates, thus boosting revenue for RockWallet.
100% KYC Success Rates
20/20 users were able to complete the flow and become KYC Expressed (beta version does not account for actual user risk profiles).
No technical glitches
By removing the 'skip = exit' scenario mentioned earlier, users were able to stay in the onboarding flow without accidentally exiting.
A more guided experience
All beta testers felt more educated and supported because of the new tooltips and pop-ups I proposed to implement.
✨ Bonus
If I had more time…
The color red subconsciously has a negative effect on the user. It's even worse if it is used repeatedly. The combination of better UX writing and a different color would disrupt the user less and keep them in the flow state.
Learnings
After delivering approved UX flows to the software developers, I addressed any QA, UX, UI issues for about 2 months of the development cycle. I learned the following:
Test, Iterate, Improve. Fail often but fast.
Dream Big, Start Small. Be cautiously ambitious!
The developers are located in Europe and India so the time difference (+-10 hours) was difficult to navigate- but I managed to set up a system of check- ins, prioritization, and weekly milestones.
My role was to communicate any major issues to the design and Product team, pivoting design decisions based on technical limitations and fluctuating business requirements
Overall this project challenged my leadership and organizational skills and I was proud to design a flow with my team that achieves the business objective.
Thank You For Reading!
🎉
OTHER PROJECTS
Fanatics- 1 Click Checkout
Fanatics- In App Notifications
Straight Talk - Perks
Company
Verizon
Role
Senior UX Designer
Result
$140,000 in revenue
Duration
3 Months
Overview
Straight Talk wanted to give customers a flexible way to enhance their phone plan during refill by purchasing optional perks—such as discounted hotspot data, international calling, and roaming—without overwhelming the core plan selection experience.
Our team designed a brand-new perks purchasing flow from scratch, spanning plan selection, an optional perks discovery step, and checkout. The goal was to balance business priorities (upsell and clarity) with usability, scalability, and speed to checkout.
The Problem
Customers refilling their phone plan often want temporary or add-on services—like extra hotspot data or international calling—but Straight Talk had no clear, scalable way to surface these options during checkout.
Key Challenges included:
Avoiding clutter on the Plan Selector page, which already carried strong business priorities
Supporting returning users who may want to re-purchase the same perks month over month
Designing for future scale, where perks could grow from a handful to 40+
Introducing upsell opportunities without increasing checkout friction
Business & UX Constraints
The Plan Selector page had strict requirements from the business:
A recommended plan (usually the next higher tier) must be prominently featured at the top
All other available plans needed to remain visible within the viewport
The user’s current plan had to remain clear, especially for refills
Early explorations showed that adding perks directly to this page created visual overload and cognitive friction—especially as the number of perks increased.
This forced us to rethink where and how perks should live in the journey.
Competitive Analysis… including Verizon Postpaid itself
We began by auditing checkout and add-on flows across:
Telecom competitors
E-commerce upsell patterns
Subscription and SaaS add-on experiences
As a team, we annotated examples to identify:
What felt clear vs. overwhelming
How optional steps were communicated
Patterns that encouraged discovery without blocking progress
For Verizon Postpaid, all perks are available for every plan. They are not plan specific. For Straight Talk though, not all perks would be available for all plans. So a 1 page experience would be tricky to design.
For Zoom below, we noticed that the perks are introduced for the first time in the cart. We figured this would not be optimal because internal research suggests users tend to overlook perks here because they may seem solicited and upsells.
Early Exploration (lo-fis): Perks on the Plan Selector
The business team favored showing the perks on the Plan selector page at first because it seemed to perform well on Verizon Postpaid. So to cater to business needs, our initial concept placed perks directly on the Plan Selector page. While this increased visibility, testing and internal feedback revealed several issues:
The page became visually dense and harder to scan
It competed with the recommended plan messaging
It didn’t scale—40 perks would completely break the layout
This approach was ultimately rejected as the Verizon design catered to users who are shopping, not refilling a plan. Our targeted users are returning customers who are refilling their plan via their account manage page. The experience should not feel like a standard shopping/checkout experience.
Solution Part 1: A Smarter Plan Selector
To preserve clarity, we focused the Plan Selector on its primary job: choosing a plan.
We introduced a sticky summary module at the bottom of the screen that:
Clearly displayed the currently selected plan
Persisted as users scrolled through plan options
Could be expanded to show pricing details and previously selected perks
This solved several problems at once:
Business requirement is fulfilled because we are able to show the Current Plan and Recommend Plan above the fold.
Returning users could quickly confirm what they had last month
Pricing transparency reduced uncertainty
Solution Part 2: A Dedicated Perks Page
To address scalability and discovery, we introduced a new, optional step in the checkout journey: the Perks Page.
While the business initially worried about adding friction, we designed this step to:
Be clearly labeled as optional
Allow users to skip with a single tap
Feel lightweight and fast, not like a detour
Perks Page Design Decisions
Grid layout showing 4 perks at a time
This reduced analysis paralysis and made options feel approachable.Clear pricing and value upfront
Each perk showed cost and benefit without requiring deep exploration.Future-proofing for scale
We partnered with engineering to plan for pagination and filters once the perk catalog grows.
This approach balanced discoverability with restraint.
Solution Part 3: Perks in Cart
Finally, we reinforced control and transparency in the Cart screen.
We added a dedicated Services & Perks section that:
Listed all selected perks alongside the base plan
Allowed users to toggle perks on or off without leaving checkout
Updated the order total in real time
This gave users confidence that nothing was “locked in” and reduced last-minute abandonment caused by price surprises.
Outcomes & Impact
See above for the daily perk purchases from launch to date (LTD). Within the first month of launch, the perks experience drove meaningful business results while maintaining a frictionless checkout flow.
Results (Month 1):
~$130,000 in incremental revenue
~14,000 perks purchased
0 perk cancellations
Mobile Hotspot emerged as the most popular perk
These results validated the decision to introduce perks as an optional, clearly-scoped step rather than forcing them into the plan selection experience.
Business Impact
This experience unlocked a new, scalable revenue stream without compromising the core refill flow.
From a business perspective, it:
Increased average order value without increasing abandonment
Created a foundation for future perk expansion (up to 40+)
Validated upsell as a sustainable strategy for refill moments
From a UX perspective, it demonstrated that:
Upsells don’t have to feel aggressive to be effective.
Thank You For Reading!
🎉
OTHER PROJECTS
Fanatics- In-App Notifications
