Competitor
Verified.Me
"Verified.Me, by SecureKey Technologies Inc., is the new and secure way to help you verify your digital identity, so you can quickly get access to the services and products you want online, in person and on the phone."
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CycurID · 2022
A mobile KYC (Know Your Customer) app that lets people onboard with partnered businesses inside a closed, secure ecosystem, so their personal data stays safe even if a partner's systems are breached.
01 · The project
The goal of the Imme app, first and foremost, is to let users onboard with partnered businesses. This process is what's known as a KYC (Know Your Customer) service in the industry. But Imme re-imagines KYC by creating a closed and secure ecosystem: the process happens without sharing identifiable data about the user with partnered companies.
The result: personal information stays safe even in the event of a data breach to a partner's security system. Identity gets verified; identifiable data doesn't get exposed.
Part 1 · The Imme app
Before jumping into mockups, I had to understand the space I was designing for, what was already out there, and where Imme actually fit. The work below follows roughly the Double Diamond, with the messy parts kept in.
02 · Discover · Competitive analysis
I started by researching existing competitors in the KYC space, and asked the owners how they saw Imme situated within the existing market. Looking at what was and wasn't working in shipped products gave me a starting point for my own mockups, and let me ask sharper questions back to the owners about what Imme should and shouldn't try to be.
Competitor
"Verified.Me, by SecureKey Technologies Inc., is the new and secure way to help you verify your digital identity, so you can quickly get access to the services and products you want online, in person and on the phone."
Competitor
"Jumio protects the ecosystems of businesses through the Jumio KYX Platform, a unified, end-to-end identity verification and eKYC platform offering a range of identity proofing services to accurately establish, maintain and reassert trust from account opening to ongoing transaction monitoring."
03 · Define · Initial process
For the first round I looked at user flows from KYC competitors but also at products in the bitcoin, banking, and other fintech spaces, for inspiration on what people are already used to seeing in a finance- adjacent app. The initial designs were a starting point for a real conversation with the owners about what we wanted users to see on open, and how we, as a business, wanted to direct attention.
04 · Develop · User pain points
We settled on a direction and built the rest of the app around the agreed user flow. The design itself wasn't the problem. The problem showed up when we demoed it to two very different audiences.
Audience 01
Wanted additional features added to the product before they were willing to invest. Their feedback pushed toward feature breadth.
Audience 02
Found the onboarding process too long and tedious, and were confused about what to do after logging in. Their feedback pushed toward focus and clarity.
We took the feedback back to the team and revisited our onboarding process and the landing screen of the app, prioritising the friends-and-family feedback first since the onboarding friction risked killing the funnel before users ever saw the rest of the product.
05 · Develop · Onboarding improvements
The initial onboarding involved 6 major steps, including scanning a government-level ID (passport or driver's licence) and cross-referencing it by linking a bank account. However, through testing with friends and family, along with peers of several of our stakeholders, we identified that these 6 lengthy, but necessary steps were creating a negative experience even prior to opening the app and experiencing the product.
Before · 6 steps
After · 3 steps
We shortened the process to three simple steps: email, phone number, and a liveness detection. Bank verification, ID verification, and the pattern passcode all moved post-login, where users can complete them on their own time.
As a result, users are able to access the product much quicker than before, but still are required to complete the necessary steps if they wish to interact more with the app its features.
06 · Develop · Iterations
The revised landing page focuses on getting first-time users introduced to the main features of the app, rather than presenting them with a gallery of cards and no obvious next step.
The main emphasis is upload documents: the more documents a user uploads, the more identifiable information gets verified inside the closed ecosystem. The option to connect a bank account is surfaced alongside it, so users can purchase items and transfer or receive funds from friends and family without leaving the app.
07 · Deliver · The shipped flow
The shipped experience covers the full identity verification flow: government ID upload, driver's licence scan (front and back), passport scan (barcode and NFC), and a verification status screen that shows users how complete their identity profile is. A messaging feature and profile screen support the wider closed ecosystem.
Part 2 · The CycurID training app
Imme's verification flow asks users to scan IDs, capture biometrics, and trust a process they don't fully understand yet. A second app, the CycurID training app, exists specifically to walk new users through what they're about to do, why their data stays safe, and what to expect at each step.
The training app sits in front of Imme. It earns trust before the real onboarding asks for it.
08 · Training app · key screens
Five screens stitched together as a guided intro. The tone is reassuring, the buttons are big, and the copy keeps reminding users that nothing is stored or shared beyond what's needed to train the verification model.
Part 3 · Working with the team
09 · Working with stakeholders
Throughout the project I worked primarily with the owners to establish direction and purpose at each stage of the user journey, and with the developer to hand off the designs in an organised, low-friction way.
Working with
Most of our communication came from understanding the overarching direction the owners wanted to take the company and its products, and translating that into designs that satisfied both user needs and company standards. Articulating design decisions clearly, and being willing to present an alternative when something didn't feel right, was the muscle I was building.
Working with
My focus on the dev side was making the build smooth. Assets and mockups got organised so the developer could understand them at a glance. Handoff happened in Figma. When an edge case came up mid-build, or an error state hadn't been thought of, comments went on the frames or got raised in our weekly sync.
10 · Beta launch
Imme went into beta with the revised onboarding, the document upload flow, the licence and passport scanning, and the verification status screen. The CycurID training app shipped alongside it as the front door for new users.
11 · Reflection
The biggest lesson from this project was about which feedback to act on first. Investor feedback wanted more; user feedback wanted less. Both were valid, but acting on the user feedback first protected the funnel and made the investor conversation easier later, because we could point to a flow that real people had actually managed to finish.
The two-app structure (training + main) is something I'd reach for again on any product that asks for unusual trust on first use.
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