Designing trust across identity, consent and bank connectivity.
Zertiban operated in a regulated environment where identity verification, consent, digital signature and bank connectivity had to work as one coherent experience.
The challenge was not only technical. Users needed to understand what information was required, why each step mattered, which organisation was responsible and what would happen next across journeys involving banks, APIs and external systems.
I led experience direction across these flows, working with users and multidisciplinary teams to translate complex regulatory and technical dependencies into clearer product journeys. I also coordinated a design team of three people, aligning interaction patterns, priorities and delivery across the product.
The product tension
The product needed to satisfy regulation and technical dependencies without transferring that complexity to users.
Identity and signature journeys involved multiple organisations, systems and responsibilities.
A user could begin inside one product, move through a bank or identity provider, return through an API response and continue only after several validations had been completed.
From the user's perspective, this still needed to feel like one understandable journey.
The product challenge was to make each step, transition and responsibility visible without exposing the full complexity of the systems working behind the experience.
Understand what is required, why it matters and what happens next.
Create fragmented journeys shaped by systems rather than user understanding.
Define one coherent experience across identity, banking, consent and signature.
Product direction
Three decisions created clarity across regulated and technical complexity.
Design around user understanding, not system architecture.
The underlying process was shaped by identity providers, banks, APIs, validations and legal requirements.
Users did not need to understand that architecture. They needed to know what information was required, who was requesting it and why the process could not continue without it.
I reframed the experience around user questions and decisions, allowing the product to preserve regulatory accuracy without presenting the journey as a sequence of technical events.
Trade offThe system remained complex, but the user experience became easier to understand and follow.
Make transitions between banks, APIs and product states explicit.
The journey did not always remain inside one interface.
Users could move into a bank environment or external provider before returning to Zertiban through an API response.
These transitions created uncertainty when the product did not explain where the user was going, what information would be shared or whether the previous step had been completed.
I defined clearer transition states, return states and failure scenarios so users could understand the continuity of the process.
Trade offClearer transitions reduced the feeling of moving between disconnected products.
Create one experience direction across teams and product areas.
The product involved multiple flows, technical dependencies and specialist teams.
Without a shared direction, identity, signature and banking experiences could evolve with different patterns and assumptions.
I coordinated a design team of three people and worked with Product, Engineering and stakeholders to align priorities, interaction patterns and user journeys.
The goal was not to make every flow identical. It was to create enough consistency for the complete product to feel understandable and trustworthy.
Trade offShared principles reduced contradictory decisions and created a more coherent experience across regulated journeys.
From direction to product
The experience direction became clearer journeys, states and interaction patterns.
The work moved beyond documenting complexity.
It created a shared approach for how the product should explain identity, consent, system transitions and completion across regulated flows.
- Experience direction
- User flow definition
- KYC journey design
- Bank and API flow modelling
- State and exception definition
- Interaction direction
- Design coordination
- Stakeholder alignment
- Product teams
- Engineering teams
- Banking stakeholders
- Regulatory specialists
- Users
- Design team of three people
Product evidence
Three product experiences show how the direction became real.
Guiding users through identity verification.
KYC journeys required users to provide information, complete validation and understand when the process was pending, rejected or completed. The experience made requirements, status and next actions visible throughout the flow.
Connecting bank and product experiences.
Bank related journeys depended on external systems and API responses. The product needed to prepare users before leaving Zertiban, maintain context during the external step and provide a clear return state once the response had been received.
Making consent and signature understandable.
Consent and signature moments required users to understand what they were accepting, which information was involved and when the process became complete. The experience used progressive information, clear confirmation states and visible completion to support trust in the final decision.
Outcome
Complex regulated flows became one clearer experience direction.
Identity, banking, consent and signature were represented as connected journeys rather than isolated technical steps.
Pending, completed, rejected and error conditions became visible parts of the experience.
A design team of three people worked through shared principles, flow patterns and priorities.
Product, Engineering and specialist stakeholders could discuss technical and regulatory dependencies through the same experience models.
The strongest evidence from this stage is the clearer journey model, the shared interaction direction and the alignment created across Product, Engineering and Design.
What Zertiban changed in how I lead.
Zertiban reinforced that trust is not created by adding more explanation to a complex process. It comes from helping users understand responsibility, progress and consequence at every critical moment.
The project also strengthened my approach to design leadership. Coordinating a team of three people required creating enough direction for consistency while preserving space for each designer to solve problems with autonomy.
Next case
Building a digital insurance product from its earliest stage.
At CoverWallet, the challenge shifted from regulated identity to building and evolving digital insurance experiences inside an early product organisation.
Explore CoverWallet