Rabex - Over 2x Increase in KYC Completion Rate
Rabex faced a 70% drop-off in the KYC funnel. By identifying cognitive overload through behavioral research, we redesigned the process into a guided, 3-tiered experience. Within 3 months, the redesign more than doubled the KYC verification completion rate.
Rabex was losing 70% of potential customers at the final hurdle: KYC verification. This was a critical business failure, stopping users from funding their accounts or trading and resulting in a significant daily loss of new customers.
My challenge was to uncover the human story behind this problem while navigating three key project constraints:
Regulatory Non-Negotiables: As a fintech platform, legal compliance meant we could not remove or skip any mandatory data fields to "simplify" the form.
The Trust-Security Paradox: Reducing friction had to be balanced with "perceived security" to maintain user confidence in a financial environment.
Time-to-Market: The urgency of the revenue leak demanded a compressed 10-week sprint from research to a validated solution.
I led a 10-week sprint to diagnose the 70% funnel leak and design a validated, trust-centered solution.
Research Lead: Diagnosed "Cognitive Overload" via a 384-response survey and 500+ Hotjar sessions.
Strategy: Authored the core logic for a new 3-level tiered system to reduce user friction.
Validation: Prototyped and tested with 5 users to mitigate the "Fear of Mistakes".
Collaboration: Orchestrated the UX-to-UI transition and co-designing visual elements to project trust and legitimacy.
384-response survey showed a "Trust Gap": New users rated our security ~13% lower than experienced users, indicating that our onboarding felt "risky" rather than "broken".
Experienced Users (> 3 Months) /New Users (< 3 Months)
Support tickets and a 384-response survey validated user sentiment that the process was both "confusing" and "overwhelming". "Complexity in design" emerged as the #3 overall problem, impacting 21.1% (81 users). We pinpointed this complexity as the root cause of our 70% drop-off, making it the highest-impact UX priority to solve.
Benchmarking against market leaders like Binance and Wallex revealed that our "one-size-fits-all" model was a major mistake. While competitors used tiered verification to ease users in, we were treating our novice majority like professional traders. This high-friction approach ignored industry standards.
My hypothesis was that shifting from a mandatory block to a Tiered, Conversational Journey would reduce anxiety and increase completion.
Tiered Verification: Unlocked basic features (deposits) with just a phone number, mirroring industry standards.
Conversational UI: Replaced the long form with a one-question-at-a-time flow to eliminate cognitive overload.
Clarification: Added contextual guidance around required fields so users understood what information was needed, why it was being requested, and how it supported the verification process.
The Old Design: High Friction & Confusion
Disorganized Architecture: Confusing structure caused friction and drop-offs.
Trust Gap: High-effort selfie verification reduced user confidence.
Information Overload: Poor visual hierarchy left users unsure how to proceed.
Bulk Verification: Submitting all info at once slowed verification.
Sign Up
Complete Full KYC Forms
Approval Pending
Account Access
Verify Phone Number
Access Unlocked: Crypto Deposits & Trading
Submit ID Card
Access Unlocked: Fiat Deposits & Withdrawals
Submit Address & Selfie
Full Access Unlocked: Crypto Withdrawals
The final solution
This final design shows the "Intermediate Level". The description on the left specifies that the user must submit one of the "acceptable documents" (such as a national ID card, driver's license, etc.). This step unlocks: Fiat deposit, and Fiat withdrawal adding them to the basic abilities.
