Utopiepay

Background

In Q3 of 2023, I was approached by Oluwatobi Emmanuel, the Project Manager at Utopie Pay. We had a brief but insightful meeting where we discussed the history of UtopiePay, its vision for the future, and the features that would be integral to achieving this vision. We reviewed the competitive landscape, analyzing what other fintech companies were offering, and identified opportunities where UtopiePay could differentiate itself.

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My Role

As the sole designer on the project, I was responsible for the entire design process, from initial concept to final delivery. I worked closely with a team of four engineers, and together, we brought the UtopiePay platform to life.

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The Problem

UtopiePay is a fintech platform providing banking access to the unbanked and underbanked across Africa. Rather than running formal user research, the approach on this project was grounded in competitive analysis — reviewing existing fintech platforms to understand what worked, what didn't, and where UtopiePay could differentiate, particularly around one of the most common failure points in fintech onboarding: getting users through registration without losing them.

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Design Decision: Deferring non-essential KYC to reduce onboarding drop-off

Full KYC verification typically requires several steps — personal details, government ID numbers, proof of address, a selfie for identity matching. Requiring all of it upfront is common in fintech apps, but after reviewing competitor platforms, the ones with lighter signup flows were consistently more satisfying to use, and the pattern held: longer onboarding meant more users abandoning before completing registration.

Registration was scoped to only what was legally required at that stage which are NIN, BVN, and general personal details. Selfie verification and utility bill submission were deferred to later in the user journey, reducing the initial barrier to entry without compromising legal compliance. Users could get into the app and start experiencing the product before being asked for the more effortful verification steps.

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The Design Process

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Platform Analysis & Market Needs

Instead of conducting extensive research, we focused on analyzing the existing platform and the broader market to identify key areas for improvement. This analysis allowed us to understand what features users were looking for and how we could enhance the overall experience. By studying the current platform and evaluating competitor offerings, we were able to pinpoint the most critical needs and opportunities for UtopiePay.

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Defining the User Experience

Based on our analysis, we translated our findings into a practical user experience. The goal was to create an intuitive platform that even first-time users could navigate with ease. This involved:

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Wireframing:

‍Sketching out the basic layout and flow of the platform.

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Prototyping:

‍Developing interactive prototypes to test the user experience and make necessary adjustments before moving into full design.

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Design & Development

With the wireframes and prototypes validated, I moved on to the full design phase. Key aspects included:

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User Interface Design:

Crafting a clean, modern interface that would appeal to users across different demographics.

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Visual Design:

Incorporating UtopiePay’s branding into the design while ensuring the interface remained simple and user-friendly.

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Collaboration with Engineers:

As the only designer, effective communication was critical. I worked closely with the engineering team to ensure the designs were implemented accurately and efficiently. This collaboration allowed us to deliver a fully functional product within 8 weeks, including the application, website, and dashboards.

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Challenges & Solutions

Challenge 1: Balancing Simplicity with Functionality

Solution: We focused on prioritizing core features and making them easily accessible. Through iterative design and user testing, we refined the interface to balance simplicity with the robust functionality needed by users.

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Challenge 2: Effective Collaboration in a Small Team

Solution: We established clear communication channels and regular check-ins to ensure alignment. This approach enabled us to work efficiently and stay on track despite the tight timeline.

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What Shipped

• Mobile App — home, cards, utilities, and the full user-facing banking experience
• Web Dashboard — user and business account management, mirrored in structure
• Card service integration, giving users a functional banking card tied to the platform

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Highlights (Mobile App)

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Highlights (Dashboard)

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Learning & Reflections

This project leaned more on competitive analysis than structured research, and the case study reflects that. The depth here is in the onboarding decision, not a broad research process. The strongest outcome was recognizing that KYC completeness and KYC placement are two different problems, and that deferring non-essential verification was a low-risk way to reduce drop-off without cutting corners on compliance.

If revisiting this today, the natural next step would be validating the actual drop-off numbers before and after the deferred-KYC change, that data wasn't tracked at the time, but it's the kind of decision that becomes much stronger with evidence behind it.

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