How to keep your apps up to date

I never thought about the importance of app accessibility until I found myself struggling to zoom in on every app I used. Whether I was reading fine print in my banking app or verifying my plane’s ownership, the lack of accessible design was a constant frustration.

This personal experience has convinced me of the critical nature of the user interface and user experience. I started investigating how we could improve our customers’ journey during the authentication process.

Mobile apps now allow users to check in on a flight, access a bank account, apply for a visa, and much more. User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) determine the smoothness of these processes.

Although the UI and UX are important, they still need improvement, especially in identity verification. Improving these features is important for businesses aiming to improve user experience and efficiency.

The process of remote identity verification (IDV) now serves as the starting point for many important tasks, making it essential that these systems – from completing financial transactions to interacting with government services – are accessible to everyone.

Remote authentication from home helps people with special needs stay engaged in many activities. However, this can only be achieved if the interface and design of IDV systems are truly integrated. What does it mean in practice?

Related: How to Navigate the Digital Identity Landscape

Performance and customer frustration

A negative proof of identity experience can greatly increase customer frustration, leading to abandonment. It’s understandable: lengthy, complex verification processes that require extensive user interaction are likely to discourage participation.

This is reflected in both business and customer expectations of IDV systems. According to Regula’s research, 28% of respondents representing digital nomads, people who face almost the most variable list of different ID verification processes, experience frustration due to poorly designed interfaces. At the same time, every third party participating in the survey prioritizes a user-friendly interface and clear instructions in their IDV operations.

Related: 7 Ways All Dating Apps Are Lying to You

What can be done now

Everything, from the UI design and usability to the response speed, as well as the choice of fonts and colors, greatly affects the user’s perception and their willingness to continue using the solution.

As an IDV retailer, we’ve experimented with different ways to create engaging communications. Over time, as we get feedback from our customers and begin to understand the use cases better, we have come to find some key principles that we adhere to in our solutions:

• Stick to less clutter. Keep the interface clean and straightforward, and stop adding too many features, long instructions, small icons, etc. Nothing should jump over or confuse users.
• Consider color vision. People see colors differently, and some can’t tell them apart at all. Therefore, it is important to ensure that vital signs do not depend on color alone. Use geometric shapes or other cues alongside colors to convey information.
• Trust in other senses, too. Activate tactile feedback, such as vibrations, or audible signals, such as jingles, to confirm user actions. This is important in providing assurance and guiding users through the process.
• Don’t prioritize text over visuals and vice versa. There are always those who prefer text instructions and those who prefer pictures. The split is around 50-50, as we have found in our experience. Therefore, it is important to combine both textual and visual support.
• Customize the user interface. Always. For example, if someone has increased the font size in their phone settings, the IDV system should automatically display the text at the same larger size.

Accordingly, IDV solutions should not require any instructions at all. The interface should be clear and understandable, and every step of the authentication process should be smooth, logical, and immediately visible. However, if the command is necessary and detailed, it is better to divide it into several consecutive screens than to put everything on one screen with a small font.

Ultimately, automating the ID verification process greatly improves everyone’s experience by simplifying complex steps and reducing the need for manual input. For example, automatic document scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) simplify data extraction from IDs, reducing the need for manual entry. Facial recognition technology further simplifies the process by matching the user’s face to their ID photo. Automatic error detection and real-time feedback help prevent and correct errors, while integration with existing databases enables rapid verification of information. These advances together make the ID verification process more accessible and less intimidating for those who may not be as tech-savvy.

Related: Why Business Leaders Need to Learn About Digital IDs

Business benefits

One billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, experience some form of disability. Making digital resources, including IDV, accessible is becoming a legal and ethical obligation for companies, and there are already policies governing web or mobile accessibility.

However, the focus on accessibility in IDV also increases market opportunities for businesses and improves the user experience for everyone. Designed to engage users with a variety of needs, from visual impairments to cognitive disabilities, online IDV systems provide many benefits that go beyond accessibility.

First and foremost, such well-planned, engaging communication expands audience reach by creating equal access to IDV for everyone. Therefore, businesses benefit from greater market segmentation, attracting new customers.

Second, simplifying navigation, providing clear instructions and making it possible to adjust settings creates a more straightforward, less difficult and more enjoyable user experience, with less frustration and errors during critical IDV steps. As a result, users tend to show high trust and loyalty to the brand as they feel that their needs and preferences are taken into account.

Finally, by focusing on creating accessible and user-centric interfaces, businesses are definitely encouraged to encourage continuous improvement and innovation. Such companies are very quick to adapt to user feedback and changing needs, resulting in better products and services.

Integrated UI in the product

Let’s not forget that IDV solutions are rarely used alone (unless it’s a cross-border issue, of course). Now that so many services are being digitized, IDV has become an integral part of many different situations, from banking to airline check-in to electronic markets and more. In terms of interoperability, this means that the IDV vendor must make efforts to align with the UI requirements of the business using its solution.

IDV vendors must be flexible in terms of changing graphics and text elements and include the customer’s logo within the camera view interface used for ID verification, maintaining consistency with their brand identity and improving user familiarity. For those who prefer a default UI, options should be there to customize basic features like colors and fonts.

Additionally, a solution that supports multilingual localization simplifies global deployment, making identity verification more accessible and convenient for users around the world. As technology and user expectations evolve, continuous improvement of these solutions can ensure that identity verification remains efficient and reliable across a variety of applications.