Rank App
Designing for Shared Prosperity
About Project
As Moni prepared for international expansion, activation issues caused most users to stall at lower tiers before reaching product value. I led the redesign of Rank to fix onboarding friction, align with CBN compliance, and reduce upgrade drop-offs using research-driven insights from funnels, usability tests, and KYC audits.
I led the redesign of Rank to unblock onboarding, reduce upgrade friction, and align the product with CBN requirements while laying a compliant foundation for EU and North American markets.
Design Lead
Motion design
UX/UI Design
Website
Prototyping
The Problem
KYC and upgrade friction stopped users at lower tiers, preventing them from reaching core product value.
Users frequently got stuck at lower tiers due to complex upgrade requirements, resulting in significant user drop-off before they could experience the full product value. The comprehensive challenge list included:
Users Stuck at Lower KYC Tiers
Most new users stalled at Tier 1 due to complex upgrade requirements, preventing them from accessing critical features and experiencing the full product
Misalignment With Compliance Frameworks
The onboarding flow did not clearly align with CBN KYC tier rules, nor did it meet the higher compliance and data-privacy expectations required for EU and North American markets.
Blocked Activation and Expansion
These issues reduced activation, slowed Tier-2 upgrades, and limited Rank’s ability to scale internationally.
Research & Insights
User analytics showed 76% of new users stalled at Tier 1, preventing them from accessing essential product value.
Product analytics showed heavy clustering at Tier 1, with a sharp decline once users encountered the upgrade requirement. Key Behavioral Findings, from both quantitative and qualitative data, five core insights emerged:
Forced upgrades broke task flow
The upgrade prompt appeared mid-action, interrupting users before they had fully experienced product value.
Verification latency killed momentum
Delays and retries eroded confidence, especially without progress indicators or reassurance.
Vague error states created dead ends
Failures lacked actionable guidance, causing users to loop or churn rather than recover.
How it was solved
I designed the onboarding flow to collect all necessary identification details upfront, reducing friction and preventing drop-offs by:
Let users select their country up front to support EU/NA onboarding. Replaced mandatory ID photo capture with simple ID-number entry, reducing friction.
Rebuilt onboarding around time-to-first-value, collecting all required KYC inputs before users land in the app so they hit fewer blocks later.
Ensured the KYC flow matches CBN tier rules while still meeting EU/NA privacy and risk expectations.
Stopped interrupting primary tasks with forced upgrades; allowed users to complete what they came to do.
Rewrote error states for clarity and added recovery pathways for failed submissions.
This merged Western UX expectations with Moni’s African-market strengths while supporting diaspora-focused features like ROSCA (group savings/credit).
Designing for Expansion and Financial Clarity
To support expansion, we introduced new product surfaces such as savings circles (Ajo) and diaspora-focused financial tools, ensuring they were discoverable without increasing complexity.
The home experience was redesigned into a central financial hub, giving users a clear overview of their financial health through contextual, priority-based information—surfacing what mattered most in the moment, whether that was a pending KYC upgrade, an active savings goal, or participation in a group contribution.
Impacts
Upgrade abandonment reduced to 13%, down from 28%. 86% of users agreed Upgrade was quick & easy
Product positioned for international expansion while reducing HNI cost-to-serve through product-led activation.
Clearer onboarding improved feature discoverability and reduced time-to-value
User ratings increased from 3.5 to 4.7 stars, demonstrating that real-time tracking and reliable delivery significantly improved satisfaction.
Rank App
Designing for Shared Prosperity
About Project
As Moni prepared for international expansion, activation issues caused most users to stall at lower tiers before reaching product value. I led the redesign of Rank to fix onboarding friction, align with CBN compliance, and reduce upgrade drop-offs using research-driven insights from funnels, usability tests, and KYC audits.
I led the redesign of Rank to unblock onboarding, reduce upgrade friction, and align the product with CBN requirements while laying a compliant foundation for EU and North American markets.
Design Lead
Motion design
UX/UI Design
Website
Prototyping
The Problem
KYC and upgrade friction stopped users at lower tiers, preventing them from reaching core product value.
Users frequently got stuck at lower tiers due to complex upgrade requirements, resulting in significant user drop-off before they could experience the full product value. The comprehensive challenge list included:
Users Stuck at Lower KYC Tiers
Most new users stalled at Tier 1 due to complex upgrade requirements, preventing them from accessing critical features and experiencing the full product
Misalignment With Compliance Frameworks
The onboarding flow did not clearly align with CBN KYC tier rules, nor did it meet the higher compliance and data-privacy expectations required for EU and North American markets.
Blocked Activation and Expansion
These issues reduced activation, slowed Tier-2 upgrades, and limited Rank’s ability to scale internationally.
Research & Insights
User analytics showed 76% of new users stalled at Tier 1, preventing them from accessing essential product value.
Product analytics showed heavy clustering at Tier 1, with a sharp decline once users encountered the upgrade requirement. Key Behavioral Findings, from both quantitative and qualitative data, five core insights emerged:
Forced upgrades broke task flow
The upgrade prompt appeared mid-action, interrupting users before they had fully experienced product value.
Verification latency killed momentum
Delays and retries eroded confidence, especially without progress indicators or reassurance.
Vague error states created dead ends
Failures lacked actionable guidance, causing users to loop or churn rather than recover.
How it was solved
I designed the onboarding flow to collect all necessary identification details upfront, reducing friction and preventing drop-offs by:
Let users select their country up front to support EU/NA onboarding. Replaced mandatory ID photo capture with simple ID-number entry, reducing friction.
Rebuilt onboarding around time-to-first-value, collecting all required KYC inputs before users land in the app so they hit fewer blocks later.
Ensured the KYC flow matches CBN tier rules while still meeting EU/NA privacy and risk expectations.
Stopped interrupting primary tasks with forced upgrades; allowed users to complete what they came to do.
Rewrote error states for clarity and added recovery pathways for failed submissions.
This merged Western UX expectations with Moni’s African-market strengths while supporting diaspora-focused features like ROSCA (group savings/credit).
Designing for Expansion and Financial Clarity
To support expansion, we introduced new product surfaces such as savings circles (Ajo) and diaspora-focused financial tools, ensuring they were discoverable without increasing complexity.
The home experience was redesigned into a central financial hub, giving users a clear overview of their financial health through contextual, priority-based information—surfacing what mattered most in the moment, whether that was a pending KYC upgrade, an active savings goal, or participation in a group contribution.
Impacts
Upgrade abandonment reduced to 13%, down from 28%. 86% of users agreed Upgrade was quick & easy
Product positioned for international expansion while reducing HNI cost-to-serve through product-led activation.
Clearer onboarding improved feature discoverability and reduced time-to-value
User ratings increased from 3.5 to 4.7 stars, demonstrating that real-time tracking and reliable delivery significantly improved satisfaction.