David Randall PhD 👋
A Passionate User Research Specialist with 15 years of Experience conducting research in academia and business.
Barlcays Partner Finance - Onfido Onboarding
Overview
As part of the retail finance onboarding process, identity checks are required to verify customers. These checks were previously conducted in-store, but Barclays introduced a new third-party tool, Onfido, to manage this step digitally. Given potential concerns around customer trust and the use of a third-party service, research was commissioned to explore customer perceptions of using Onfido within the retail credit application journey.
Client:
Barclays
Time Frame:
August 2019
Tools:
Axure, Onfideo Dev App, Post-It Notes, iPad
Usability Study
As part of the process of bringing the Onfido tool into the Barclays retail credit onboarding journey, senior leadership required discovery into customer perception of using a 3rd party tool for identify verification.
Objective:
- 🎯 Understand user perceptions and comfort levels with the Onfido tool.
- 🎯 Identify the optimal placement of the ID check within the credit onboarding journey.
- 🎯 Test the usability of the full end-to-end onboarding process.
- 🎯 Validate the redesigned look and feel of the journey.
Process:
- ⚙️ Conducted semi-structured interviews to explore customers’ previous experiences with retail credit onboarding.
- ⚙️ Ran usability tests using a prototype of the in-store onboarding journey, followed by a simulated Onfido browser experience.
- ⚙️ Asked follow-up questions to delve deeper into user perceptions and comfort with using Onfido.
Challenges:
- 🧩 Recruitment was complex due to strict eligibility criteria, including prior experience with retail credit and meeting real-world application requirements.
- 🧩 Participants needed clear reassurance that personal data (e.g. ID documents, facial images) would not be stored or recorded during the study.
- 🧩 The research took place in repurposed office space within bank branches, requiring me to overcome logistical and technical challenges to enable in-situ testing.
Analysis:
- 🧠 Conducted detailed analysis of eight semi-structured interviews.
- 🧠 Collated insights and carried out thematic coding in collaboration with UX and UI designers, using printed outputs to facilitate hands-on analysis.
- 🧠 This approach served both as an analytical method and a way to embed designers in the research process.
- 🧠 The resulting insights informed the final research report, and the insight wall remained in the team space throughout development to support an insight-led design approach.
Results/Conclusion:
The research identified the optimal stage for ID checks, balancing data requirements with customer convenience to prevent late-stage rejections. It also revealed that trust in third-party tools like Onfido was closely linked to trust in the bank itself, with a strong customer preference for using such tools on personal devices rather than retailer-owned ones. These insights validated the proposed UX approach and reassured senior stakeholders, serving as a key influence in the development of the new onboarding journey.
