Patronscan
2023
Finding a Simpler Path to Face Verification
Designing a mobile-first identity verification experience for age-restricted purchases, with a focus on guiding users through face capture and adapting the design to implementation constraints.
Overview
What is Patronscan?
Patronscan provides identity and age verification solutions. This project focused on an online verification experience where users uploaded their ID and completed face captures to help confirm they were the person pictured on the document.
My Role
I led the end-to-end design, from UX audits, user research, and stakeholder interviews through information architecture, user flows, wireframing, UI design, and design system implementation. I worked closely with Engineering to validate usability and refine the experience through delivery. Without a dedicated Product Owner, I also owned the Product Requirements Document (PRD), helping define features, prioritise scope, and align stakeholders around project goals.
The Impact
The final design guided users through three manual face captures, with instructions before each photo and familiar native camera interactions. This provided a feasible path forward when the custom guidance system proved complex to implement.
Challenge
Three Face Captures. One Clear Experience.
Users needed to capture a front-facing image and images of their left and right profiles as part of the verification process. I was most curious about how to make those instructions easy to understand: how could we help someone position their face, know what to capture, and move confidently to the next step? This interaction became my favourite challenge within the broader ID verification flow.
Exploration
Learning How to Guide and Reassure
I reviewed other identity verification experiences to explore how they communicated instructions, guided users through unfamiliar tasks, and established trust. These references helped me consider how visual hierarchy, concise guidance, and a clear sequence could support the capture experience.
Competitive Analysis
Trulioo
Trulioo’s approach to international identity verification combined a modern interface with clear colour hierarchy, guiding users through complex requirements while balancing security and usability.
Jumio
Jumio’s web and mobile experiences demonstrated strong onboarding and simplified flows that reduce cognitive load, although some visual patterns felt dated and less approachable.
Onfido
Onfido’s clean, security-focused experience highlighted how clear instructions, thoughtful white space, and visual cues can improve readability and build trust.
Design Decisions
Starting with Guided Capture
My initial design used a face outline and directional prompts to show users where to position their face for each angle. The concept automatically captured an image when the correct position was detected, with the aim of reducing uncertainty about when to take the photo.
Initial concept · Automatic capture.
Adapting to Implementation Constraints
During implementation, we identified significant complexity in building a custom facial guidance system. We decided to pivot to the native iOS and Android camera experiences, which meant users would take each photo manually. The challenge shifted from guiding users within a custom camera interface to preparing them clearly before each capture.
Giving Each Photo a Clear Next Step
I adapted the flow to provide instructions before each photo, explaining the required front, left, or right angle before users opened the camera. Breaking the task into individual steps kept the guidance focused on the photo they were about to take, carrying the intent of the original concept into the revised experience.
Connecting Capture to the Full Verification Flow
The face capture sat within a larger journey that also included uploading an ID and receiving a verification result. I designed these steps as a connected experience, keeping instructions and visual patterns consistent so users understood what to provide and what came next.
Guiding Each Capture
Instructions prepared users for front, left, and right photos before opening the native camera for each manual capture. After the final photo, a processing screen acknowledged that the captures were being checked.
Reviewing and Completing Verification
Users reviewed their ID and face images, returned to the completed checklist, and submitted their information. Processing and success screens communicated the remaining steps before redirecting them back to the purchase journey.
Outcome
Keeping the User’s Goal in Focus
The most valuable part of this project was learning how to adapt an interaction I was excited about when implementation revealed new constraints. Working through the pivot with Engineering pushed me to reconsider where guidance could happen. The final approach used manual capture with instructions before each photo, reinforcing that clear guidance depends on the whole journey, including how we prepare users before an action.
