Show, don’t tell
A visual guide explains how to place fingers, with the choice of which hand and finger, before the camera opens.
Alfa / Gen 2 · 2021 / Use case
Registering with a fingerprint, and designing for the moments it fails.
Gen 2 brought biometric verification into registration: a fingerprint, a CNIC scan and a PIN. The hard part wasn’t the happy path. It was the failures: a smudged finger, a blurry card, too many attempts.
01The problem
Security steps people can’t see.
Biometric verification is invisible until it fails. A customer standing at home with a camera and a fingerprint doesn’t know what “good enough” looks like.
Every failure risked a lost customer or a branch visit, which was exactly what digital onboarding was meant to replace.
02Key decisions
What I designed, and why.
Instant, visible feedback
“Successfully scanned” appears the moment the capture works, and the next step unlocks right away.
Failure with a way forward
When a scan fails, the screen says what happened and offers “Retry” or “Try another way”. It never ends in a dead end.
A calm cool-off
After too many attempts, a countdown explains exactly when the customer can try again, instead of an unexplained lock.
Many doors, one pattern
Registration via debit card, credit card, wallet or Orbit, plus new-device registration, all follow the same steps so people learn it once.
03The flow
Step by step.
Drag or scroll sideways, and tap any screen to see it larger.
1Choose a path
Existing products or new to bank.
2Registration source
Debit, credit, wallet or Orbit.
3Verify the card
Details the customer already has.
4Biometric guide
How to scan, before scanning.
5Scan
Pick your finger, instant feedback.
6If it fails
Retry or try another way.
7Cool-off
A countdown, not a dead end.
8Set PIN
Quick access from now on.
9Registered
Welcome to Alfa.
← Drag to follow the flow →
04Next time
What I’d improve, with hindsight.
Informed by the later UX audit
- The audit pointed out that opening an account and registering for Alfa were still two separate journeys. The flagship should make it one.
- Customers had no way to track account-opening status, or fix a discrepancy in the app. I’d add a status tracker as a first-class screen.
