---
# System prepended metadata

title: UX Review / Monzo

---

---
tag: UX Review
---

# UX Review / Monzo

## Onboarding 

After reviewing Monzo's website, I was excited to open my second online bank account of the week. Fully expecting a rival to Revolut's near perfect onboarding experience, I was underwhelmingly dissapointed with how things played out. Perhaps I was simply confused as to why they would pile so much money and creative genious into their advertising, and not focus on creating value where there user will actually spend most of their time.

For an online bank, who's bread and butter should be onboarding new users, I found myself running into too many pain points to ignore. It took me a week to finally open my account, granted due to bad mobile service, however, I was surprised that was even a factor. Before I become overly critical, however, it is worth noting that 95% of the user journey was easy and intuitive - but this just goes to show how important it is to consider the other 5%. That 5% can make or break an experience, and potentially the success of a company. 

The first criticism I would make is how fragmented the onboarding journey was. Whilst there is good reason to split up parts of the user journey, and to simplify their onboarding, there was slightly too much fragmentation for my liking. For example, contact information, name, D.O.B, Address, could all probably be grouped together, or at least split between 2 screens... however Monzo decided to use a separate screen for each, as well as putting them in a slighly strange order... anyway, not the end of the world. 

Where Monzo really fell short, other than their (personally) unatractive onboarding screens, was their "Let's Make it Official" part of the journey. This was an inevitable feat to take, all users will eventually have to succum to some sort of Terms & Conditions acceptance. However, here's a hint, make it EASY TO ACCEPT. That is the goal after all, right? Many designers are hesitant to design a process that is too easy, in case users actually overlook important small print and perhaps become legally liable for some wrongdoing. However, there has to be a certain degree of ease to it. It is the users responsibility to read the Terms & Conditions, haven't you ever seen that South Park episode with the human centiPad?? It's hilarious and makes a laughing stock out of the fact that no one, other than lawyers, actually ever reads T&C's, but we all know they need to be in there... 

Anyway, I digress. The problem with this experience was actually not being able to find a "Continue" or "Accept T&Cs" button. The legal small print was displayed in an external safari browser which overlayed the application. I scrolled to the bottom, couldn't find a button. All I could see were links to revisions of the T&Cs. I exited this screen multiple times before finally realising the "Next" button was in the title bar of the browser extention. I have to admit, I felt like an idiot. I don't like feeling like an idiot... Why didn't they just make it easy for the user?? Once I figured out how to actually navigate this part of the process I was already wanting to rage quit. But, the show must go on...

The next step of the Monzo journey is to answer some fairly personal questions. I'm not sure as to why this information is relevant, and I'm a little concerned as to why they would ask for it. They say it won't affect my credit score, but could they have given me some more information on why they need it? My inner bitcoiner started getting uncomfortable during all the questioning... 

Speaking of privacy though, I then moved onto the mandatory KYC process. This was split into two sections. The first, I simply had to scan the front and back of my driver's licence. This was straightforward and easy. The second, however, took way longer than it should have. Monzo ask users to record a 5s video of themselves saying, "Hi I'm John Doe, I want a Monzo account". Sounds straightforward, right? Well it was, until I had to upload the file. Due to my lack of sufficient mobile service/wifi, it took close to 4 hours to actually upload the video file to the app. This process is optimised for users with good cell service/wifi, but not very helpful for those without it! What if I had run out of mobile data that month? Or if I had only one bar of wifi (maybe sitting in a public cafe/space). 

The next step was to declare any foreign citizenship outside of the UK (particular focus on US citizenship). I am a US citizen, so this flow applied to me. Very easy though, enter National Insurance No. (UK) and Social Security No. (US). Now I need to wait for Monzo to verify who I am... this could take 5m-48h...

... a few hours later, I'm in!

I have to verify my name and address in order to order my Monzo card. Thankfully, this part of the process is free and so is the delivery. Sorry Revolut, Monzo pips you at this hurdel. 

All I have to do now is choose a PIN and verify it for when my card comes. 

My card is now in the post and should be delivered in a few days! To be conitinued...


## Key Takeaways:

### Delights

- Free (no sign up costs)
- Relatively straightforward



### Frustrations

- Wifi/Signal Dependant
- Nosey
- Confusing Terms & Conditions flow






