About 1 in 7 people in the UK have a disability that impacts how they interact with the Monzo app. 

Our mission at Monzo is to “Make money work for everyone”, and we take that literally! As a bank we have a duty of care towards all of our customers, even those that don’t bank with us yet. People that use Monzo should be able to manage their money with ease and confidence; from opening an account, to making payments, or investing in their future. Everyone and anyone should be able to carry out tasks independently, regardless of what barriers they’re up against. 

In 2024, we teamed up with accessibility experts at Hassell Inclusion to take a closer look at our app. While we found lots to cheer about, they highlighted an area where we needed to level up.

When signing up for a Monzo account, applicants are required to complete identity verification (IDV). This is typically a two-step process that involves them taking a picture of an ID document (like their passport), then recording a selfie video repeating a short phrase. But what happens if the person signing up is visually impaired, or communicates using sign language, how are they able to see the instructions or repeat the phrase?

It turns out the IDV experience of taking a selfie video needed some love, especially for those who have a hard time seeing their phones. Hassell Inclusion’s feedback was consistent with what our customers were saying too, some of which needed more help to complete this process. After all, making money work for everyone means making sure folks can join us on their own, without extra assistance.

Every year at Monzo a company-wide event takes place, called Hackathon Week. This gives anyone in the company an opportunity to work with different people from across the business on a project they feel passionate about. Previous ideas that have come out of Hackathon Weeks have gone on to be some of Monzo’s biggest successes, and this year was no different. With a keen interest in building inclusive products, Hackathon Week presented the perfect opportunity for me to focus on fixing the problem with selfie videos in IDV. After a week of speaking and collaborating with people from across the business, scribbling frantically in my sketch book and mocking up designs, I presented my solution on the final day which caught the attention of our Accessibility and Inclusion Manager, Elizabeth. We decided to work together to address the issue. 

Through the conversations and feedback I’d had during Hackathon Week, the team and I had a great starting point to build from. Based on what we knew, we wrote our hypothesis statement. 

“By giving better feedback during selfie videos, we can help more people successfully complete IDV, particularly those with accessibility needs”.

I was lucky enough to work with some amazingly talented people in Product, Engineering & Design to craft solutions I didn’t know were possible. By collaborating in cross-functional teams, it unlocked a variety of expertise to build towards better solutions. 

Image shows Product Designer, Almo, and Accessibility and Inclusion manager, Elizabeth, wearing glasses that mimic visual impairments.

One of the most valuable activities we did was getting feedback from people that live with accessibility needs, by testing concepts early on. We spoke with people with a variety of disabilities, including those that had reduced vision, folks that communicate with British Sign Language (BSL) and those with neurodivergence. Through testing our prototypes we learned an awful lot; like nuances in sentence structure for people that speak in BSL, or that some neurodivergent symptoms can include being overstimulated by bright lights, as well as experiencing anxiety when something unexpected happens.

We simplified the user interface (UI) design by adding a frame with a dimmed background. This makes it more intuitive for the customer to show that they need to record their entire face, while increasing the contrast for people with low vision. 

We’ve given customers a moment to get prepared by fading the camera from dark to light and from blurred to sharp. This proved particularly helpful for neurodivergent people, or some people with mental health challenges. 

Thanks to our amazing engineers, we were able to introduce face detection that only allows customers to start recording when they’re clearly in view. No more forehead shots!

We’re providing in-the-moment feedback that helps people correctly frame their face on the screen. Improved instructional copy tells people to move closer, move back, centre their face and look forward. As well as this we’ve added colour and haptic feedback (vibration) to help guide the customer further.

Lastly, we’ve made it even clearer that we support sign language and we’ve responded to feedback that enables visually impaired people to complete IDV independently. 

“Designing for inclusivity is frankly good design that drives business impact.” 

Since launching the new solution, people that live with disabilities can now sign up to Monzo independently, helping us get one step closer to our mission of “Making money work for everyone”.

Additionally, we observed a massive 73% reduction in IDV selfie video errors, which goes to show that an accessible app helps everyone have a great experience. Designing for inclusivity is frankly good design that drives business impact. It shouldn’t be considered as an edgecase or afterthought, demonstrating that everyone benefits.

As we look to iterate towards an even better future, we’re thinking about adding a record timer for additional feedback and updating the phrase to numbers (this is because we've had feedback that BSL users would like the option of signing with one hand).

And finally, off the back of this success we have written a new accessibility learning resource for all Product Designers at Monzo, helping upskill the team with the aim to make continual improvements across the product. 

If you would like to get involved in testing new concepts that improve the accessibility of Monzo, then please keep an eye out for any research emails asking for volunteers. We reach out regularly to speak to our customers and you will be given a gift card as a thank you for your time!

If you're interested in working at Monzo, we have an open role for a Lead Product Designer, and don't forget to check out our career page with more info 🚀