Opon
A social app built on verified identity.
Opon is a concept for a social app where every account is a verified, real person. It began as a self directed project in Figma. I rebuilt it as a full product story so you can see how I take a single idea, anchor it in research, and design the flow that carries it. The whole product lives or dies on one moment: asking someone to hand over their ID without scaring them off.
Social platforms scaled on anonymity, which brought fakes, scams and harassment. Verification fixes that, but asking for an ID is the most sensitive moment an app can have, and the place people drop out.
Design an onboarding that earns the right to ask for an ID, so people actually finish verification and value the badge it gives them.
Sole designer. Concept, research framing, journey mapping, wireframes, interactive prototype and moderated testing.
After iteration, all five testers completed verification without pausing to ask where their data was going. The reassurance copy did as much work as the layout.
Honest framing first.
Opon is a concept project, so it never shipped to real users. The research and testing here are illustrative reconstructions that show how I run and synthesise the work. The screens and the core idea, verified identity, are from the original Figma project.
Online, you rarely know who you are talking to.
The big social networks scaled on openness and anonymity. That brought reach, but it also brought fake profiles, catfishing, scams and harassment hiding behind made up names. People grew tired and wary, especially in messages from strangers.
The instinct is to add verification. The catch is that asking someone to hand over an identity document is the most sensitive thing an app can do. Do it badly and people drop out at the exact moment you ask, or never sign up at all.
- ·Verification is what builds trust, and also the scariest thing to ask for
- ·The whole design lives or dies on that single moment
Understanding trust and the fear of giving ID.
I needed two things: evidence that people want verified spaces, and a clear read on why they hesitate to verify themselves.
- ·A survey of 60 social media users about trust, fake accounts and unwanted messages
- ·Eight interviews, half with people who had been catfished or scammed, half who had not
- ·A scan of how dating and marketplace apps ask for verification, and where people abandon it
- ·People want the calm: a clear majority would join a smaller network if it meant no fakes and no strangers in their DMs
- ·But ID feels risky: the same people worried about where their document goes, who sees it, and whether it is kept
People are not against verifying. They are against not knowing what happens to their data.
That reframed the brief. The job was not to make verification shorter or prettier. It was to make the safe thing also feel safe, right at the moment of the ask.
Three people, one anxious moment in common.
Sofia, 24, joined to meet people and is tired of creeps. Wants a feed and inbox without fake profiles. Fears handing her ID to an app she just found.
Marcus, 38, was scammed by a fake account once. Wants to know the person behind a profile is real. Fears another platform that does nothing about it.
Priya, 19, privacy aware and quick to abandon sign ups. Wants to try the app without committing everything up front. Fears vague permissions and data she cannot get back.
The mood drops the moment we ask for ID.
Mapping a new user showed one sharp dip. Interest is high, sign up is fine, then the ID request causes anxiety. Everything depended on lifting that dip into a moment of trust, not abandonment.
The question I designed against.
How might we ask people to verify their identity in a way that feels safe enough that they actually finish, and proud enough that they value the badge it earns them?
- ·Explain before you ask. Reassurance comes first, the request comes second
- ·Verify once. Make it a one time step, not a recurring tax
- ·Show the payoff. The verified badge is the reward, so make it feel earned
- ·Plain words about data. Say what is stored, why, and for how long
Structure before polish.
I started low fidelity to get the order of the onboarding right. The key decision was where the reassurance sits, before the ID request, not after. Sign up stays small: one name, one phone. The reassurance screen carries a plain language data box above the verify button. The payoff is a calm feed of verified people only.
Walk through the trust moment.
I built the core flow as a tappable prototype: sign up, code, reassurance, ID scan, a short verifying state, the verified badge, then the feed. The reassurance copy sits above the button so it is read before the tap, not after. The badge is previewed before the ID step so people understand the reward before they take the risk.
What testing changed.
I ran moderated sessions with five people, asking each to create an account and verify. The ID step was where everything happened, exactly as the journey map predicted.
- ·Two people hesitated and asked where their ID goes before tapping. I moved the data reassurance above the button, in plain words, before the ask
- ·People feared verifying again and again. I said clearly that it is a one time step, up front
- ·The reward was unclear, so the effort felt unjustified. I previewed the verified badge before the ID step, not only after
- ·Scan ID felt abrupt. I added a short verifying state and a clear success moment so the action had a beginning and an end
Copy did as much work as layout.
In a second round, all five testers completed verification without pausing to ask about their data, and described the badge as something they would want. The wording carried the trust more than any visual treatment did.
Honest about the unknowns.
As a concept, Opon never reached real users. These are the signals I would track to know the trust moment is working in production.
- ·Drop off at the ID step, the single number that matters most
- ·Time to verify, from the ask to the verified badge
- ·Reported trust, do people feel safer than on their last app
Trust is a feature, and it is mostly made of words.
Opon taught me that the hardest interactions are not the complex ones, they are the sensitive ones. Asking someone for their identity is a small screen and an enormous emotional moment. Design has to carry both.
- ·Design the anxious moment, not the happy path. The product is decided where the user is most likely to leave
- ·Privacy is experience, not legal text. What you store and why belongs in the flow, in plain language, before you ask
- ·Make the safe choice the rewarding one. A verified badge people are proud of does more than any warning
- ·Concept work still needs rigour. No real users does not mean no research, no testing, no honesty about what I do not yet know
The real Opon screens, not a placeholder.
These are the actual Opon boards and screens from the original Behance project: branding, onboarding, phone verification, ID verification, permissions, feed, profile and create flows.
The interactive prototype below is a guided rebuild of this real work, focused on the trust moment around verified identity.
Rebuilding the trust moment.
A guided rebuild based on the original Opon screens: sign up, reassurance, ID verification, success state and a verified-only feed.
Walk through the trust moment.
A guided Opon flow based on the original Behance screens: sign up, reassurance, ID scan, verification, badge reward and a verified-only feed.
Create your account
We will text you a code to confirm your number.
Step 1 of 6
Start at sign up. One name, one phone number.
No real data is collected. Fields are filled in so the interviewer can focus on the flow and the copy.
Prototype only. Rebuilt from the original Opon Behance work to make the key verification and trust interaction clickable inside the portfolio.