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Comment by twic | Hacker News Reader

> A moment that should feel significant and celebratory — you’ve literally just opened a bank account in under 3 minutes through your phone — feels clinical and unimpressive.

But why? Is this really of any benefit? To who?

This whole thing reads like a designer's daydream.

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I opened an account with a UK challenger bank while sat in a bar, and within 5 minutes had paid for a round with Apple Pay (which could be set up before the card arrived). It was pretty damn impressive. It might seem of limited utility, but I did similar when I set up my business account (though admittedly I was buying software licenses rather than beer) and that was genuinely useful. Not that I couldn't have waited, but it was nice to not have to.

I am still find it annoying they don't offer some proper online banking site alongside the phone app. One of the reasons I barely use Monzo.

If I want to pay bunch of bills I prefer to do it on a big screen instead of my small phone screen.

It seems like a good balance when you've streamlined your onboarding to the point that its a non-event. From a UX perspective you actually need to assure the user that something important has happened. If they did this for everything it would grow tiresome pretty quickly, but since opening accounts is done once, or at least rather infrequently you don't run that risk.

The benefit is (a) to the user, who has a better understanding of the product's utility and a more enjoyable experience when using it; and (b) to the business, as their users will use it more and tell others about it if they have a pleasing experience.

The human reward system is a real thing, and activating it can significantly improve the user's connection to the product, and increase their propensity to keep using it and to recommend it to others.

I know the author of this post - he worked for my startup 6-8 years ago. He's not a "daydreaming" designer; he thinks very deeply about both user needs/preferences and business outcomes.

It's the style of thinking that has long given Apple its design edge. Some dismiss it as frivolous, but that overlooks the real utility it provides.

Sure, not everyone responds to it; human cognition and emotion is diverse. But for the kind of user this product is aimed at, it works really well.

As a designer, what annoys me so much is reading pieces from other designers who provide no evidence to their statements. If you're going to say "x is better than y" at least talk about the difference in performance when you were testing the change otherwise it feels like you're talking out of your ass.

As someone who has convinced others to move to the bank so they can use PayID, the fact it's so quick is definitely something to celebrate since most people will be hesitant to move if the process is long.

POSTSCRIPT: I apologise for not being clearer. It's great that you can open an account quickly. I'm questioning the need to make it feel "significant and celebratory" by adding an unskippable cutscene for the "moment post-signup that made you go “f*ck yeah” in celebration".

Because it's fun and makes users feel happy? And because happy users become engaged, loyal and evangelical users?

They do plenty to evaluate that this stuff works; if it has an outcome other than what is intended, they change it.

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