AstroPay: Onboarding, Redefined
UX
Francisco Crespi
The user onboarding experience is a critical touchpoint for new users, and a core feature of the AstroPay app. We worked with the AstroPay team to address a significant drop off rate in the Brazilian market by redesigning the onboarding flow to better align with local user behaviour.
The Problem of Drop-off
The team faced a significant challenge in the Brazilian market: a high drop-off rate during user onboarding. Our data highlighted that 70% of the users left the process at the document verification stage. Even though it’s a common step where users tend to drop off, the magnitude of the drop in this case didn’t make sense.

To understand the underlying reasons, we conducted user interviews with Brazilians to learn more about their culture and how they manage their money.
The Insight
We uncovered a critical insight based on the research: in Brazil, people prefer digital over physical documents due to insecurity and frequent fraud, making digital IDs a cultural norm.
Designing for a Digital-First Culture
Our product's flow, which prompted for details from a physical card ID, created a major disconnect. Users would have their phones in hand with the digital document open, but our UI was asking them to reference something they weren’t using or carrying. This mismatch led to frustration and, ultimately, abandonment.

We realised the problem wasn’t with the user, but with our product’s assumption about user behaviour. In practice, many users don’t even take their physical ID outside their house, since carrying it poses a high risk of being robbed.
The Solution
The new flow had to feel natural for someone referencing their digital ID directly on their phone something our original design overlooked entirely. We needed to explicitly recognise and support this local, digital-first habit.
A Culturally-Informed Redesign
Our solution was a complete redesign of the document verification intro screen, specifically tailored for the Brazilian market.
We also added the option to scan digital documents directly, making the flow simpler and more intuitive.
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Building Trust Through Security & Flexibility
To address user insecurity and fear of fraud a known cultural insight we added direct and conversational copy to assure users that their documents were secure and encrypted. This new microcopy directly responded to the high level of fraud in the country, building a crucial layer of trust.
The Impact
The results of our redesign showed up almost immediately. Drop-off during document verification dropped from 60% to 31% per week in Brazil. By adapting the product to users’ real habits, we removed a major barrier and boosted conversion. This project was a strong reminder of how important it is to really understand local users and let those insights guide the design.
