Egypt Acquisition (Web)
Onboarding
The rule that governs every row
Regulation is identical on both platforms. Same documents, same declarations, same partner rules, same physical verification at the end. The Central Bank does not care which screen you used.
So every difference below has to earn itself the same way: the environment changed, not the requirement. Web assumes a sitting — a laptop, fifteen minutes, done. Mobile assumes interruption — started in a car, resumed on a break, finished days later. One designer held both (I designed each end to end), which is why the differences are decisions rather than drift.
The differences, decision by decision
| The same need | Web | Mobile | Why it changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall structure | Linear five-stage stepper | Task dashboard, five cards with states | A stepper shows remaining distance; a dashboard shows accumulated achievement. For a user who leaves constantly, what greets the return decides continuation |
| Sequence | Enforced stage by stage | Identical — enforced; completed modules reopen freely | The logic never changed. Only the presentation did |
| Where am I? | Stage tabs across the top | Each card summarises its own state | No horizontal room for tabs — and the dashboard answers "where was I" before it's asked |
| Review before submit | A dedicated, long review page | Deleted — the dashboard is the review | Every card reopens for checking and editing until submission; a downstream-invalidating edit flips that module back to pending |
| Business plan | A step inside the flow | Routed into it straight after onboarding, before the dashboard appears | The compromise that ended a real disagreement — and it makes the dashboard's first appearance show 1 of 5 already complete. The customer starts winning |
| Company structure | One long dropdown of legal forms | Two-step split: single or partnership? → then that branch's forms | Most applicants can't name their legal classification. The split reaches it through questions they can answer |
| Ownership complexity | Fields appearing/disappearing within a page | A case matrix — structure × nationality × residency × role × signing authority — each combination a path of one-question screens | Cognitive load sits on the decision itself, never on re-reading a page that keeps changing shape |
| Document upload | File upload; assumes scanned PDFs | Three native routes — camera, photos, files — with scan-and-merge for multi-page documents | The web's production failure (first-page-only commercial registers) is structurally impossible here: page, page, page, one merged file |
| Upload guidance | Criteria surfaced in-flow and via the portal after failure | A tips sheet ahead of capture — formats, sizes, name-match, stamp and validity | Acceptance criteria moved from after the mistake to before the attempt |
| Regulatory sections (FATCA · sanctions · PEP) | Long sections on fewer screens; inline AR⇄EN switch at the point of legal consequence | Same content, same switch — split across more, shorter screens; each answer shapes the next screen | The phone's screen is the constraint; the comprehension argument is unchanged |
| Session expiry | Warns, then times out; staged structure preserves work | Same — plus the journey expects abandonment and designs for the return | On mobile, leaving is the norm, not the failure |
| Re-entry | Application number or email+mobile → OTP → routed by state | Identical model — plus push notifications to call the customer back | Identity stays attached to the application, not an account |
| What follows submission | Meeting preference, fulfilment visit, wet signatures | Identical | Regulation. The end of the journey is a person in a room, on both platforms |
What this table is actually evidence of
Three things stayed fixed: the regulation, the identity model, and the ending. Everything that changed, changed because a phone is held differently than a desk is sat at.
The deepest difference is not any single row — it is that the web learned its worst failure in production and mobile absorbed that lesson at the design stage. A second platform is not a port. It is the first platform's education, spent.
Written by the designer of both.