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Contents
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1.1 Summary and background
The Customer Experience Guidelines (“Guidelines”) have been designed to facilitate widespread use of API Standards enabled products and services in a simple, secure and Customer friendly manner.
The implementation of these Guidelines is not mandated by the API Centre and as a result, an API Provider’s customer experience may differ from this document.
The API Centre’s Account Information and Payments Initiation API Standards set out the base interactions and flows between the Customer, the Third Party, and the API Provider.
These guidelines;
bring together Customer facing user experience and journey across both Third Party and API Provider when they use the API Standards.
address the “Customer journey” that is the process that the Customer follows starting within a Third Party online app or browser, through to authentication within the API Provider domain, and completion in the Third Party domain.
provide examples of what a good Customer experience and Customer journey looks like when the Customer interacts with services that are based on the API Standards
and provide a starting point for API Standards Users to develop their own propositions.
Customers will only use products and services if their experience matches or betters their expectations, and information is presented in an intuitive manner that allows them to make informed decisions.
It is therefore important that the interplay between the Third Party and the API Provider is as seamless as possible while providing Customer control in a secure environment. It is essential that Customers are clearly informed about the consent they are providing and the service they are receiving.
The intended audience for these Guidelines is API Standards Users (API Providers and Third Parties).
1.2 Purpose and approach
Illustrative guide: The Guidelines provide illustrative examples, and there is no requirement on API Standards Users to comply with these Guidelines. The Guidelines help provide a starting point for API Standards Users to develop their own propositions and implementations may differ in practice.
Illustrative but not exhaustive: These Guidelines provide the main scenarios that the v2.1 API Standard supports. There are other scenarios, flows or variants that are supported by the v2.1 API Standard that are not illustrated in these Guidelines.
Iterative guidance: The Guidelines will evolve, and iterations will be frequently released, based on additional functionality, ongoing feedback received and changing Customer expectations.
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3 Relationship to the API Centre terms and conditions
The Guidelines cover the Customer journey, interaction and hand off separately. The Guidelines include suggested steps that the Customer should navigate, including in relation to consent. The Guidelines refer to consent and authentication. The steps which API Standards Users are required to take in relation to consent and authentication are set out in clause 7 of the API Terms. In these Guidelines:
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Authentication in relation to Customer Payment Consent refers to the consent given by the Customer to an API Provider under which the Customer authorises an API Provider to act on an instruction received from a Third Party, on behalf of the Customer in respect of that payment transaction.
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4 Relationship with the v2.1.0 API standard
The API Centre has attempted to align the Customer Experience Guidelines to the v2.1.0 API Standard. Generally, where the Customer journey diagrams use the term ‘must’, it reflects a requirement of the v2.1.0 API Standard. The ‘must’ and ‘should’ settings described in the Guidelines document are not to be relied upon as a description of the API Standard and do not impose any obligation on API Standards Users to comply with these Guidelines.
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5 Document structure
The following principles underpin the core Customer journey described in three sections:
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Journey Description: A high-level description of the specific account information, payment initiation or confirmation of funds Customer journey.
Journey Map: This is a macro view of the Customer journey, broken down by optimal steps and Customer interaction points e.g., from payment initiation through authentication to completion.
Wireframe Journey: This is represented by annotated ‘screens’ to identify key messages, actions, interactions and information hierarchy, as well as process dependencies.
Journey Annotations: This is the annotation detail referenced in the wireframes. These consist of CX considerations, where research has raised specific Customer priorities or concerns that should be addressed through the eventual solution.
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6 The API standard customer journey
The Guidelines have been separated into a set of clear, highly simplified white label wireframes that cover the Customer journey, interaction and hand off separately.
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then, once authentication is complete, the API Provider will be able to respond to the Third Party’s account information or payment initiation request and redirect the Customer back to the Third Party for confirmation and completion of the journey (step 3 below).p
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1.7 Acknowledgements
These Guidelines have been developed from the UK Open Banking Implementation Entity’s Customer Experience Guidelines (https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/customer-experience-guidelines/introduction/section-a/latest/) and their associated research.