Aadhaar is the government‑issued digital identity that underpins day‑to‑day life for millions of people in India. It unlocks services from banking to SIM registration, but it also concentrates sensitive personal data.
In this work, Anon Aadhaar is a zero‑knowledge protocol that lets people prove they hold a valid Aadhaar document while revealing only the minimum information a third party needs. Our role was to design a mobile app that onboards developers to this protocol, enabling them to quickly experience the flow, understand what’s possible, and imagine new India‑focused applications.
- UX & interaction design
- End-to-end product design
- Motion design
Privacy preserving by default
Anon Aadhaar relies on the secure QR code embedded in official Aadhaar documents and verifies it using RSA inside a zero‑knowledge circuit. The outcome is proof that confirms “this person holds a valid Aadhaar” without exposing their Aadhaar number or raw document data.
In the mobile app, we translated this into a flow where users only disclose what is strictly needed for a given use case, for instance proving that they are a resident or over 18 for a universal basic income claim while the rest of their personal information stays encrypted and hidden. The UI keeps the cryptography in the background, framing the experience around trust, consent, and clear explanations instead of implementation details.
Blending privacy into a vivid culture
We had previously worked on projects rooted in Indian culture, so we knew we didn’t want Anon Aadhaar to feel like a detached “developer tool” or a generic Web3 app. The app needed to sit comfortably inside the visual and emotional world of everyday India, with privacy treated as a quiet layer beneath a friendly, culturally grounded surface.
Indian visual culture is bold, joyful, and expressive, so the interface uses strong contrasts on a dark canvas, accented by bright oranges, pinks, and greens. Large typography and generous spacing keep the screens readable, while decorative borders and framing shapes drawn from local architecture and textiles help the cryptography feel less abstract and more human.
Classic dance: mudras as a visual language
To speak about identity without showing faces, we looked for a metaphor that could carry meaning on its own. Mudras symbolic hand gestures used in classical Indian dance and ritual, became the core of the visual system.
Each onboarding screen pairs a different mudra with flora, animals, and architectural details. Together they narrate the journey: offering proof, extending trust, opening access, and celebrating expression. By focusing on hands instead of identifiable faces, we reinforce the product promise: meaningful verification without exposing who you are.
Simple, yet supportive for developers
Underneath the illustrations, the app itself is intentionally minimal. It is built as a focused playground where developers can:
- Scan an Aadhaar QR code to generate a zero‑knowledge proof.
- Choose which attributes to reveal to a relying party.
- Send a simple test message once the proof is verified.
The information architecture is reduced to two main sections and a small set of actions. This keeps the learning curve low while still exposing the core capabilities of the protocol. Helpful copy and inline explanations do the heavy lifting, so developers can focus on what’s possible rather than how the cryptography works.
Developer tools can be enjoyable
Anon Aadhaar is ultimately a developer‑facing protocol, but we treated this mobile app as a product in its own right. By combining strong privacy guarantees with a vibrant, culturally specific visual language, we show that tools for builders don’t have to feel purely utilitarian.
Our hope is that this work nudges more developer tools toward being trustworthy, expressive, and enjoyable to use, especially when they sit so close to people’s most personal data.
