4 things I learnt while designing a crypto wallet.
In a world where we want new and exciting technologies like blockchain and cryptocurrencies to slowly become mainstream, It is important to intentionally design crypto products and use cases that are simpler, useful and inclusive. Designing crypto for everyone. Therefore, as a company, start-up or user experience designer — How do you educate more people about crypto, how can you remove the complexities that can come with crypto, what is that killer use case that can truly take crypto mainstream?
These are the key questions I was asking as a UX designer at one of the fastest-growing crypto startups in Africa while I was helping design core features and flows.
Because we wanted first time users to be able to quickly understand how things work and how to stay around and achieve their goals, we spoke to about 100 users who used and stopped using the app, to learn about their experience and mental models as they interacted with the wallet.
The findings were fascinating, and some seemed quite obvious.
I’d love to know what you think of these insights in the comments below. Have you seen anything similar in the usability of crypto products?
1. People will drop off if they experience friction during onboarding.
As UX designers, we need to spend a lot of time making onboarding and sign up processes faster. Bearing in mind that users want to experience for themselves in the shortest time possible the value your app claims to provide. The moment a user begins to think of signing up as a chore, they are most likely to drop off.
During one of our research calls to people that dropped off during onboarding, some participants said things like, “I got busy and didn’t try to put an effort…”
This goes to show that to truly move a user from a first time user to a regular user, a frictionless experience especially during onboarding is imperative.
Actionable advice: Remove extra steps and find simpler ways to capture only user information that are immediately important. If it’s not critical, cut it out.
2. One thing at a time.
This is kind of related to the first point where I advised to capture only user information that is immediately important. Digging deeper, we should find better ways to break down activities into simpler tasks, prioritizing which a user should perform first, how and when they should be completed. Imagine after signing up on a crypto wallet and the next thing you’re immediately confused with multiple in-app modals ranging from a fingerprint/ face lock setup to a KYC setup all in the same flow. Showing users way too many tasks to complete in the same flow discourages them from even attempting to perform let alone complete one.
Actionable advice: Break down activities into strings of individual tasks. Prioritize tasks and give users the flexibility to decide when they want to complete them. Use progress bars or other types of indicators to show progress as they scale through them.
3. Keep it simple
Related to my first and second point: Because crypto terminologies sound complex and process unfamiliar, it is necessary to think about ways to design wallets as simple as possible.
Through simpler language, familiar UX processes and flows, it is possible to achieve ease-of-use for a wider group of users. It will be a big win if you are able to make crypto feel like just another digital financial transaction done on a mobile app.
Actionable advice: Reword every copy, rework every flow until it makes utter common sense.
4. Educate as you go
For a lot of people to really begin to understand and use crypto, you have to be educated for it. Therefore the question becomes, how do we as UX designers create experiences that can naturally educate users as they use them to achieve their goals.
We had users who asked seemingly easy questions like “what is Bitcoin…how do I buy crypto?” It is necessary to educate users, tell and show users step by step how they can complete these actions. Having FAQs buried somewhere inside the app does not help however prioritizing education and having it located somewhere within the users reach is a better direction to help to convert a person into a truly active user.
Actionable advice: Educate users as often as possible by creating no brainer how-to contents that are within their reach. Take nothing for granted.
Key Takeaway
It’s okay to experiment, innovate and create patterns that seem like they are going against general usability principles suggested here. Whatever you decide to do — test, test and test! May the best design decision lead.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end! If this post was helpful or you think there’s something I missed out on, I would love to know. Comment below or reach out to me on Twitter @lottabydesign
