Can UX research impact business?
WEB3.0, DEFI, FINTECH
As Lead Product Designer at Kresko Fi, I conducted early user research for a new DeFi web app, achieving a 100% completion rate from 1,258 participants. This effort gained new Twitter followers, potential users, and informed the minimum marketable release. The outcome is a novel synthetic asset protocol in Decentralised Finance (DeFi).
ROLE
Lead UX & Product Designer
TEAM
Nikki Ajit
George Barker
DURATION
July 2021
(8 mo. total)
OVERVIEW
Why create a digital platform for trading synthetic assets?
Blockchain technology is capable of revolutionising the banking sector by introducing DeFi (Decentralised Finance) mobile applications. DeFi gives users access to a broader range of digital assets than traditional centralised exchanges. DeFi's core premise is that there is no centralised authority to dictate or control operations. Without intermediaries, the settlement and counterparty risks associated with centralised exchanges are eliminated.
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Synthetic assets allow investors to gain exposure to a wide range of assets, including stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies, without directly purchasing the underlying asset. For example sTSLA will follow the stock price of Tesla and can be traded on decentralised exchanges.
PROBLEM
Accessing wealth via stocks and commodities is still a big challenge globally.
Perhaps the most straightforward way to buy traditional international stocks is to consult a stock broker. Apart from service fees, availability of certain stocks and additional taxes for gains in other countries, the risks that tend to make investors hesitant toward international investments include higher transaction costs, currency volatility and liquidity risks.
It is estimated that less than 10% of the world's population actively participates in stock market investments.
The contrast becomes even more striking when considering that the USA represents 55% of the total, while India accounts for only 3% of that amount.
Web 3.0 is in early development and UX design must account for users' security concerns and limited awareness.
The DeFi app market size is expected to witness a CAGR of 46% from 2023 to 2033.
Technode Global.
SOLUTION
A novel synthetic asset protocol for trading stocks, commodities, indices.
DISCOVERY
How does it work?
Synthetic assets are created through the process of minting, which involves locking up a higher value of cryptocurrency as collateral. When these assets are traded against each other, the “sold” asset is burned, and an equal value of the “buy” asset is minted. This process allows for the exchange of value between synthetic assets without the need for a physical exchange or a counterparty.
USER RESEARCH
Surveying the cryptic crypto world.
I designed an online survey to understand user needs and preferences with regards to function, financial knowledge and design. The results would help us develop a product that was more user friendly and with a gentler learning curve than competitors'.
I am immensely proud of the impact this research cycle made, not only in terms of the findings but also in the interest generated towards the startup and the number of potential users we gathered. With an impressive response rate of 1258, we achieved a completion rate of 100%!
USER PERSONAS
Minter
Mara is a market maker who recently switched careers from TradFi to DeFi. They are considered to be highly proficient at using DeFi tools and understands actions in terms of long range goals. They have used Mirror Protocol and Synthetix and are very excited about new innovations in the DeFi space.
Goal: ​Post collateral to the protocol and mint synthetic assets.
Frustration: Very few options for minting synthetic assets available on the market.
Tech exposure
KEY INSIGHTS
There are more users crossing over from Web2 than traditional finance (TradFi).
60% of our users would be non-technical or new to DeFi.
The biggest challenge for users new to DeFi is terminology. Dapps often (wrongly) use terms interchangeably.
There aren't sufficient reliable resources for informing oneself.
IDEATION
Actions.
Yield farming is a way to put your cryptocurrency to work, earning interest on crypto. It entails lending your funds to other participants in the DeFi ecosystem and earning interest on these loans by utilising smart contracts.
DEPOSIT
COLLATERAL
A security deposit, which can be claimed if you fail to repay the loan.
MINT
ASSETS
Minting is the action of creating an asset to exist on a blockchain.
POOL
LIQUIDITY
Connect a digital wallet and deposit currency in the liquidity pool.
FARM
REWARDS
Receive rewards in exchange for depositing or lending cryptocurrency.
Our take on an Automated Market Maker (AMM).
Sensitive information
UX WIREFRAMES
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
VISUAL DESIGN
Once we tested multiple sets of wireframes and made improvements, we completed the visual design in the style of Neumorphism.
CONCLUSION
DeFi allows for permissionless, trustless, and censorship-resistant transactions that are typically faster and cheaper. DeFi enables online financial privacy and opens financial services to the unbanked. In addition, synthetic assets in DeFi can be minted for any asset in the world, even those that weren't available as traditional derivatives before, such as Real Estate.
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Like other financial services, DeFi protocols thrive with large capital. To attract more capital, protocols incentivise the provision of liquidity by compensating a yield farming/ staking participant with additional token rewards - known as liquidity mining. These tokens often come with governance privileges, encouraging community participation in determining the future direction of the protocol. As DeFi protocols are open-source in nature, it relies on voluntary contributions from the community. The communities tend to be active and this provides great opportunity for UX research, innovation and collaboration!