Designing a simpler way to invest in crypto - Coinchip [FKA Risecoin]
Case study
Background
With cryptocurrency becoming more popular over the years, a lot of people are beginning to look for ways to embrace and take advantage of the future of money. Skeptics and crypto professionals who are aware of the volatile nature of crypto seek new and more creative ways to purchase cryptocurrency while mitigating unfortunate losses.
Coinchip [Formerly Risecoin], reached out to me to help flesh out a product that addresses this.
Research Plan
Can be downloaded here
The first thing I did after meeting with the co-founders and understanding their goal for the product was to come up with a research plan.
This research plan explains the research methodologies we will be employing, how we will recruit users for studies as well as our research goals and questions.
The product is targeted at young working or schooling Americans and because of my location, we adopted semi-structured and open-ended interviews as our study type.
After speaking to 5 participants, we had 4 key findings that would inform our next steps on how to proceed with the product.
Role
I was hired as a product designer to conduct a full market research into the whys and whats and uncover just how many ways we could make the product better.
My process
Research report / Key findings
Report can be downloaded here
Of all the participants, we found their investment frequencies to be:
- Weekly (1 participant)
- Bi-monthly (1 participant)
- Monthly (2 participants)
- Daily (2 participants)Daily Investment amounts start from $2 to about $15.
Students try to spend as little as they can daily and run on weekly budgets so make most of their plans weekly.
Users who earn weekly or monthly would like to set aside money on the app for daily investments right at the point of earning. We can use a wallet balance where users can deposit funds into and automate their investments (This will save us on API cost per transfer.)
Research report / App recommendations
The mobile app will have different plan types to suit our user types. (Smart plans that auto-invest in best-performing coins and regular plans where you choose for yourself what coins you want to invest in over time).
We need to include account creation with just SSN and an international passport.
We will have multiple funding sources: Spare change round-ups can be a source but we will set up direct funding sources at the point of plan creation for those who would like to invest specific amounts.
We will choose which funding sources will be better for our users based on a series of questions.
Users should be able to customize their notifications and alerts
Users should be able to pause plans, and change thresholds.
Thresholds for spare change round-ups should be plan-specific.
Users should also be able to buy specific coins outside their plans and withdraw when necessary.
Excess funds above the threshold limit will be added to their wallets and invested on days they fall short of the minimum set threshold.
Personas and user stories
Crypto awareness: High
Financial resources: Low
Day-to-day activities: Busy, indoors, plans weekly
As Temi, I want to create my account with my SSN, so I can gain access to the product.
As Temi, I want to be able to set up my DCA plan once, so I don’t mess up my daily routine.
As Temi, I only want to leave smaller purchases up to the system, so I make calculated decisions on higher amounts.
Crypto awareness: High
Financial resources: High
Day-to-day activities: Busy, indoors, plans bi-weekly.
As Brian, I want to put stop limits on my trades or plans, so if coin values rise to a certain amount, i don’t invest.
As Brian, I want only see notifications on bi-weekly, so I don’t get annoyed my frequent notifications.
Crypto awareness: Low
Financial resources: Average
Day-to-day activities: Busy, outgoing.
As David, I want to see a chart of coin performance, so I know what to do with my plan.
As David, I want to be able to pause my plan, so I can manage my finances better.
As David, I want to be told each time money leaves my account, so I’m fully aware of my account balance.
Wireframes
Launch screen
Home screen
Plan selection
Funding source
Minimum threshold modal
Notification preferences
Test outcome
We circled back with the prototyped wireframes to validate our approach.
We conducted a usability test with all 5 participants, who confirmed that their needs had been fully met.
This gave us the confidence to proceed with the branded design.
Authentication/account creation
Launch screen 1
Launch screen 2
Launch screen 3
Account creation
Username creation
Verify account
Create password
Set up notifications
User Verification
Verification requirements
Full name
Date of birth
Home address
ID types
Front of ID
ID confirmation
Back of ID
ID confirmation
Social security
Final confirmation
Account agreement
User segmentation based on funding method
User segmentation intro
Spending frequency
Budgeting question
Plan creation and management
Home screen
Create Plan by selecting investment strategy
Creating a smart plan
Fund using spare change round-ups
Plan created
Manage plans
Viewing a created plan
Changing funding source
Setting minimum and maximum spare change round up thresholds
Purchase from market
Buying coins/tokens from the market
One off purchase
Add to existing plan
Post-design changes due to technical constraints.
Due to the limitations of our verification partners, account verifications are not instant and could stay pending for up to 2 hours.
Website screens
The website was designed by me to reflect what the product was, how it worked as well as what exactly dollar-cost-averaging meant.
