Mobile brokerage crypto platform

Celsius Network innovation project that was meant to reimagine the mobile app for retail investors from the ground up.

My Input

As a Senior Product Designer, I collaborated closely with a Product Designer, a 3D Artist, and a Product Manager. As the project progressed, our team expanded with the addition of three mobile developers. The initial research and insight collection were overseen by the Product Manager and the Celsius research team. Throughout the design process, I assumed responsibilities across all phases, ensuring the app aligned with our users’ expectations and preferences. My pivotal role included assessing suggestions from a UX standpoint and discussing their feasibility with the team, other Product Managers, and developers.

Objectives

Our primary aim for this project was to rethink the Celsius mobile app, making it simpler and more accessible for a wider range of users. We aimed to address the issues we identified in the current Celsius mobile app, which we couldn’t resolve due to the limitations of the backend code structure. Additionally, we wanted to attract new users and assist them in efficiently managing their assets for better outcomes.

Who is this app for?

For someone who’s new to this and has watched a couple of YouTube videos and talked about Bitcoin with a friend, words like Proof-of-Work, hard forks, consensus algorithms, Geth, Weth, TX hashes, and seed phrases might as well be written in an alien language. Those who are just getting into crypto, and are excited to explore new stuff, are cautious about taking too much risk.

User goals

People who have doubts about traditional banks want an app that’s really secure to keep their money safe. They’re also seeking guidance on what to do with $1000 within Celsius and how to make it grow fast. Our focus is on users who already grasp what Celsius provides, and our aim is to make the app incredibly user-friendly, with all features easy to find and use.

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Product vision

Celsius wants to bring financial freedom to the masses through open and accessible products where everyone (even newbies) have a chance to earn and grow their wealth. Built from the ground up to be accessible for everyone, the simplest to use, and the most transparent product on the market. One stop shop for crypto: buy, earn, borrow, spend, report, stay informed, collect (NFT) and business-build a foundation for growth to 100 million. Be the leader in crypto for the masses. What we learn here will evolve and expand into other platforms and services over time.

Research

During the research phase, we collected as much information as we could about our potential users and how they use our platform. Our aim was to figure out where users felt most comfortable, where they found things confusing, and why that happened. From this, we learned about our target users’ preferences, which we then broke down into individual user needs. The main things we learned from this research were that our target users often feel overwhelmed by technical terms and long explanations about each cryptocurrency. They also struggle with knowing who to trust and why they have to pay fees. With these insights in mind, and to make it easier for beginners to understand this new and exciting kind of investment, we decided to focus on using images and short bits of text to educate our users over time. Our goal is to help them manage their investments in a way that makes sense to them.

Competitive analysis

We conducted our analysis with apps and services that had the breadth of offerings we envisaged for our users. Some were in the crypto space, but most were completely outside of it. We gathered most of our inspiration, in fact, from the more traditional Fintech companies that provided a level of user experience that was more aligned with our objectives.

Target audience

After numerous brainstorming meetings, we’ve determined that, as a business, we should focus on two main types of users. We’ve narrowed down these user groups to those who can provide the most benefit to Celsius in terms of building a community and ensuring liquidity. The first group comprises new users who are looking to enter the world of cryptocurrency and safeguard their assets. They’re eager to explore new opportunities but are also careful about not taking excessive risks. The second group consists of experienced crypto users, often referred to as “whales,” who possess significant wealth. For them, the challenge is to find ways to preserve their wealth and outpace inflation.

Persona: Shahar

Occupation: Startup Founder Location: US Age: 44 Median Wallet: $500,000

Biography:

Shahar is a startup founder, he has quite a lot of experience if the finance field, but not much in Crypto. His financial assistant tells him, that he should try investing in ETH. Celsius has the best APY on stacking the ETH, so he decides to try it. He has investments in stocks, bonds, gold, and some real estate, but not in crypto yet, so he wants to find asymmetric bets and find a way to avoid taxes. Diversifying the assets and finding non-correlated assets gives Shahar an opportunity to increase his returns and preserve his wealth.

Motivations:

He wants to ensure that his family is taken care of. He has enough wealth for this, but he has to find ways to preserve it and beat inflation. He is in constant search of new investment opportunities, such as crypto. His friends buy crypto as well, so he wants to belong to the community and avoid FOMO.

Need:

Shahar has a high risk tolerance, but security is his priority anyway. Among those, he looks for a long term view for his portfolio, and wants to understand how it can look in 10–20 years. He needs different options to increase his portfolio: defi, yield farming, hedging strategies, staking, etc. So he looks for something that will be flexible yet sophisticated in terms of look and feel: he wants to be spoken like he is rich.

Pain points:

Crypto products can be scammed and hacked, so it makes him hesitate. He is also aware of market volatility, which is not only an opportunity for growth, but a risk as well.

Persona: Melody

Occupation: Teacher Location: France Age: 35 Median Wallet: $2,000

Biography:

Melody works as a teacher, her income is stable but not as high as she wants it to be. She wants to try her luck with crypto, and her daughter recommends she try Celsius. Melody enjoys trying new things, in fact, she already bought some bitcoins with Binance, but she doesn't really know what to do with them next. She needs some help and guidance to reach her goal and save money to buy a big house. With Celsius, she has easy access to credit, so maybe it's a good starting point to try and build wealth?

Motivations:

Living from salary to salary is quite exhausting. She doesn't want to worry about the money at all. And she has her goal settled: she dreams about the big house with a beautiful garden and interior she pinned on Pinterest. That motivates her to do something new and try crypto.

Need:

Melody loves to try new things, however, she has a low risk tolerance and doesn't want to risk much. She needs a really secure app to deposit her holdings. Also, she needs some guidance. What can she do with $1,000 in Celsius? How can she make it x2 in the short term? She needs to find out all the possibilities for doing it. She understands something about crypto, but she is not a crypto native, so Celsius has to be simple to use and all features have to be accessible.

Pain points:

She knows about lots of scams and fraud in the crypto field, so it brings her anxiety to the surface. She has to ensure herself that Celsius is secure enough. Also, market volatility frustrates her. Sometimes the financial jargon is quite complex when she wants to dig into the topic.

Empathy map

This design thinking tool aids the team in delving into and understanding the character, struggles, and benefits of a particular customer. Grasping viewpoints and cultivating understanding allowed us to zero in on the most crucial parts of the user experience. Our focus user, Melody, faces a myriad of thoughts in her initial interaction and even more in subsequent ones. Drawing from our insights, we’ve recognized the necessity of devising a method for novice users to feel confident and guided, helping them comprehend the necessary actions and reasons behind them.

General user journey

According to my research, there are many fears and insecurities that users must overcome before they can begin investing. I was surprised to discover that the majority of users do not understand even the most basic terminology when they first use the app. This has helped me understand that a newbie user requires additional assistance and direction in order to proceed with all of the app’s initial flows.

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Concept

Based on research insights and several rounds of refinement, we’ve conducted a concept that effectively addresses our users’ needs and aids them on their cryptocurrency journey. In addition to ensuring a user-friendly and seamless design, we’re integrating gamification elements such as achievement and educational systems into the app. Our goal is to simplify asset management for users by developing a fully automated robo-advisor specifically for cryptocurrency investments. Instead of treating all coins as equals, we’re categorizing them and offering advanced portfolio management tools to users. With features like auto-rebalancing, users can trust that their assets are skillfully managed and adjusted according to their individual risk preferences.

In app user journey

Considering the input we received from stakeholders, we fine-tuned the screen details and extended all the pathways users are likely to follow. This process aided me in organizing different screen types and designing components that can be used across various sections, making the development process smoother.

Ideation

After the research and numerous brainstorming and concept sessions, we’ve begun to visualize our ideas. I had several ideas in store since I’ve been working on similar features in Celsius's main web and mobile apps. Based on our user’s values and her journey, the team began iterating between each idea and flow to find the best way to present the structure of the information and functionality within the app.

Ideas we’ve dropped

One idea we considered was incorporating user-friendly 3D images and personalized avatars. The plan was to leverage these avatars for an achievement system where users could earn clothing and accessories, aiming to make the app more appealing and enjoyable. However, we ultimately decided to discard this concept due to its overly playful nature. Considering the critical context of banking and asset transfer, the approach seemed too casual and not as serious as the situation demands. Our priority is to ensure that users feel confident and secure when entrusting their assets to the app.

Onboarding

When it comes to underestimating the importance of onboarding, financial services are no exception. The onboarding process for most cryptocurrency exchanges is almost always lengthy and painful. Users may need to download another app to onboard due to the abundance of regulations and identity verification procedures. Some onboarding procedures, such as (KYC) and registration, can take several days to complete. As a result, there is a high rate of account abandonment. My goal, therefore, was to create an onboarding process that was engaging, informative, and focused on the most essential data collection.

Profile Setup

For a beginner who has just viewed a few YouTube videos and heard about Bitcoin from a friend, terms like Proof-of-Work, hard forks, consensus algorithms, Geth, Weth, TX hashes, and seed phrases would take an eternity to decipher. To better help our newbies navigate this new and exciting asset class, we decided to really focus on visualization and microcopy in order to educate our users over time.

Main screens

The dashboard is designed to serve as the central hub and overview of the user experience. To facilitate ease of navigation, we crafted a method where users can swipe horizontally to move between different sections, and vertically to delve into section-specific details. We made this choice because we aimed to steer clear of a navigation bar at the bottom, which can make screens appear confined and intricate. Our focus was to create a more user-friendly navigation approach. Our strategy involved outlining a list of primary pages and their respective subpages in a structured hierarchy. Instead of relying on a conventional navigation menu, we introduced the concept of consolidating transactional actions into a single action button situated on the home page. This design approach aims to streamline user interactions and simplify the navigation process.

Styleguide

We’ve meticulously selected a dark theme for the Celsius crypto app to enhance visual comfort during prolonged usage and conserve device battery. The shade of purple signifies sophistication and trust, mirroring the app’s commitment to security and reliability. Complemented by the rose gold accent, the color palette fosters an engaging and harmonious user experience that reflects the app’s cutting-edge nature in the world of cryptocurrency.

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Next step

Looking at the bigger picture, in the future we’ll need to incorporate more flows, along with primary and secondary pages. I’m confident that we’ve established a structure that’s ready for the future and can handle a substantial volume of content. When we consider our core users, we’ve taken steps to make the initial session relatively smoother and more intuitive. Our onboarding process is concise and uses simple language to help any kind of user understand the benefits of Celsius and what actions they should take. Security is a top priority for the product, and the automatic portfolio rebalancing feature ensures users can grow their holdings without having to sift through numerous articles. Navigating the app is straightforward, and the community section highlights Celsius’ transparency and provides users with all the information they might require.