Enhancing the crypto deposit experience on mobile was one of my most exciting projects. It not only drives revenue for the business but also delivers value to users by streamlining their journey. From a design perspective, simplifying this process posed a significant challenge, ensuring a seamless experience that encourages users to complete their transactions effortlessly.
Since mobile devices are the most commonly used tools, I prioritized them as the primary platform. After sign-up and KYC, the deposit feature serves as a crucial touchpoint, bringing users closer to their goals—whether it's holding, trading, or earning income.
As a product designer, I collaborate closely with cross-functional teams (FE, BE, DA, QA, CS, PO, etc.) and stakeholders to identify and address user challenges. My goal is to create seamless experiences for end users while maintaining a balance between business objectives and user needs.
Product Owner: 1
Product Designer: 1 (me)
Frontend Developer: 1
Backend Developer: 2
Blockchain Developer: 2
Data Analyst: 1
Quality Assurance: 2
Customer Success: 2
Collaborating with the Customer Success and Data Analyst teams, we identified key pain points that need to be addressed to improve the user experience.
From quantitative data, we discovered that 30% of users forget to enter the memo tag when depositing XRP and XEM, causing their assets to get stuck in the exchange wallet. To recover them, users must contact the CS team, leading to unnecessary delays and frustration.
Qualitative feedback revealed that users struggle to find the correct crypto deposit network, making it difficult to transfer their assets. Additionally, they lack visibility into the estimated deposit time, leaving them uncertain about when their funds will be available.
To gather qualitative insights on how users interact with our current design, we conducted user interviews with five participants. This helped us understand their motivations, pain points, and reactions while testing the feature:
User Expectations & Impressions Questions
What are your thoughts as you look at this screen?
Do you understand the purpose of this screen?
When and where do you think someone would use crypto deposits?
What do you expect to achieve with this feature?
Does this function feel familiar to another experience you’ve had?
What might prevent you from using this feature?
General Task-Driven Feedback Questions
How would you go about making a crypto deposit?
Was the interface intuitive and easy to understand?
What information, if any, was confusing?
What was the easiest or most challenging part of the process?
Did anything surprise you or work differently than expected?
What do you expect to happen after making a deposit?
To gather quantitative data on the difficulty of making a crypto deposit, we asked participants to complete a short survey after the interview:
How easy was it to complete a crypto deposit?
Super easy | Easy | Neutral | Hard | Extremely hard
How difficult was it to navigate to the deposit feature?
Not difficult at all | Slightly difficult | Difficult | Quite difficult | Extremely difficult
"Don't reinvent the wheel." I analyze both direct and indirect competitors to understand their approaches and how they shape user experiences. By testing their design patterns with internal teams and users, I assess the strengths and weaknesses. From there, I explore ways to enhance these patterns—building on familiar experiences while delivering an even better, more satisfying user journey.
Competitive Matrix:
Emphasize the memo tag as a required step for a successful deposit by displaying a reminder in a dialog modal at the very beginning.
Support multi-network deposits, allowing users to compare available networks and choose the fastest option.
Reduce errors in copying the wrong network address by prompting users to select the network in a dedicated first step.
Improve transaction transparency by displaying the number of network confirmations and estimated processing time.
Enhance deposit notifications by introducing in-app alerts for incoming funds and completed deposits, in addition to email notifications.
Boosting the inflow of crypto assets into our exchange wallet.
Streamlining the deposit experience for retail users and potential traders.
Removing barriers in the crypto funding process.
Strengthening user trust and positioning our wallet as a secure choice for crypto holders.
After identifying user problems, we outlined the key challenges we need to address.
Paul Alley
Age: 24 | Country: Singapore
Occupation: Web Developer
Annual Income: 200,000 to 280,000 SGD
Paul dedicates a lot of his time to exploring new technologies, with a particular focus on blockchain. He's recently decided to create a personal hot wallet to store Bitcoin and Ethereum. Safety and security are his top priorities, which bring him greater trust and confidence in his investments.
Goals
Paul is starting with spot markets to learn about cryptocurrency trading, with the goal of buying and selling to earn long-term interest.
Needs
He requires a user-friendly interface with helpful guidance to navigate the platform, along with fast and secure transactions.
Frustrations
Paul lacks experience with crypto deposits, withdrawals, and networks, so he needs more time to understand these processes.
Says
"I want to deposit my first funds into the exchange."
"I want to buy some crypto tokens and hold them."
"I want my funds to be delivered faster."
"I want to see more detailed information about my deposit."
"I want to understand how my funds arrive at the exchange."
Thinks
"How can I deposit BTC quickly?"
"What information should I pay attention to?"
"What are the differences between networks?"
"How long will it take to deposit my funds?"
"How can I be sure my funds have been deposited successfully?"
Does
Asks a friend for advice on deposits.
Searches YouTube for how-to videos.
Reads help articles in the product's support section.
Tries a small deposit to test the process.
Feels
Anxious about missing crucial deposit details.
Nervous about losing money due to mistakes.
Uncertain about the safety of his first deposit.
Lacks confidence in making a larger deposit.
Once we identify their pain points, we gain a clear understanding of their needs, allowing us to design a seamless journey.
I collaborate closely with other teams and stakeholders to present several options, gather their feedback, and refine the designs. We engage in discussions, make assumptions, and finalize the user flows.
I begin designing the primary wireframes to align with the user flows, collaborating with other teams to gather feedback and finalize the information architecture.
Once the wireframe is complete, I move on to the visual design phase, creating a prototype for feedback from other teams and A/B testing. Then, we validate the final prototype through online user testing tools to ensure the design solution is effective.
During prototype testing, we discovered that users frequently ask about the time it takes for their deposited assets to transfer to their wallet. They want to know when the assets will appear and where to seek help in case of any issues. Users also lacked clarity around the estimated arrival time and whether it was accurate. To address this, I decided to make several micro adjustments:
Here are the data metrics we’ll use to assess business outcomes:
Monthly percentage and value of crypto assets inflow
Monthly number of users depositing crypto assets
Monthly breakdown of the most deposited crypto types
These are the UX metrics we’ll use to evaluate the design:
Customer Effort Score (CES) based on in-app deposit feedback (number of positive vs negative responses, and their context)
Emotional Rating (ER) on a scale from 1 to 5 (angry, upset, neutral, happy, excited)
Task Completion Time and Drop-Off Rate (%)
In the first month following the launch of the new deposit flow, we saw a ~12% increase in crypto asset inflow compared to the previous month. The Emotional Rate (ER) showed positive results, with over 70% of users rating the experience as 4 (happy) or 5 (excited) on a 5-point scale. However, there remains a challenge we're working to address: improving the "Share QR Code" feature. Over 60% of the users we interviewed mentioned that QR codes are a safer option to avoid address errors. Currently, like other exchanges, we allow users to share the QR code as an image. The challenge is finding a way to include both the address and memo within the QR code.