For 20 years, Momentum has endeavored to be a global product design leader, always striving to create innovative, user-centric products. Last year, we collaborated with Bitstamp, a leading cryptocurrency trading platform with 4 million customers and consistently ranked in the Top 10 of its category. The collaboration led to the creation of Bitstamp Go, an engaging product using real user insights and effective UX strategies. The team's hard work and innovative approach ultimately led us to win the UX Design Award in 2023.
Since its founding in Luxembourg in 2011, Bitstamp has believed that opening the world of finance opens opportunities for everyone. Its aim has been to provide easy access to the world of crypto to empower anyone to benefit from the next generation of finance. In its most recent iteration, Bitstamp Go, the company aspired to take this idea further and appeal to a younger audience new to crypto.
From early interviews, several themes became apparent. Firstly, users needed to be made to feel secure. "Crypto is scary, volatile and unpredictable," said one user. "I know that for my first investment, I want to be safe," said another. To add transparency and trust and thus alleviate these concerns, the team ensured that users had access to objective financial analysis and the pros and cons of each currency.
Secondly, users need to be educated effectively to make informed decisions. "I just don't understand how crypto works," "I really want to do as much research as I possibly can before going into that," and "I always think… the mountain of knowledge that I need to know about this beyond what I know from like reading… magazine articles and things like that is going to be insane" were just some of the comments users made. Technical jargon and a seemingly endless inundation of information and advice were clear barriers to entry.
"It was important to clearly decipher and understand the cryptocurrency landscape and responsible investing in the space," says senior designer Sam Price. "Bringing both of these elements together so it was easy for a user to enter the market, but also [to design it] in such a way that enough information is available for the user to make informed decisions was one of our biggest challenges from a UX point of view."
To overcome this and thus develop user knowledge and a sense of control, the team carefully designed accessible step-by-step guides that provided digestible information about individual coins and standard terms and utilized social influence strategies in the form of Common First Investments.
Since many newcomers find entry into the crypto world intimidating, designing a welcoming environment that puts users at ease was essential. Therefore, the design is clean and playful; it uses bold colors, engaging illustrations, and dynamic animations to appeal to a broad audience and make the overall experience more fun. To add a touch of personalization, users are presented with crypto shortlists tailored to their preferences and priorities, a concept that at first was problematic for the team:
"We encountered legal pushback with our initial strategy collection concept which featured bundled investment options," Sam continues. "This strategy falls under investment advice, which was not something the product aimed to achieve. So our aha moment came after being pulled down by legal and having to rethink our approach. We ended up with what we believe to be the better solution featuring filtered lists. The user had to build these themselves, which turned out to be a much more engaging approach and ticked all of the legal requirements."
Having successfully navigated many common challenges that users face when entering crypto, the team produced a comprehensive final product that appeals to these users and accomplishes Bitstamp's aim of making crypto accessible for everyone. Needless to say, we were all pleased with the final product and delighted that it has been recognized with such a prestigious award – check out our Managing Director, Mark Scrivener, accepting it here: watch it on YouTube
Momentum wishes Bitstamp all the best for its journey ahead. "They were fantastic to work with and we think they have an amazing platform," says Sam. Asked where the project would be in five years, he adds, "most likely… the product life cycle will have evolved and matured and Bitstamp will be redesigning and continuing to grow with their users."
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