What type of investor is Coinbase designed for? — a UX analysis
For a product that is leading the crypto exchange space, there are some glaring weaknesses in the current Coinbase iOS design.
I started investing in Bitcoin back in September of 2020. I am fascinated with decentralized currency. With more and more institutional investments coming into the crypto market this year it’s only going to continue to grow market share.
At first, I was not sure what platform to use for purchasing Bitcoin and other currencies. Initially, I used the Gemini app to purchase Bitcoin. I knew that I wanted to dabble in other currencies and tokens aside from the behemoth, Bitcoin. I quickly found out that Gemini didn't offer some of the coins I wanted to buy. For example, some exchanges have Polkadot listed as a tradable asset, and others don’t.
Gemini offers an “Active Trader” option for more seasoned investors. These features are really nice for analyzing fibonacci retracement, support, and resistance levels among other analysis types for crypto currencies.
I had a lot of friends start using Coinbase recently and told me to give it a shot.
After researching more about Coinbase, I found out that they offered some of the coins I was looking to buy. I created an account and was off to the races!
To provide some more context here, I am an active investor. I am very hands-on with all my investments and analyzing the market each day.
I use TD Ameritrade for investing in the stock market and use the Think or Swim platform for market analysis. I understand that Coinbase might not be geared to active investors. I have a feeling it is tailored to more passive investors. To be fair, there are still design issues with the iOS app.
#1 — List View lacking context
Once a user pops open the app I am defaulted to the “Home” page which contains a list view of my portfolio balance and current status of the market.
#2 — Setting the wrong expectation
When selecting the “Prices” menu item in the bottom navigation I am defaulted to see “All assets”. There are a lot of coins listed here but a lot of them are not available to trade on this platform, which creates some confusion for the user.
#3 — UI that I (as a user) do not need to see.
Selecting the portfolio tab in the main navigation I see some of my holdings at the top, but as I scroll…all the assets listed in this view show a value of $0.00 all of these are none that I have purchased.
Why is Coinbase surfacing these coins in my portfolio view, If I do not own them?
#4 — Not showing users the rate of unrealized gain/loss.
This one is HUGE in my opinion and should probably be listed as #1. Not showing the user what their overall gain/loss is based on the coins in their portfolio is detrimental to users making more informed investment decisions.
In conclusion
I have to use an excel document, input all my purchases, what price I paid and then calculate the total investment amount and subtract that from the current price per share to find out what my rate of return (or loss amount) is. As a user I should not have to user a 3rd party product to find these things out.
Coinbase is a solid product if you are more of a passive investor. For someone that wants more flexibility into their investments and the ability to really analyze their investments, Coinbase might not be for you. I think Coinbase can make some really strong UX improvements by adding some of the key features mentioned above.
Again, maybe Coinbase is trying to cater to the passive investor, but as we see the bull market for cryptocurrency continue in 2021 I really believe adding (and taking away) some of these features would be really helpful in acquiring new users, and not frustrating current ones. Coinbase should be providing users with key insights into the market to enable them to make more informed investment decisions.
I still see some passive investment platforms using this approach, apps like Voyager does a great job of showing purchase price/gain and loss, total return etc. Although it is not available on desktop just yet, it’s definitely worth checking out.
If you use another platform for trading crypto I would love to hear from you! If there is anything I missed, or you think could also be an improvement for Coinbase, let me know!
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