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5 Design principles for crypto
And which mobile apps win at each.
Crypto is Alive
We saw cryptocurrency go mainstream during the 2022 Superbowl when our screens were filled with future-thinking ads for Coinbase, Crypto.com, FTX, and bitbuy.com. It seems that crypto is here to stay, for better or for worse. People can’t stop talking about it — and for good reason! The cryptocurrency market is predicted to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 56.4% from 2019 to 2025 (source).
In order for crypto adoption to be successful, the interfaces themselves must be intuitive and easy to use. This is a huge challenge in this space because of how new and complex of an idea crypto is, and how few people understand it’s full potential. The market is also shrouded with an air of mystery and strange jargon — dapps, web3, deFi, HODL, forking, rekt. It’s hard for the average joe to decipher what any of these means, and even harder for him to trust it. The gates to crypto heaven are heavily guarded.
Inspired by the conversation, I set out on a noble quest to find out what it takes to make a strong crypto exchange from a user experience perspective.
My Goal
In this article I’ll be looking specifically at mobile apps. Since cryptocurrencies are incredibly volatile, users need to be ready to buy and sell at all times in the day. And since we’re all glued to our cellphones, that means an intuitive mobile-first experience is essential. After all, the average US adult spends 3 hours and 43 minutes on their cellphone (source).
As somebody with experience disrupting the fintech space with innovative products, my primary infatuation with crypto UX has to do with breaking the barrier to cryptocurrency investing. For this reason, I looked at these 6 most popular crypto exchanges since those are typically the newbie’s first exposure to cryptocurrency. I recognize however, that there are about as many…
