Crypto
Easy
Educational app for crypto
Project Team : Solo
Parsons Major Studio 2
Timeline : 3 months
Crypto has largely been a "boys' club". CryptoEasy is looking to break the crypto ceiling and give women a seat at the table by providing the right education, tailored their needs. From my research and interviews, I can tell that women are generally interested in learning about crypto but they often don’t know where to start and wish there was more guidance in the learning process. With CryptoEasy you're entering a no judgement zone to learn in a playful way and to build your crypto community.
My core idea in this project was to create more gender equality in crypto. Although CryptoEasy was primarily aimed at the needs of women, it is still intended to make learning easier for everyone.
CONTENT
• Desk Research
• Primary Research
• Analogous Research
• Observational Research
• User Research
• Interview Guide / Script
• Interview Insights
• Affinity Map
• Synthesis
(Insights / Meta Insights / HMW)
• Ideation + Sketching
• Low-Fi Prototypes
• Low-Fi Testing Insights
• Mid-Fi (2 Prototypes)
• Scoping Products MVP
• System Map / Site Map
• User Journey
• Visual Identity System (+ Pivot)
• High-Fi Prototype (+ Insights)
• Relfection
1. RESEARCH
• DESK RESEARCH
Focus Area
Crypto / NFTs & Gender
Assumptions / Questions
Cryptocurrency industry is a male-dominated sector - why?
Why do women not invest in Crypto/nfts?
How could it be easier/more attractive for women to invest in crypto & nfts?
• PRIMARY RESEARCH
Based on articles, websites, and blog posts I've found and read related to the subject, there seems to be a lot of bias when people try to explain why women don't invest as much in crypto as men.
• financial sector
• tech industry
•“not enough knowledge / education”
• “lack of necessary technical skills” (-bias?)
• In general less willingness to take risks
• less money to invest compared to men
Answer might me :
Mentorship programs can be a path to inviting women and building more inclusion.
Having a female-focused crypto mentorship program for women looking to get into the space or just beginning their careers in the industry would create a more welcoming gateway to entry and foster upward mobility and growth of the women who are passionate about building the next wave of fintech products.
• ANALOGOUS RESEARCH
Coinbase & Robin Hood
• OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH
Being guided through Opensea, Discord & Twitter by someone
who invests in NFTs and crypo.
• Setting up a wallet
• Currency
• Buying an NFT
• Selling an NFT
• Managing NFTs
• Statistics (collections)
• Worth of NFTs
• Communities
• Discord Channels
1.2 USER RESEARCH
• INTERVIEWS
Interviews with 5 people who are represented in
• Female 50 : Top Crypto Influencers
• Top 8 Women in Crypto
• 10 Most Inspiring Women in Blockchain
• Top 100 People in Blockchain
• INTERVIEW SCRIPTS / GUIDES
• INTERVIEW INSIGHTS MAP
• AFFINITY MAP
1.3 SYNTHESIS
• INSIGHTS
• META INSIGHTS + HMW
• Meta Insights 1
• Meta Insights 2
• Meta Insights 3
• Meta Insights 4
• Meta Insights 5
-> HMW :
2. PROTOTYPING
• SKETCHING + IDEATION / LoFi
After doing sufficient research, synthesizing and defining my challenge, I began with the ideation process, sketching and wireframing.
2.1 LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPES + TESTING
Crypto Assistant
• Most liked idea
• Helps you to be guided through the whole proccess
• It would be nice to be asked about your motivations first
(Education / community, etc.)
Chat Function
• Users would like to talk to a real person
• Very useful if you only have a few specific questions
• The enter point of the chat needs to be easy to access
• A female assistent is prefered (to ask everything you want without feeling judged)
Social Platform
• Users liked the idea of being able to add other users and to their network and interact with them
• What’s the difference from instagram?
-> You have everything on 1 spot - don’t have to search
• It gives you a good starting point as it shows you good projects - “I wouldn’t know how to find specific things like this on instagram as i know nothing about nfts”
Visual Learning / Videos
• Why wouldn’t I just watch Youtube videos?
-> good point. I would have - to create the whole content.
• Users would prefer visual learning over audio (Podcast)
Blog + Communication
• Users liked the main idea
• But if you’re still learning you don't always know what people are talking about on a blog post -> would be cool to have knowledge level based groups (beginner, advanced, etc.)
Trending Female Projects
• "if crypto is not your passion on instagram it would be harder to find the right information"
// similar to blog or social platform
2.2 MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
• MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPE 1
Focus : Education
Combination of the following features
• Crypto Assistant, Guidance
• Live Chat
• Visual Learning
• MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPE 2
Focus : Community
Combination of the following features
• Social Platform
• Trending Female Projects
• Blog
After testing both prototypes, it was clear that users preferred the first prototype, which focused on education and learning with some community building aspects, over the second prototype, which was more of a social platform with a community building focus.
• SCOPING PRODUCTS MVP
• SYSTEM MAP + USER JOURNEY
• USER JOURNEY
2.3 VISUAL IDENTITY SYSTEM
.jpg)
As CryptoEasy was primarily aimed at the needs of women, it is still intended to make learning easier for everyone. I pivoted a bit from my original branding and interface design "cryptoShe" and tried to make clear that no gender is excluded from CryptoEasy.
2.4 HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
+ TESTING INSIGHTS
Onboarding
After more mid-fi testing, it was clear that the platform needs a great boarding process which meets the users' needs for enough guidance and information.
Therefore, CryptoEasy explains everything in detail and gathers enough information to provide the best experience tailored to the learners' needs and expectations.
• What is your current level of knowledge?
• What are you motivations?
• How much time do you want to invest every day?
• Can we send you notifications?
+ Connect with your friends and explore CryptoEasy together with them.
Learning
The heart of the application is a learning plan that is adapted to the needs of the user based on the boarding information. The user can take a lesson followed by a quiz. After completing the lesson and quiz, a new chapter will be unlocked.
More Insights from testing
• The chapters must be short, with little text, otherwise users lose interest too quickly because they feel overwhelmed.
• Users liked the illustrations because it makes it easier to understand what information the chapter contains.
• Users liked the progress bar as a guide because they could see how far they had come and how many lessons were left.
• The quiz makes it feel like a game so it's not too boring and dry even if crypto isn't your passion.
Community
Since the app focuses on learning, users still liked the ability to add friends from their contacts. From my research I learned how important it is to know people who are also passionate about crypto (in terms of learning or talking about research and new projects). As most people learned from their friends and built their crypto network, CryptoEasy allows you to create a profile and add friends and chat with them to do so.
More Insights from testing
• Users prefer to connect with people they already know
• Users liked the idea of connecting with friends from their contacts. They didn't like the idea of matching with other people (via the app) by their location (security concerns)
• Having a "top 10 list" can be motivating and also show you who you want to get in touch with. (find new friends)
Chat
Not only does chat allow you to chat with your friends or anyone else in the app, your crypto assistant can also pair you with a mentor, allowing users to ask specific questions in real-time.
More Insights from testing
• Users really liked that you can do both - chat with friends and chat with a mentor (live chat).
• Having both options in one frame and being able to switch easily, gives the user a clear understanding of the options ( - some Mi-Fi frames were confusing).
• Keyboard colors are quite unusual, but users liked it as it fits the theme and looks playful (less fear of asking).
• Live Chat : Users appreachiated the added buttons with question suggestions, as they can be a inspiration of what kind of questions you can ask.
Profile
Profile allows you to view your achievements ( / awards) and manage your information + friends.
More Insights from testing
• Awards / medals were popular during testing as users describe them as motivating.
• People suggested that it would be nice to be able to share achievements. (Added this after last testing)
3. NEXT STEPS + REFLECTION
In further steps I would like focus on more interactive elements
/ a little more interaction in the high-fi prototype.
What would I have done differently?
Looking back, I can say that I am satisfied with the outcome, but there is always room for improvement and there are definitely a few things I would have done differnetly.
• CryptoEasy was a challanging project, as all I wanted was to provide more gender inclusitivity in this field, I was in danger to possibly exclude other genders ( - which was never my intention).
• I had very long interviews with some really inspiring women in crypto, but instead of having very long interviews (some were over 3 hours) - I would rather focus on interviewing more people. I would also try to focus on interviewing less "pros" in this field and more people who don't know anything about crypto (only with a general interest to learn about it).
• If you want to develop a good product, testing is crucial. I tested a lot but maybe I would test a bit more if I had more time.
• I created the visual identity system a little earlier and it has actually changed a bit. Maybe I would focus on the user interface later in the future.
• I really wanted to fill the app with so many great features - and many ideas came later in the process after the ideation part / while I was already mid-fi testing. So I tried to test them as well, which took a lot of time. I think I would be more selective with the additional features in the future.
ARE YOU ..
.. interested to learn more about this project or a case studie presentation with additional, more detailed material ?