“Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero.”
— Voltaire
What is CointraPro?
CointraPro is a fictitious cryptocurrency brokerage created by me. The clickable prototype below features five complete sample pages (a homepage, category page, product page, shopping cart page, and checkout).
What follows is a breakdown of the historical context leading to its inception, brand philosophy, design framework, and refinements based on user surveys.
Introduction
To understand CointraPro is to grasp how far we have come in a very short amount of time. A true paradigm shift in the way we view the exchange of money has taken shape, beginning with the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008. It is postulated that Bitcoin and the idea of a completely decentralized digital unit of exchange had its genesis in the wake of the great bank bailouts of the late 2000s, the era of the “too big to fail” mentality. Consider too that in 2008 Zimbabwe was ravaged by its own reckless fiscal policies that saw hyperinflation take the cost of a loaf of bread soaring to 35 million Zimbabwe dollars. The annals of history are littered with tales of countries and even entire civilizations brought to the brink of destruction by out of control national debts and the unchecked creation of fiat currency.
The true identity of the creator of Bitcoin is to this day unknown, but is this such a surprise? Perhaps the idea of a fixed-quantity currency unencumbered by borders, egregious overregulation, and debasement through inflation is fundamentally more vital than the person (or people) behind its creation. Some leading economists have said that we are in the biggest monetary policy experiment in human history – one need only look to the past for a sense of where this path will lead us in the near future.
When viewed through this lens, the timing of Bitcoin’s creation in 2008 appears far from coincidental. What is clear is that free market forces have begun in earnest to seek alternative ways to exchange goods and services. There are now hundreds, if not thousands of different crypto options available for consumers to transact with on a daily basis.
This is how CointraPro and its brand positioning has taken form.
Logo
In many ways the CointraPro logo is the total embodiment of the mysterious beauty of the cryptocurrency market. The logo is quite simply a flower, with its earthy greens conveying a sense of organic growth, purity, and natural evolution, while the geometric grid lines emanating from the core hint at the interconnectedness of the underpinning blockchain technology. The asymmetrical and angular nature of the logo is meant to convey dominance, authority, credibility, and action.
What emerges in the final design is a clear feeling of order from chaos at a time that feels less in control than ever before.
Design process and considerations
Unlike most other financial instruments, universal acceptance of cryptocurrencies as legitimate units of exchange is in its nascent stage. Therefore it was critical for the CointraPro website to direct subliminal energy to increase the confidence and trust of end users.
As demonstrated below, the CointraPro color palette enables the brand to be communicated clearly and appropriately. It facilitates a virtual environment of prosperity, knowledge, and peace of mind. The subtle brightness and intensity of the colors is a nod to the youthful energy that is driving much of the momentum for this burgeoning market.
CointraPro employs the triadic approach to color strategy. The primary green evokes the more recognizable characteristics associated with the hue:
Wealth
Stability
Education
Calm
The secondary palette, which contains slightly warmer colors provides needed accenting effects and visual emphasis. The secondary orange lends a welcome sense of playful informality while the sparing use of violet conveys proud tradition and confidence.
Site design and layout
Design inspiration was drawn from a number of other established e-commerce sites (e.g. Nike and Amazon), but none provided more insight than that of competitor site Coinbase. Coinbase boasts more than 30 million active users on its exchange and has recorded more than $150 billion traded in cryptocurrency. The flat UI design is clean, modern, and professional and it does a good job inspiring confidence in the legitimacy of the site. Coinbase also incentivizes users to learn more about the cryptocurrencies it offers for trading on its site, which also helped guide some of the initial visioning and layout planning for CointraPro. It was always the aim of CointraPro to provide robust educational resources throughout the site and even the checkout process.
Coinbase’s purchase screen
While flat design such as that employed in Coinbase is crisp and clean, it does not guarantee a high degree of usability. Other considerations are necessary, including layout, typography, data density, and imagery. Preceding final design direction, user requirements were documented and initial wireframes depicting a common transaction workflow helped clarify a vision for the site, including look and feel. The interface would be uncluttered and sophisticated, yet welcoming. Educational but not patronizing.
Homepage wireframe
UX evaluation process and findings
A hybrid evaluation was developed and tested with a small user set of 12 participants. Three out of the twelve testers had previous experience purchasing cryptocurrencies, while the remaining nine had none. Users were guided through the test purchase of a crypto asset (in this example, $10k worth of Bitcoin) and then asked to comment at each step of the way how well their needs were being met as a potential customer. This purposefully open-ended and slightly ambiguous repetitive questioning was meant to keep testers in the mindset of a prospective customer taking a potential purchase seriously.
The test combined elements of a standard SUS-style questionnaire with a directed step-by-step walkthrough of the key workflow. It is well known that SUS surveys work well for smaller sample sizes; administering the survey was simple and it produced reliable and interesting results. The fast turnaround enabled quick differentiation of usable versus unusable elements in the website, and it also helped identify areas of user confusion. The principal findings from the survey are summarized below:
Transaction security and legitimacy. Users are counting on CointraPro to deliver a secure shopping experience and a perceived lack of security affects user trust. The version of CointraPro tested does not feature many of the visual cues typical of popular e-commerce sites, including (but not limited to): PCI DSS Validated Security Metrics; Norton Secured powered by Verisign; BBB Accreditation; and Bizrate.
Real-world applicability. A general sentiment from the survey results is that CointraPro assumes more consumer knowledge of the cryptocurrency realm than is actually true. More could be done to explain the exact use cases for each of the crypto products, and the addition of testimonials could help clearly differentiate each asset.
Clarity of homepage messaging. As noted from the outset, the importance of the homepage in setting an appropriate tone is not to be overstated. Survey results indicated broad confusion with the “Get Started” call-to-action button as well as the meaning of “CTP Academy Exclusive” content. Future iterations of the design will revisit this and examine the incorporation of other elements to build trust in the site.
Design refinements
The goal of the testing was to improve usability. Based on my findings, a number of key changes were implemented in the final design, including:
Addition of a sitewide topline navigation bar which includes links to the shopping cart, online support, personalized CTP Academy content, and a location tracker. This was done to give users fast access to popular resources, and the addition of the shopping cart gives users the ability to jump immediately into the checkout process if they have assets saved in progress.
Addition of a celebrity testimonial to the homepage as a vote of confidence in the site’s authenticity and credibility.
Rewritten CTP Academy section on the homepage to read as “New from CTP Academy” and a prompt to log in to see the content was added to reinforce the purpose behind this area and make it clear the content is for registered users. Complete descriptions of each piece of exclusive CTP Academy content were also included.
Addition of security badges to the final step of the checkout process to reinforce the safety and security of completing this purchase. During usability testing it was clear that users needed a bit more reassurance in the legitimacy of the site if they were to be expected to place a hefty order.
Addition of a short description of use cases on the Bitcoin product page to provide better context for real-world applicability. For a complete site build-out, each product page would have its own section with use cases and testimonials.