Case Study

Making crypto investments feel simple and trustworthy

Utilising banking patterns to design a familiar experience

Summary

🏦 Crypto speculation → trustworthy financial planning
💡 Banking patterns that make Bitcoin feel safe
🎯 52% increase in daily users through trust-building design
🔒 Bridging the gap between crypto innovation and financial security

Overview

Bitstocks was the UK's first Bitcoin advisory service, established in 2014. Following years of crypto market volatility and public skepticism, we needed to transform how people perceived cryptocurrency investing.

I designed an experience that made crypto complexities feel intuitive while building the trust necessary for users to make their first investment. The app's launch resulted in a 52% increase in daily active users, 23% increase in KYC completion rates, and 66% decrease in time to first use.

Highlights

Beautifully simple

No-frills investing

Beautifully
durable

aerospace-grade
aluminum

Beautifully
durable

aerospace-grade
aluminum

Pots for fiat and crypto

Localised experiences

3 Fantastic Colors

Blue

Pink

Black

Featured screens

An end-to-end mobile experience that transformed crypto complexity into banking-familiar patterns, focusing on trust-building over feature showcasing.

CONTEXT

The crypto trust crisis

Hacks, lost wallets, and scams.

Bitcoin had crashed from $20,000 to $3,200. Stories of exchange hacks, lost wallets, and ICO scams dominated headlines. Most people viewed crypto as digital gambling, not legitimate investing.

THE PROBLEM

How do you design for trust in a crypto winter?

A cascade of user anxieties

"I don't understand what's happening to my money"
- Complex wallet addresses and transaction IDs
- Unclear fee structures and processing times
- No familiar reference points

"I don't want to be scammed"
- Lack of human-centred design and clarity
- Unclear amount of control of your own account

"Does this count as gambling?"
- Volatile price movements without being alerted
- Lack of educational resources at decision points

THE CHALLENGE

With regulation catching up to crypto, how can design preserve its innovative spirit while fostering user trust and compliance?

Understanding the trust gap.

A huge confidence cliff

Through interviews with 24 potential users (mix of crypto-curious and crypto-experienced), I discovered a pattern: users were willing to learn about crypto, but unwilling to act on that knowledge. The high profile scams and fraud had deepened this fear.

Analysing what already exists

Feature-rich crypto apps but initimidating to new users

Banking apps that don't have crypto as their main focus

THE OPPORTUNITY

To design a product that bridges the experience of crypto innovation and investment with intuitive banking trust signals.

Jobs-to-be-done framework

PRODUCT DESIGN

Making complexity feel simple.

The purchase flow

The core purchase experience was designed to feel like a bank transfer. Users could see there connected cards and even name them for true clarity and control

Price alerts

Users could set up there own price alerts - which had multple benefits of increasing daily active users and helping users feel in control of their account and assets.

Asset Management

Instead of trading references, we doubled down on 'assets' and 'balances', somewhat similar to banks, rather than 'portfolios' and 'profit/loss', similar to trading platforms.

KEY INSIGHT

A lot of users forget crypto can be spent, not just held.

Customer support, when they need it.

Bitstocks had zero security breaches but embedding trust and guardrails in places you would expect to see it in your online bank, helped foster trust with our community of users.

Don’t isolate a legacy web app users.

These users often possess valuable insights and institutional knowledge that can guide the development process. Instead of imposing abrupt changes, we should prioritise a gradual migration strategy to continue and build upon our trustworthy relationship.

Cross-collaborating for the best results

Insights from different perspectives

By fostering an environment of open communication and cooperation among product design, engineering, security, and customer support teams, we were able to leverage the unique expertise of each department. Regular brainstorming sessions and workshops encouraged the sharing of ideas and perspectives, ensuring that all angles of user experience were considered.

This cross-functional collaboration not only facilitated innovative problem-solving but also aligned everyone around a common goal: enhancing user trust and engagement in our platform. The synergy created through this teamwork ultimately led to more comprehensive solutions, resulting in a product that truly meets the needs of our users.