COINBASE
DASHBOARD REDESIGN
ROLE
As a user and new-comer to the cryptocurrency buying and selling world, Coinbase was my first introduction to the exchange. Although it is simple and easy to learn, I thought it was missing some key features to help newbies learn more, so I took a stab at redesigning the home page.
GOAL
My goal with redesigning the homepage dashboard is to offer missing features for understanding portfolio losses and gains as well as providing relevant and current news so that newcomers can be more informed about the market.
RESULT
A dashboard that is easy to use, teaches, and informs and opens up the user experience to be more visually appealing and engaging to a broader audience.
PROBLEM
One of the biggest issues I run into when using Coinbase is knowing my individual currency losses and gains as well as my overall wallet's losses and gains over time. If I visit the Coinbase dashboard, I will see what my Bitcoin is currently worth, but I will not know what my losses or gains are on my investment in comparison to what it was worth when I purchased the currency.
This information is segregated from the above and is less valuable because of it. I do not know my purchase value only current value and there is no way to easily make a comparison.
Masculine color scheme and tone.
Doesn’t show gains or losses from market value to current value over time for the total portfolio.
Doesn’t show gains or losses from market value to current value over time per currency.
I did not feel recent activity was priority information and could be featured as a link or button to the Accounts section where all history and transactions could be listed.
RESEARCH
I interviewed 10 users about their understanding of crypto, blockchain, and their experience using Coinbase.
"Those few Bitcoin investors are of a fairly consistent demographic. An overwhelming 71 percent of them are male. The majority -- 58 percent -- are young, between the ages of 18 and 34 years old. And unlike the broader U.S. population, nearly half of them are minorities."
- Bloomberg
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Although I believe in clean and easy to use design, I often find most user interfaces to be boring and disengaging. If the majority of currency owners are young, why not create a more exciting design?
"Despite a growing number of initiatives such as Bitcoin Women's Day, women using bitcoin are still a minority, with over 90% of bitcoin users in our survey identifying as male. Though this figure is a minuscule improvement (5.2%) from the male majority seen in previous surveys." - CoinDesk
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Lack of female engagement and interest. By looking at platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram which have a dominant female user base, I looked for things that women want/like. My number one takeaway was that females like to embrace their personal style and what makes them unique. So a one size fits all platform was not the best solution.
WIREFRAMING & DEVELOPMENT
Key features to be added:
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Allow for cash outs from PayPal and Venmo to Coinbase.
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Include information icons about tax information such as short term gains and losses and more information about things like Tax Loss Harvesting. Digital currency is still an investment and should be treated as such.
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Include a Portfolio Market Cap and Portfolio Prospects so that Coinbase can collect data on its users future of potential investments. If a large portion of users has a specific currency in their Portfolio Prospects, it can be an indicator used for adding new digital currencies later to the Coinbase exchange.
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Make the Account Features an area for easy access to important information,.
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Add a customizable RSS feed from users' choice of news sources, adding another element of information and education.
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Make customizable backgrounds or offer more than one color scheme.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
After interviewing and testing with an additional 8 females, all of them unanimously agreed they preferred the redesign to the current Coinbase dashboard, with a specific interest in the customization aspect. Many preferred V1 over V2, but all liked that there was another option and a few thought that V2 was better because it was more visually engaging and interesting.
After interviewing 8 men, there was an even split between liking the old aesthetic to the new, but all unanimously agreed they liked the added features such as overall wallet and currency gains and losses, as well as the news feed.
V2-Black
