User Experience Series
UX Strategy Roadmap
Improving Trading Experience
The global bond market today is worth approximately $128 trillion. The size of this market is now being opened up to the crypto world by the way of Secured Finance, a decentralised exchange (DEX) that aims to revolutionise bond trading for both retail and institutional investors.
Against the backdrop of fat finger errors, bond trading scandals in traditional banking and legacy systems that prove to be slow moving for a new market, Secured Finance aims to deliver for users a multitude of structured products in crypto.
The key motivations for using a DEX are privacy, security and cheaper. However, the drawbacks of using a DEX traditionally have been a lack of good user experience because DEXes are used by more sophisticated users.
At Secured Finance, the team recognises the need for great user experience in order for users to trade between different assets seamlessly. This is why a cohesive UX strategy has been crafted to build the Secured Finance app.
Vision / Statement of Intent
Secured Finance aims to be the market leader in the crypto bond market by enabling users to buy and sell bonds that are denominated in crypto. Under the basket of structured products, bonds are the first step towards creating additional liquidity in a market that is still nascent, albeit undergoing a zeitgeist.
The focus of product design within this framework is to enable users to trade bonds in a seamless way by engaging in P2P trading and accessing liquidity that they need. These 2 core actions are met by building a world-class exchange that is simple, clear and robust. Users are delighted with using a DEX that is tailored to their needs and provides sufficient information at every step to allow them to make the best trading decisions.
Goals
With a humanist philosophy, Secured Finance aims to build not just an exchange, but a way for market participants to unlock their financial potential in crypto.
In terms of UX goals, Secured Finance aims to bridge the gap between traditional finance and decentralised finance by:
- Providing easier access to more users to allow them to lend and borrow their own digital assets by the way of easier onboarding, multi-chain bridges, simple navigation structure and streamlined user flows
- Encourage users to take charge of their own assets by providing them with instant feedback at every turn so they know what they are getting in return for using SF
- Delight users by providing a humanist interface that feels personal and friendly, but also progressively tailors to the user’s understanding of the DeFi space. This can be done through tutorials, UI design, interaction design and animations
- Mobile-first UI design to enable newcomers to the crypto market to trade fixed-income crypto bonds with ease
By focusing on the user and executing the basic blocks of Web3 UX well, Secured Finance can aim to:
- Bring in more new users into the Web3 space
- Unlock more liquidity for users in the Web3 space
- Encourage better market participation by retail and institutional investors
Plan
“Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart — and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them. Tools are just tools. They either work, or they don’t work.” — Steve Jobs
Good product design is not supposed to feel loud like you’re shouting on the rooftop saying: “Come up to party!” It’s supposed to feel easy to use, understated, like an old friend that you get to know again after years of drifting apart.
Product design at Secured Finance aims to build towards that feeling through a combination of understanding the user, building modular systems and creating designs that gently guide the user towards building their own versions of their financial future.
Step 1: Reorganising and building a modular design system
In science, everything starts from atoms. (Unless it’s at the quantum level and then we’re talking quarks… but let’s leave that out for now.) Likewise, for product design, everything starts from the fundamentals.
The fundamentals in this case refers to creating a robust design system that can cater to different needs of the user and feels human. The focus will be to build a design system from atoms (buttons, inputs, alerts etc.) all the way to organisms (pages, features etc.), based on the atomic design framework.
Step 2: Creating deeper ways of understanding and connecting with users
Because exchanges are used by different users with different profiles, it is difficult to identify exactly which are the ways to improve features. Thus, it is imperative to continuously keep in tune with users by the way of surveys and analytics to understand users’ preferences while respecting user anonymity.
Ideally, there would be more one-on-one discussions with users who fit a particular profile. Incentives would be provided to encourage user participation as well. This way, users can also be an active participant in the Secured Finance ecosystem.
Step 3: Designing features that users need to allow themselves to attain their financial goals on Secured Finance
By first building out components that can be easily turned into modules, and then understanding the users’ needs and goals, we can then turn to designing the features that users want in order to bring out the best in each user in terms of borrowing, lending and trading bonds on the exchange.
The designing part is both art and science, with a finesse that is gradually honed over iterations. The core features that will be improved over time are still primarily OTC Lending, Markets and Portfolio, but can be gradually expanded to accommodate more types of trading and asset management.
Eventually, core features like OTC Lending could be further enhanced to provide even more customisability through personalisation of the trading interface, the introduction of open source APIs to encourage developers to build widgets for Secured Finance, and more ways to understand market data that gives users an edge over other market participants on other exchanges.
The future is not a giant leap, but a series of incremental steps towards a common vision
The fundamental premise of Web3 is a walk towards democratising finance for the end user. Within the context of structured products and the bond market, this means that Secured Finance aims to be open, transparent and accommodating to Web3 participants who wish to borrow and lend their digital assets.
Realising this vision is not a leap of faith but a series of quantifiable and justifiable design decisions that will shape the outcome of the everyday trader or investor who uses Secured Finance. We aim to realise this future by working collaboratively alongside our users to build a platform that delights our users in an understated and friendly way, just like how that old friend from school recognises you and invites you to a homecoming meal.
About Secured Finance
Secured Finance is revolutionizing the digital asset landscape by constructing interbank-grade capital markets. Our innovative protocol is designed to offer a secure, flexible, and scalable fixed-income solution for digital assets. Comprised of a team of expert investment bankers, we are committed to integrating traditional finance wisdom into the realm of cryptocurrency and digital assets. Stay informed and connected with us for further information and updates.
Secured Finance Official Links
Website | Twitter | GitHub | Galxe | Link3 | Guild
