UX Case Study - Summer 2021
The challenge for this 3-week project was to develop a new feature for an existing company based on an area I would like to explore. I decided to focus on cryptocurrency because it's an exciting new area of the internet that will face a lot of challenges onboarding new users. To fulfill the assignment, I produced the following deliverables:
I followed the four D's of design: discover, define, develop, deliver - also known as the Double Diamond Design Process.
When I started the assignment, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, and the U.K.'s Metro Bank had cut off OnlyFans' ability to pay adult content creators. Consequently, the creators were scared that they would lose their livelihood, so I sought to design an alternative payment route. I felt that it was vital to try to negate the stress users experienced.
OnlyFans is a content subscription service where content creators earn money from fans who subscribe to their content. The site has 2 million creators and 130 million users.
From a user interview, I learned that OnlyFans was important and different from other platforms because it centralized paywalls (for subscriptions), places for users to unlock content at a price (pay-per-view/ tipping), content stores, and live streams. It became popular during the pandemic when many users lost their jobs.
I defined the problem statement later in the process, but here it is upfront for ease of reference:
Because cryptocurrency payment gateways are a new technology, I relied heavily on research. Before starting, I defined the questions I needed to answer:
Through my secondary research, I learned about the company's relationship to banking institutions and how this could be problematic. In addition, I tried to "read the room" to evaluate if users were ready to try using cryptocurrency as currency.
The main things I discovered through secondary research include:
I looked at other companies' banking/ wallet connect and transaction sequences for inspiration. Humans love the familiar. Well, except when it's badly designed or inconvenient.
During a survey, I tried to understand users' relationships to cryptocurrency
During the user interviews, I focused on understanding the audience, how people use Onlyfans, and whether they would be open to cryptocurrency transactions.
The results of the interviews were valuable because they gave me deep insight into the users' motives for using OnlyFans. Some key feedback includes:
The second stage of my project was to synthesize all my research as a primer for the design solutions.
The results of my research, survey, and interviews confirmed the most significant pain point would be the novelty of the cryptocurrency checkout sequence. Users feel hesitant to use cryptocurrency like fiat currency.
Through understanding my personas and predicament of the company, I was able to define a clear problem statement.
Ultimately, adult content users on OnlyFans need an alternative payment gateway, like cryptocurrency, because of the negative bias from financial providers.
The third stage of the design project is the development, where hypothesizes are created, prototyped, tested, and iterated.
I brainstormed some areas which I need to explore and develop in the ideation phase:
I chose to use Coinbase's API because
I started my ideation process by understanding current customer journeys. I'm not an OnlyFans user, so I wanted to understand subscriber's and creators' paths on the site. Then, I tried to understand the Coinbase API sequences. I sketched flows on paper. I integrated the two flows into a low-fidelity prototype.
I narrated the the customer journeys. Then I copied the existing screens to make my task flows.
To view the full stories, please click below.
I built a few prototypes that illustrated adding cryptocurrency to an OnlyFans wallet (subscriber perspective) and linking a Coinbase e-wallet (creator perspective.)
It was challenging to find people to interview because I needed users who 1) spend crypto and 2) subscribe to OnlyFans. It wasn't easy because both groups often remain anonymous. I had some luck learning about user experiences through Reddit, but it was hard to turn those conversations into 1:1 usability interviews. However, I found two participants and asked them to click through my prototype.
There were a few designs I wasn't sure about, so I did some A/B testing to determine which layout was more delightful and intuitive. For example, in the model below, the user adds funds to their wallet by clicking on the $10, $20, $50, $100. Here, I wasn't sure how to ask the user for their preferred payment method. Should the prompt remain in the same frame or generate a new one?
In Design Option 1, I included a drop down with payment options.
The two users liked Design Option 2 because it was more informative and felt more familiar.
Additionally, I learned that they want the USD and crypto amounts next to each other while choosing a wallet to link. Users also mentioned it would be helpful to have a way to go to Coinbase to add funds if they are low.
I updated the prototype to reflect their feedback.
There are many lessons I learned throughout this project.
When designing for new technology, there might not be an exact replica to copy, but a designer can look at similar products for reference. For example, there are checkout sequences with cryptocurrency, but most involve getting your phone out and putting in a QR code. Therefore reviewing non-cyprto payment gateways like Paypal and Stripe was helpful.
Rather than recreating the wheel, there might already be a third-party solution to affix. Connecting an API was way more reasonable than reengineering a whole payment system.
Technology changes fast. Since completing the case study, new e-wallet technology is available. I've found other wallet connects like MoonPay that might work better at onboarding the nontechnical user. I've learned that Coinbase's wallet collect applies a service fee if you move coin across your Coinbase account.
The room changes too. Now, people are spending crypto more because NFTs became popular.
I've learned a lot more about web3. I've discovered gas fees might be too expensive for this to work. For example, moving ETH is costly, but perhaps things will work better when ETH moves from PoW to PoS.
Its a very exciting space for UX right now!