EQONEX
Mobile App Journey
Upon joining EQONEX in February 2021, I was excited to lead end-to-end designs from concept development to implementation and optimisation of core features of the first mobile app.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing its growth from its Beta phase, MVP phase, and Day 1. On top of that, v2.0 is in the works.
Role
Design Lead
Discovery & ideation, design, building the mobile app design system, project management and documentation, testing & prototyping
Team
1 Design Lead
1 UI Committee
Composed of 8 coming from different departments: Product, Marketing, Project Management
1 Product Owner
1 Business Analyst
1 Tech Lead (Frontend)
Platform
Mobile App
Goal
Acquire novice and retail users to trade on EQONEX to increase trading volume.
How?
Build a mobile app that caters to two types of customers with equal importance:
Novice & retail; and
Professional traders
The approach was to create two modes for the app: Lite & Pro. Our Exchange’s existing customer base are professional and institutional traders. We have the existing features needed for the Pro version, which we can implement into the mobile app.
Challenge No. 1
The main challenge is the Lite version. Why?
We don’t have novice traders internally to conduct sufficient user testing and surveys to better evaluate the Lite version’s target audience’s needs and preferences.
We have professional and experienced traders who have their own personal biases on what are considered Lite features.
Research & Findings
Starting off, I conducted competitor analysis on various crypto apps, specifically apps that have both Lite and Pro modes within the same app or are separate app versions. In addition, I also looked into apps that are retail focused. The apps I researched on are: Binance, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Kraken, Liquid, and OKEX. I cross-examined their:
Information architecture
X-factor features
Onboarding journey
Order forms
Charts
Dashboard
App ratings, ranking and customer reviews
Exploration
I worked closely with the UI committee, shared my findings and proposed information architecture based on the research done. I worked closely with them in defining the feature requirements and expectations for Beta and MVP. After this has been deliberated and agreed on, I shared wireframes of the key pages before moving onto the art direction exploration.
Challenge No. 2
As the project progressed, there was a change in direction from business. The change was to no longer give our target audiences equal importance. It was changed to:
Primary users: novice and retail
Secondary users: professional traders
There was also a change in mobile app direction - two modes to be discontinued as instructed by business due to time constraints and tech capacity.
Two types of users being catered by one app was the challenge in itself. There was a need to clearly define the key objectives and motivations of why x user and y user would use the app.
Primary users
Motivations:
Earn a quick buck
Be able to use the app with easy
Providing an opportunity to learn
Fear of missing out
Paint Points
New to crypto
Inexperienced in trading
Reserved trading volume
Complicated onboarding process
High fee and lack of transparency
Lack of trust to the company
Problem
How might we encourage novice traders to start trading on our mobile app?
Secondary users
Motivations:
Check markets on the go
Be able to do a quick trade
Check their open orders and open positions
Be able to close positions when needed
Paint Points
Do not have the products they are looking for
Spread is not tight
Complicated onboarding process
Lack of pro-trading functionalities
Problem
How might we encourage the experienced traders to trade on our mobile app?
Design Exploration
EQONEX Mobile App Beta
User Feedback
The team worked alongside an agency to help us with the focus group we needed and to gather qualitative data. I worked closely with them and provided the briefs. The data we received is what drove the iterations and prioritisation for key pages and features of the MVP version:
Trade page i.e. chart
Spot Order Form
Findings
EQONEX Mobile App MVP — iterate, iterate, iterate
Achieving omnichannel with v2.0
As the business evolved, the direction for the mobile app has evolved as well. The Exchange went through a major UI overhaul and the next version of the mobile app is to match the Exchange. This is to achieve omnichannel experience. Not only does the app go through a facelift using our new Design System, there are key pages that would be updated:
Spot & Perpetual Order Forms
Chart
Markets
