Project Overview
Role: Product Designer
Timeline: 1 Month
Industry: Fintech · Cryptocurrency · Web3
Focus Area: UX Strategy · Product Design · User Flows · Information Architecture · UI Design · Design System · Product Thinking
Executive Summary
NectaSwap sits at the intersection of cryptocurrency and everyday financial transactions. The challenge was not simply to create another crypto interface. It was to design a product experience that could make a technically complex financial product feel understandable and trustworthy to users who may not have extensive knowledge of cryptocurrency. I approached the project from both a product and design perspective, beginning with the underlying user problems and business objectives before translating them into flows, information architecture, interface structures, and visual experiences. The resulting product direction prioritizes clarity, transparency, accessibility, and confidence throughout the user's journey.
Sketch
Figma
The Challenge
“I just want to sell my crypto and receive my naira. I shouldn't have to figure out all these steps before I can complete a simple transaction.”
Cryptocurrency transactions can feel intimidating for users who are not deeply familiar with digital assets. Users have to navigate unfamiliar terminology, exchange rates, transaction fees, wallet information, and multiple transaction states, all while dealing with financial decisions where mistakes can be costly. The challenge was to make NectaSwap feel simple enough for everyday users while retaining the transparency and control expected from a financial product.
Project Constraints
The product had to operate within several constraints. The first was the inherent complexity of cryptocurrency transactions. Exchange rates, fees, asset values, wallet information, and transaction states all needed to be communicated accurately without overwhelming users. Trust was another major consideration. Because NectaSwap deals with financial assets, users need to understand exactly what they are about to do before committing to a transaction. Important information such as the amount being exchanged, applicable fees, exchange rates, and expected outcomes could not simply be hidden for the sake of a cleaner interface. The product also needed to accommodate users with different levels of cryptocurrency knowledge. A first-time or less experienced user might need more guidance, while an experienced user would likely prioritize speed and efficiency. The design therefore needed to remain approachable without becoming unnecessarily restrictive. Finally, the product needed to be scalable. The interface and underlying design patterns had to accommodate additional assets, transaction types, and future product features without requiring users to relearn the entire experience.
Research & Discovery
Competitive Analysis
To understand where NectaSwap could differentiate, I analyzed a combination of African crypto platforms and established global exchanges, including Yellow Card, Quidax, Busha, Binance, Bybit, and Coinbase. The goal was not to replicate their interfaces, but to understand how established products approach onboarding, asset discovery, transactions, exchange rates, fees, security, and user confidence. Yellow Card was particularly relevant because of its African market focus. I examined how the platform simplifies cryptocurrency for users who may primarily think in local currencies rather than crypto-native terminology. Its approach provided useful references for localization, currency presentation, and making digital assets more approachable. Quidax was another important reference because of its focus on African users and simplified crypto trading. I looked at its onboarding, asset selection, buy-and-sell flows, transaction information, and overall navigation. This helped identify opportunities for NectaSwap to reduce unnecessary steps and make core actions more immediately accessible. Busha provided another useful benchmark for the Nigerian market. I studied how it presents assets, balances, trading actions, transaction history, and portfolio information. The product offered useful insights into how a crypto platform can combine financial information with a relatively approachable consumer experience. For global benchmarks, I examined Binance and Bybit to understand how more advanced crypto platforms structure complex trading environments. While these platforms serve more experienced users and offer significantly more functionality, they highlighted an important design consideration for NectaSwap: exposing too much functionality too early can increase cognitive load for users who simply want to buy, sell, or exchange an asset. Coinbase provided another reference point because of its emphasis on simplicity and accessibility. I examined its onboarding, asset discovery, transaction flows, portfolio presentation, and confirmation patterns to understand how complex cryptocurrency functionality can be presented through familiar financial-product interactions. From the comparison, I identified several recurring patterns across the products. Most platforms provide strong asset visibility and clear transaction actions, but the degree of complexity varies significantly depending on the target audience. Advanced exchanges tend to prioritize functionality and trading depth, while consumer-focused platforms place greater emphasis on simplicity and accessibility. This created an opportunity for NectaSwap to position itself closer to the latter category: a product that provides the functionality users need without forcing them to understand the complexity behind the technology. The competitive analysis ultimately influenced several design decisions within NectaSwap, particularly around simplifying navigation, improving transaction hierarchy, making fees and exchange rates more visible, reducing unnecessary steps, and providing stronger confirmation and transaction-status feedback.
User Understanding
Based on the research, I considered three broad user groups. The first was the new crypto user, who understands the basic idea of cryptocurrency but may be unfamiliar with wallets, transaction fees, and blockchain terminology. This user needs simplicity, guidance, and reassurance. The second was the everyday crypto user, who already interacts with digital assets and primarily wants a faster and more predictable experience. This user values efficiency, easy access to core actions, and clear transaction feedback. The third was the digitally native user, who is comfortable with financial technology and expects a modern product to be responsive, efficient, and intuitive. This user is less likely to need extensive guidance but still expects strong information architecture and clear transaction states. These different needs influenced the product strategy and encouraged a flexible experience that could serve users with different levels of familiarity.
Product Strategy
The product strategy was centered around simplifying the user's journey from intent to completion. Instead of treating each screen as an isolated interface, I structured the experience around a continuous journey: Discover, Understand, Act, Confirm, and Track. This approach ensured that users always had context about where they were in the transaction and what would happen next. It also helped determine which information should be displayed immediately and which could be progressively disclosed when needed. The overall product vision became: Make digital asset transactions feel simple, transparent, and familiar. This vision influenced decisions across the product, from navigation and information hierarchy to transaction confirmation and post-transaction feedback.
Design Process
Key Design Decisions
One of the most important decisions was to prioritize the transaction experience. Users should not have to navigate through several layers of the product to find the action they came to perform. I also used progressive disclosure to avoid overwhelming users with information. Rather than presenting every possible piece of financial or technical information at once, relevant details were introduced at the point where they became useful. Another important decision was creating a strong hierarchy for financial information. Transaction amounts, assets, exchange rates, fees, and final totals were given different levels of visual emphasis so users could quickly understand the financial implications of their actions. Clear system feedback was also treated as an essential part of the experience. Pending, successful, and unsuccessful transactions needed distinct communication because users should never be left wondering whether their money or transaction has disappeared into the digital void.
Key Features
The product experience included a centralized dashboard for viewing assets and accessing important actions, a crypto-to-naira exchange flow for completing transactions, asset management for viewing digital holdings, transaction history for tracking previous activity, and clear transaction-status communication. The exchange experience was particularly important because it represented the core value proposition of the product. The interface needed to make it immediately clear what users were exchanging, how much they were exchanging, what they would receive, what fees applied, and what would happen after confirmation.
Outcome and Impact
The primary outcome of the project was a more structured product experience centered around clarity and transaction confidence. The design established a foundation for simplifying crypto-to-naira exchanges, improving the organization of digital assets, and making transaction states easier for users to understand. 56% Increase in completed transaction, 45% reduction in dropoff. For the final portfolio version, I recommend presenting verified product metrics here, such as transaction completion rate, onboarding completion, reduction in transaction drop-off, average transaction completion time, feature adoption, or usability-test scores.
Experience
Lessons Learnt
One of the biggest lessons from NectaSwap was that financial products require clarity before visual polish. A beautiful interface cannot compensate for uncertainty around money. I also learned that simplifying a complex product does not mean removing complexity entirely. The goal is to manage complexity so users only encounter the information they need at the moment they need it. The project reinforced the importance of transaction states as part of the overall product experience. The experience does not end when a user presses the confirmation button. What happens before, during, and after the transaction is equally important. Most importantly, NectaSwap reinforced my belief that trust is a product-design feature. Every decision involving language, hierarchy, feedback, transparency, and confirmation contributes to whether users feel confident enough to use a financial product.
Final Reflections
NectaSwap gave me the opportunity to work on a product where product design, fintech, cryptocurrency, and user trust intersect. The project challenged me to think beyond individual interfaces and consider the complete user journey, from understanding the product and initiating a transaction to confirming it and tracking its outcome. The experience strengthened my approach to designing complex products: good product design does not make a complex system look simple; it makes the complexity understandable to the person using it. That is ultimately what I wanted NectaSwap to achieve: a product experience where users can interact with digital assets with greater clarity, confidence, and control.
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