Digital Asset Monitor
Creating the first web-app in the market for digital asset risk evaluation
Project Details
Company
Moody’s
Duration
7 months (Aug 2023-Feb 2024)
Team
2 PMs, 1.5 designers*, 10 devs
Skills
Product Design
*For the first 3 months, I worked with another designer from an agency Moody’s had hired. All work shown in this case study is my own.
The first of its kind
Currently, there is no tool in the digital currency market that allows investors to evaluate the risk of different stablecoins. This team wanted to be the first in the market to launch a web-app where investors could monitor stablecoin risk.
Coin context
A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that is backed by fiat currency, or government-backed currency. Learn more
So…
How might we design a first-of-its-kind tool for stablecoin risk evaluation?
My role
I redesigned the existing proof of concept and created new features with the product team.
Legacy Design
The Existing Proof of Concept that I Inherited
In the proof of concept, the details for a specific coin were hard to interpret for not only a new user but an experienced user, as well. Some (supposedly) related metrics were grouped together, but the layout was not balanced, nor was it implemented well.
Design Collaboration
Collaborating with a Third Party Agency
In designing the new look, I worked with a designer from a third party agency. He chose the colors, and I executed on the components and design. Keeping the information largely the same, I enhanced the usability and comprehensibility of the page (though, I was not convinced of the blue theme).
New Feature
Designing the Portfolio Experience
Post redesign, I was asked to design a way for users to create a portfolio of a few select stablecoins that they are interested in monitoring more closely. Not every bank will care about every stablecoin entered in the Moody’s database, so they need a way to view just the 2 or 3 tokens they have invested in.
With this experience, I created 3 unique designs to share with the team.
Option 1
The user could navigate across stablecoins in their portfolio and instantaneously view coin details on the right side of the screen. Instead of having to be directed to a new page to see coin details, the experience is swifter and more efficient.
Option 2 (Implemented)
The second option leveraged the common “favorites” experience in consumer applications. In the stablecoin overview table, a user could “favorite” a coin and have it appear at the top of the page under the new “Portfolio” section.
Option 3
The final option was inspired by the team, as they suggested incorporating a new portfolio page where users can add and remove tokens via a table. I mocked this up for them to visualize their suggested idea because it encourages collaboration, but comparing this option to the other two, this one offered the least utility.
Company Rebrand
A Great Opportunity
Around the same time that this project was underway, Moody’s as a whole company was preparing itself to launch its new brand: new colors, typography, logo, values, etc. At this point, we were no longer working with a third party agency, so I was the sole designer, which gave me the perfect opportunity to redo the visual aesthetic.
Admin Panel
Designing for the Behind-the-Scenes Admin
As with any enterprise application, this application also had an admin section for the admin to configure settings, alerts, and other data that is then seen in the user-facing interface (what has already been presented above).
I was tasked with allowing an admin to add attestations, a document that verifies the authenticity of a currency transaction, to the application. Adding an attestation requires that the admin have the dates for when the attestation was made, when it was published, the URL, the auditor, custodians (e.g. Goldman Sachs Asset Management), and any attestation items.
User Flow Diagram
Understanding the Current Product
To understand where this task flow would fit in with the existing workflow, I presented the following diagram to our engineers and PMs.
Prototype
A Sneak Peek at the Admin Panel
Prototyping the happy path for engineers was crucial to show how the interface should behave.
User Feedback
It’s hard (but important) to hear negative feedback
When we first launched the MVP in January 2024, the PM was able to find one customer, Bank for International Settlements (BIS), willing to try the tool out. They applauded the tool for being innovative and new; however, they said that the tool felt a little cheaper than others in the current market. While the PM and I disagreed on what about the app caused them to develop this impression, this was not great initial feedback to receive.
If I had another chance to design this POC, I would dedicate more time with engineers to spend perfecting the details and micro-interactions, such as loading states and animations, as represented in the original design, to give the app a more polished feel (perhaps then, we would have received different feedback altogether). Regardless, I will say that this was my first time working with engineers hired from a third-party agency who may not have been as accustomed to working 1x1 with in-house designers, and I’ve learned that it is on the designer to then educate and advocate for the importance of close designer-engineer collaboration in the QA stage before code pushes to main.