#grpartners: UX research and design for blockchain project Synthetix.io

The Synthetix.io project enables the creation of synthetic assets that offer unique derivatives and exposure to real assets on the blockchain. Synthetix powers decentralized perpetual futures, options markets, trade coordination markets and more. Our mission is to improve the user experience within the Synthetix Staking web application.

From UX Research to UX & UI design

The user experience starts from the first contact and it doesn't end when you actually start using the application, so in order to improve the user experience, it is necessary to thoroughly understand the product itself, how it's working, functions and focus on the needs and experiences of users who understand the field of blockchain, cryptocurrencies and have experience with crypto projects - what they need, what problems they have, preferences and past experiences.

Challenge

The aim of the cooperation is to redesign the web application staking.synthetix.io so that we improve the user experience. Research will help us identify the user journey - the experience before, during and after using the product, thereby identifying problems with the current design and revealing opportunities to improve the experience. During the initial analysis, we took a detailed look at the staking application, which led to several questions that subsequently helped us identify problems. For example:

• How do users use the app?
• How do users understand the titles and displayed information?
• How do they move in staking applications?

UX Research

We plan to get answers to the questions and challenges in two ways. Qualitative findings will help us find out how users react when they first interact with the product, the experience while using the product, and how they rate the overall product experience. We also included the methods of contextual interviews and usability testing in the research plan.

We will then verify the claims found using a survey among active users within the Discord community. Research outputs will provide us with concrete recommendations for improving UX & UI.

UX and UI design of a new web application solution

Based on the valuable inputs from the research phase, we will be able to start with the design of wireframes that will allow to clarify and visualize the ideas behind the design of the user experience of the new solution.

Once the wireframes are approved, it will be possible to move to the UI design and prototyping phase, which allows to create a clickable prototype in order to test the new UX and UI solution and then determine the UX state of the solution design, while analyzing the new user experience in conjunction with the design.

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