Ultim Studio partnered with Union Finance as their founding design team to create a product that allows users to borrow assets from friends based on trust. During the sprint, the Ultim Studio team designed a fully working prototype showcasing Union's new technology.
Goal
Union Finance is transforming what it means to borrow and lend on the blockchain by introducing the element of trust. Our mission was to reimagine how peer-to-peer lending and borrowing would look like in an interface, while crafting a flow that is easy to understand.
Challenge
The main challenge was conveying the value proposition to users, as peer-to-peer lending and borrowing is kind of a novel idea in the blockchain space. The solution needed to feel familiar to the user, like a normal fintech bank account, while at the same time providing no confusion throughout the flow.
Solution
During the design sprint, and after extensive calls with the team, we managed to come up with an interactive prototype. While testing this out with users, we found out it was difficult for them to clearly understand the value proposition of the product. After careful iteration, we managed to deliver a solution that was free of any confusion while featuring an eye-pleasing UI that delighted the users.
Among many things, our team discovered that:
Users didn’t understand what they had to do in order to become a member
The benefits of being a member versus a non-member were not clear enough for some users.
Lenders didn’t understand the concept of increasing and decreasing trust for a lender
We solved these by:
Changing the way we were onboarding users by showing them the 3 steps to become a member right after they signed up instead of having it hidden in a “ Learn more” button
Adding a dynamic card with a segmented control tab between “Solo” and “Together”
Offering tooltips throughout the dapp, explaining every feature to the user
Results
The final result helped the team raise a round of $3M to bring credit to Ethereum.
Offered the team insights into how users were reacting to the novel idea of borrowing from friends onchain
Increased revenue from platform usage
Delighted users through a strong UI
Earned users' loyalty by listening and implementing direct feedback
Created a base for expanding the product through a solid design system
