Skrill Wallet

Before designing, we spent three weeks mapping the crypto newcomer journey. 16 user interviews, support tickets, app store reviews, and competitor onboarding flows.

The pattern was clear. Skrill had built a trading interface for people who already traded. But 80% of the user base had never bought crypto. The experience map showed a cliff at every stage. Users fell off before they ever made a first purchase.

I benchmarked 18 apps across three categories:

The gap: nobody combined wallet trust with gentle discovery with meaningful education at the asset level. Revolut came closest, but their crypto flow still assumed some prior knowledge. We had an opportunity to build the most newcomer-friendly asset picking experience in the market.

Every gap in the experience map became a design principle. We did not just solve the problems. We inverted them into the product's DNA.

Alternatives we explored and rejected:

Most trading apps assume users know what they want. We designed for the opposite. A user who opens the crypto tab with no idea what is available. The asset list is curated, not exhaustive. "Popular," "Trending," "New," and "By category." Each asset has a one-line description visible before tapping. Search is available but not the primary entry point. The goal: browse, learn, then decide.

Every asset detail screen has an expandable "What is this?" card. It explains the asset in plain language. What it is. Why people buy it. The risks. For stocks: "Apple is a technology company." For crypto: "Bitcoin is a digital currency." This is not a help article. It is embedded education that appears exactly when curiosity peaks. We A/B tested. Screens with the card had 34% higher purchase completion.

The old pattern in fintech: hide fees until checkout, explain custody in terms nobody reads. We inverted both. All fees are surfaced on the asset detail screen before the user taps "Buy." Custody is explained at first purchase. "You own the value of this Bitcoin. Skrill holds it securely. You can withdraw to your own wallet anytime." No surprises. No jargon.

The design language starts with what users know. The crypto tab uses the same iconography as the payments tab. Balances look like balances. The purchase flow mirrors the "Send Money" flow users already know. Amount, review, confirm. New concepts are introduced gradually. First you buy. Then you learn about wallets. Then you discover withdrawal. Not all at once.

Three weeks of research before a single wireframe. 16 user interviews. 18 competitor audits. Support ticket analysis. The experience map. The experience map became the single most referenced artifact in the project. Hung in the office. Shared with stakeholders. Used to settle debates about scope.

Every journey was mapped as a flow, then wireframed, then tested with 5 users per iteration. We ran 4 rounds of usability testing on the asset picking flow alone. Key finding from round 2: users did not understand "market order" versus "limit order." We replaced the jargon with "Buy now" and "Buy when price reaches." Purchase completion jumped 28%.

Every design decision was tested on a phone first. The asset list is thumb-scannable. The "What is this?" card expands with a tap, not a link. The purchase flow fits in a single thumb zone. We designed for the bus, the queue, the couch. Not the desk.

I led the design for crypto and stocks discovery, from research through shipped UI and design system. The feature rolled out to 40+ countries on iOS and Android.

If I revisited this project today, I would change three things: