Background

My role: Lead user researcher on a team of 5 researchers and 2 shadows

Project type: Volunteer

Project length: 8 weeks

Stakeholders: Tech Fleet Community DAO

Problem

Enaging with blockchain technology is difficult and confusing, especially on the Kadena blockchain thanks to its multi-chain infrastructure that can sometimes lead to extremely costly user errors.

Hypothesis

Creating a cross-chain wallet extension that's accessible to newcomers but flexible enough to support the needs of power users could prevent user error and help boost the viability of the Kadena blockchain.

Project highlights

Leadership & directional problems

A lack of leadership on the research team at the start of the project caused chaos for the entire team until we spoke up and course corrected for everyone.

Problematic prototype

The stakeholder already had a rough prototype for us to use as a baseline, but user testing revealed it would require a near entire overhaul.

A shift in target users

Based on stakeholder feedback, we originally spoke with users relatively new to crypto, but our initial exploratory research proved they weren't our target audience at all.

A visual reboot

Despite a strong visual identity created by the design team, our user and preference testing revealed that users weren't fans so we had to deliver bad news to the design team.

Project background

About Kadet Wallet

The Tech Fleet Community DAO set out on a journey to create a cross-chain crypto wallet extension built on the Kadena blockchain and forked from the open source MetaMask application.

Specifically, they wanted to address gaps in cross-chain functionality and create an "all-in-one" wallet that would let users store all their tokens and NFTs in one place while also being approachable and easy to use for complete crypto newcomers.

The DAO laid out their vision for the extension before the start of the project in great detail. I highly recommend reading it for more info.

From 0 to MVP in 8 weeks

Tech Fleet runs projects in 8 week phases, with each week being made up of its own Agile-based sprint. Because it's a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (or DAO) and believes in sharing with the community, at the end of each week, the team publicly demos what they've been working on to the rest of the community.

In the 8 weeks I worked on the project, we started from zero and ended with a fully functional, user-tested prototype.

Blockchain bootcamp

Though some members of the team had prior experience/knowledge about crypto (including myself), the majority didn't. I knew this would be a huge impediment for the project, so I gathered everyone's questions in Slido then together with some other team members hosted a series of blockchain demonstrations and Q&A sessions to get everyone up to speed.

All told, we spent about two weeks as a team at the start of the project simply learning and teaching each other all the basics we needed to know before we could get started in earnest.

The project started off well enough, but the research team quickly ran into some leadership and managerial problems. 

Cross-functional corrections

An unexpected promotion

I wasn't originally the lead researcher on this project; I interviewed for and was hired as an apprentice researcher. However, after several weeks of unsuccessfully trying to coordinate with our team lead and get everyone on the same track, management on the project chose to promote me to the lead position.

I'd never held a lead user researcher position before, so I was a little intimidated by the prospect of managing 4 other researchers and 2 shadows, but I accepted and immediately got to work creating sync among ourselves and the other teams.

Getting organized

Early on in the project, the team had major problems keeping our research well documented and easy to locate. Members were often asking for the same files and links repeatedly, or double posting them, so I created a single source of truth for us in the form of a research hub.

This greatly helped us stay in sync, review each other's work, and make sure we weren't contacting the same users. It also made it much easier for the design and product strategy teams to see what we'd done and refer to our research.

Regular team meetings

To make sure the research team stayed on the same page, I organized regular meetings for us throughout the week to chat about research plans, scripts, recruitment, synthesis, or anything else we needed to cover.

I also organized weekly team lead meetings among the research, design, and product strategy teams to maintain a consistent project direction and cross-functional sync.

Now that the research team had worked through its problems and found its footing, we could really get to work.

Research round one

Stakeholder interview brainstorm

To better understand the needs, expectations, and vision of the project's stakeholder, I thought it would be a good idea to host a stakeholder interview. I wanted to make sure that the entire team had the ability to ask questions and feel like their individual team's needs were addressed in the interview, so I organized a group brainstorming session where we all presented our questions and voted on them.

Stakeholder interview

With the team's questions solidified and agreed upon, I hosted a group interview with Morgan, the project's primary stakeholder. Each team selected a representative to ask their respective questions, and together we worked on a series of tickets in Trello to lay out what Morgan wanted and expected to be in the MVP.

Research planning

Before taking any action on the highly useful feedback we'd gotten from Morgan during the stakeholder interview, we worked together as a team to hammer out a plan for our first round of research.

We were most interested in learning more about problems or difficulties users have with blockchain technologies and what gaps or opportunities existed among our competitors.

With the plan in place, we also decided to split the team into two different tasks: half of us would conduct usability tests, while the other half conducted user interviews.

Low-fidelity prototype testing

Since Morgan had already had a low-fidelity prototype created, we decided to use that as a baseline for our first round of testing in a combination of moderated and unmoderated usability tests.

We conducted 4 moderated sessions and 4 unmoderated sessions to learn more about the following:

• What users thought of the dashboard screen in general
• How users felt about the existing Send Token flow
• What users thought of the Create/Import Wallet flows

Exploratory research

To save time and gather data more efficiently, we also decided to simultaneously conduct exploratory research sessions with crypto users who had 1-3 years of experience in the space. We hoped this would help us identify potential gaps and opportunities for Kadet Wallet.

We conducted 5 interview sessions in which we wanted to learn about:

• How crypto wallets are currently used
  
• Any problems or frustrations users had with existing wallets
  
• Users general knowledge/experience with the Kadena blockchain
  

Proto persona

During our first round of research, we realized that the data we'd gathered thus far about users was only sufficient enough to form one proto persona.

While we had some rough ideas for other user types, we weren't confident enough in the data we had to back them up, so we created one persona that we passed to the other teams and decided to focus more on validating our other persona sketches in round two.

Research findings

To synthesize the large amount of data we'd gathered from both the usability testing and the exploratory interviews we'd conducted, we put everything into one affinity map.

However, the other teams found its original iteration difficult to parse, so we added Key and Positive Takeaways to both types of research and then presented our findings to the entire team.

Our main takeaways were:

• The dashboard screen confused users
  
• The transaction summary screen overwhelmed users with too much data
  
• The transfer token flow had multiple pain points
  
• Users are hungry for an "all-in-one" wallet
• Users are frustrated by a general lack of onboarding in crypto

Research recommendations

After synthesizing the data, we worked as a team to create a revision priority matrix based on user errors and feedback we'd seen during our sessions and submitted it to the design team to use as a guide in revisions for version two of the prototype.

After presenting our findings to the design team, they revised the prototype into a higher fidelity and asked our help in testing new flows and branding.

Research round two

Target user shift

While discussing our plans for the next round of research, we realized that our intial target audience of newcomers to crypto was incorrect. In speaking further with the stakeholder and other subject matter experts, we determined that most Kadena users were blockchain enthusiasts with a lot of experience in the space — which meant the people using our cross-chain wallet were unlikely to be brand new.

We also realized that everyone we'd spoken to in round one had a background in Ethereum, another blockchain that works very differently from Kadena. After discussing this with the stakeholder, we decided to target experienced Kadena users going forward to understand their experiences and frustrations transitioning to Kadena from other blockchains.

Research planning

By this point in the project, we were quickly running out of time in our 8-week timeline. Because of this, we decided to combine usability testing and exploratory research in our sessions for round two. 

We also again decided to split the team in half to cover more work, but this time around, half the team would conduct sessions while the other half simultaneously synthesized the data as it came in. Synthesis of our round one research took a full week and we couldn't afford to lose that time again.

High-fidelity prototype

Because we were so close to the end of the project, the design team decided to move into higher fidelity earlier than they were originally planning. They also began experimenting with light and dark versions of the visual design, which they asked us to test.

The design team asked us to test out:

• Their revisions to the Create/Import Wallet flows
• Users' general understanding of Secret Recovery Phrases
• What users might expect to see in the transaction history
• Whether users preferred the light or dark color scheme
• What users generally thought of the branding

Dual sessions

Alongside our usability testing requests from design, we added in exploratory questions to the script to begin gathering more information about Kadena users' experience learning about the blockchain and engaging with it for the first time.

Research findings

Because it worked so well for the first round, we again synthesized all our findings and insights into one affinity map.

Our main takeaways were:

• Every user had problems re-entering their Secret Recovery Phrase
  
• Almost no one liked the visual design/color palette; they found it too busy
  
• Most participants preferred the dark scheme but still wanted to make changes
  
• A majority of users found onboarding into Kadena difficult
  
• Many users don't understand Kadena's multi-chain infrastructure
  

We passed our findings on to the design team for revisions, and though they prepared a final prototype, we ran out of time to test it.

Reflection

Next steps

Interview & hire for phase 2

I've already agreed to return for phase 2 of the project as lead researcher. Most of the other research team members are moving on to other projects or changing roles, so I need to build my team for phase 2.

Write round 3 research plan & script

Though this team already created a sample plan and script for round three, we decided to hold off on finalizing it until the new team is formed so that they have input in its direction.

Test final MVP prototype

The design team has already implemented revisions from our second round of research, but they've also added several new features that need to be tested (transaction history, NFT support, and more). 

What I learned

Leading is hard but rewarding work

I didn't expect to be leading a team on this project when I was hired, but I'm so happy I got the chance to push myself and that I was given the opportunity to play such an instrumental role in the project's overall success. I surprised myself!

Cross-team sync is critical

If the various teams on a project aren't regularly and openly communicating with each other, it only leads to chaos. I've learned that this level of integration among teams has to be established and nurtured from the start.

Blockchain has UX growth potential

Because it's still a relatively new space, the UX of most blockchain projects just isn't up to snuff yet — especially when it comes to Kadena-based projects. I hope to do my best to help change that, because I really believe in this technology to revolutionize the Internet.

© Ry Kron 2022 | rykrondesign@gmail.com