Centrifuge App
A decentralized app for crypto investors and asset originators to finance assets
◎ How might we create a decentralized marketplace app which offers stable investments for crypto investors, and liquidity for issuers to originate, finance, and repay real-world assets?
The Tinlake app on Ethereum needed to be superseded by a new app offering a UI on top of the Centrifuge blockchain. The product team consisting of a PM, a CTO, and myself started the design process by creating the scope outline, defining the first-level objects, and grouping the functionality by user groups, i.e. investors, issuers, and underwriters. Since the code audit required a user interface for testing, we created wireframes to define a preliminary, not feature-complete proof-of-concept (POC) version. The implemented user interface allowed testing crucial functionality, like investing in a token, creating a pool of assets, or minting an NFT to originate an asset.
For the design concept to cover the entire app scope, we defined the information architecture, the macro-layout of the object views, and the main task flows of each user group, investor, and issuer:
- Investor: find investment, invest & redeem a token
- Issuer: create pool, create asset, finance & repay asset
I created clickable prototypes of the main tasks in Figma and tested them with users to validate the information architecture, content, and visual design.
We analyzed and prioritized the findings to address the identified pain points; one object detail view got combined with another, a visualisation chart got ditched, and many wordings were changed.
We then continued with the detail specification, covering the entire functionality, including all edge cases.
The result is a single-page app consisting of a three column-layout: a global navigation sidebar on the left, a main column for the selected content in the middle, and a right-hand toolbar for address-specific transactions. While the app is not live yet, the beta version with a reduced feature set has been released here.
I led the new app's design through the entire product development process, from wireframe to visual design, prototype to concept validation, user interface specification, and reviewing the implementation. The visual design was created in collaboration with Araya Wongwan. I learned a ton about designing a decentralized app, like authenticating through a wallet (instead of a login), signing wallet transactions, and the intricacies of investing in a token. ¶