Woop
Tools used:
Axure, Figma, Miro
Status:
Ongoing
Woop v1
I had met Alessandro in 2022 within Developer DAO and began collaborating with him and others on his project Woop Pay. Woop initially started out as a web3 payments platform, allowing users to request payments using crypto assets, giving the user the ability to attach a message to this payment as well as sharing via QR codes across different social platforms.
Though the platform has grown, and currently expanding into new areas, the idea of payment requests and simple user experience is at the core of what Woop is about. Crypto can be a confusing world, especially for newcomers, and the core goal of Woop is to create seamless flows to make this complex world a bit more simple and practical for end users.
Branding
We first began by developing a simplified brand for the project, keeping the blue colour scheme used in the initial version. The thinking here was to create a simple and recognisable logo to go across the web app and social channels.
Collaborative Design
As the team were spread across different parts of Europe, Miro became a useful platform to co-design and collaborate on the app redesign and other areas such as user flow as well as some pitch or presentation materials.
Below you can check out the board and the process we used here. This central hub made it easier to get ideas out onto the visual whiteboard, check iterations and comment on what was working and what wasn’t.
UI Design
From the Miro board design iterations we eventually settled on the below design, remaining true to the original blue brand but going for a more minimal look. The idea of a floating navigation was popular at the time, and brought into this design.
Safe Transactions
A concept we ended up experimenting with was that of the “safe transaction”. A major usability problem in web3 is that of wallet addresses, a unique long hexadecimal address that is not easy to remember, and often requires copy / pasting as well as checking and rechecking to make sure it’s right.
The safe transaction aimed to lower the risk of sending funds to the wrong address, an irreversible operation on the blockchain and one that can cause anxiety when real funds are on the line.
By sending a small test transaction initially, the recipient can confirm and verify they are legitimate before the full transaction is carried out. Once this confirmation has taken place, the address can be added to a verified address book and stored for future transactions.
The concept we created for this did not go beyond the low-fidelity stage for testing, yet was an interesting take on improving security in web3 payments.
Split-payments
Another angle we explored was how crypto and payment plans could come together, inspired by established finance apps like Klarna, but with a blockchain twist. Again we kept this low-fidelity to concept and test our idea, where we thought about how volatility in the crypto market may be beneficial to user when buying goods.
This idea saw Woop becoming more of a shopping application, centered around the idea of paying for goods in three payments. By fronting some collateral, the user could pay using ERC-20 tokens and potentially gain advantages if the coin was to pump in price, thereby paying less of the token and making subsequent savings on their purchase.
Woop v2
With standard crypto payment requests serving as the foundation of Woop, we again began to consider improvements, new ideas, and new functionality that blockchain users may find helpful or make their experience better. Through a series of conversations, rough prototypes and testing, we arrived at the conclusion that:
• Users may want to receive funds into their fiat bank accounts from payments requests
• Users may want to invest their assets in decentralized finance applications, such as staking or stablecoin yield generation
• Users may wish to buy and sell NFTs, or even create them, from the same interface that they carried out other actions
These idea began to coalesce around the idea of building modules or widgets that could integrate with existing web3 wallets. By extending the functionality of the wallet without the core team having to build these features, the thinking is that we can bring web3 services to the user in a streamlined way, whilst allowing the designated wallet the option of which modules they would like to include based on their business goals.
Receive
Very much still in line with Woop’s original goal of payment requests, however with the addition of being able to accept payments from crypto directly into the users fiat bank account. This functionality is powered by Transak.
Invest
The DeFi system is both vast yet often complex for users, but there are many ways in which we can help them to build on their assets through investment.
The second core module seeks to bring these opportunities to the user directly in their wallet, leveraging the advantages of DeFi but in a more convenient and streamlined fashion.
NFTs
Finally, the NFT module aims to leverage existing markets such as OpenSea and Magic Eden for the buying and selling of NFT assets.
Many users find the prospect of navigating these marketplaces intimidating (the same could be said for DeFi), so our goal is to make this experience easier and give the end user more exposure to the various trends and sub-niches within the wider web3 ecosystem.
Early pitch deck
Woop is a live project and currently in development, so my design work extends to not only prototyping and design screens for the application but other areas like marketing materials and pitch decks.
Below is a few examples of our early pitch deck, which we aim to speak to investors and projects about in the future.
Alessandro, Founder of Woop
I worked together with Julo on the design of Woop. I found the design work very inspirational for us to think how our project could go to the next level. Also, the prototype he made were super helpful to validate some fresh ideas with early users