QCAD PoC (Proof of Concept) project was the first phase of creating a stablecoin – QCAD which was designed to offer 1-to-1 CAD equivalency. Our project objective was to build a platform that helped prove the concept within an intensive timeline, in order to raise more funding and accelerate the speed to market.

Financial transactions were time-consuming and costly. There was no convenient on-off ramp between crypto-currency and fiat currency. QCAD was a reliable piece of financial market infrastructure that improved the efficiency of Canada’s capital market.

There were two main personas in the system, one was the institutional user – a client who wanted to purchase or redeem QCAD, the other one was the Admin who managed the QCAD requests.

We used a story map to map the user journey for each persona, including the steps on/ off the system and the features for future scope, which helped us understand what the user actually needs during this process.

We faced a lot of challenges in this project, we approached it by understanding the challenges and seeking the best solution in the ideation sessions.  The main challenges and questions we faced: 

• How can we create a platform with minimum features and simplicity to simulate the typical scenario? 
• The scenario contained both online and offline operations, how can we connect them smoothly and avoid human error?
• With the intensive timeline, how can we manage the design progress when business requirements were not fully settled?

We had brainstorming ideation to explore the concepts and strategy, we had a digital asset concept that was consisted of 5 key features to support the system

Lo-fi wireframing is the most effective way to organize various ideas and gain feedback in the early on stage. 

Based on the concept and the high-level design direction, we structured the layout and user flow by using the core elements, which kept the whole design lean and solve the main problems. We got the whole team and stakeholders involved in this process, which helped us gain feedback from different perspectives and ensured everyone was on the same page.

Colour and brand

We used black and teal as primary colours, which matched the brand identity with stable and positive feelings. We used more secondary colours on the dashboard and indicator to grab the user’s attention.

Material design and react components

In order to speed up the development progress, I worked closely with the dev team to choose the material design library and react components with customization to match the design.

Design patterns 

Besides the strategies mentioned, we also implemented design patterns that met the industry standard to improve usability. For example, maintain a consistent style and flow on both the client and admin sides; double confirmation of decision making to avoid human errors; expandable tables allow users to switch between list and details. 

Testing and prioritizing feedback in an agile environment 

We conduct user testing with institutional users and admin users quickly, and labeled feedback as critical, major, minor, and bugs. We prioritized feedback, generated solutions and pushed for development in an agile environment, which increased the efficiency of the iteration process. 

Outcomes 

• Got positive feedback from clients/ partners and generated leads 
• Accelerated the product launch - became the first Canadian Stablecoin 
• $150k CAD in reserves since launched two months
• Brought in 12 major ecosystem partners when it launched and increased 66% of partners in two months after launched

Reflection 

Agile UX was good for PoC 

• For a PoC project with an intensive timeline, it was challenging to complete the design from a new concept to UI level deliverables in a short period of time. The agile method ensured we iterated the solution with feedback quickly.

Apply design patterns with context 

• There were so many design patterns and theory could be used for similar problems. In this case, we should choose the design pattern that was aligned with specific context and scenarios.

Be open to creative ideas from other team members 

• As a designer, usually we were considered as a source of creativity. In the meanwhile, we should be open-minded, open to creative ideas from developers, business team and executive.