Product Manager
2 Product Designers
3 Frontend Developers
4 Backend Developers
Research
Low/high fidelity wireframes
Design library
3 months
21Shares is a Swiss company that provides investors with an easy, secure, and regulated way to buy, sell, and short cryptocurrency through existing bank and brokerage accounts. Founded in 2018, 21Shares has become the world's largest provider of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) and manages over $2.5 billion in 17 ETPs and 77 listings. Its products are listed on eight regulated exchanges, including Xetra Euronext and SIX Swiss Exchange, and the company has pioneered several innovative products, such as the world's first cryptocurrency index listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange, two ETPs with investor staking rewards (Tezos and Solana), and the 3 Crypto Index Basket. With a commitment to innovation and cutting-edge research, 21Shares is well-positioned to continue powering the cryptocurrency franchise and providing investors with a safe and regulated way to access the world of digital assets.
• Unknown user needs
• Outdated user experience
• Misaligned stakeholder goals
• Lacking intuitive navigation and broader site architecture
• Inconsistent and outdated visual design
• Gain a deeper understanding of the user needs
• Align stakeholders understanding of how the website redesign can serve business goals in accordance with the user needs
• Identify key opportunities areas for user experience improvement
• Invent a modern visual style that appeals to our target audience and positions us as a credible source within the crypto industry
The discovery process included the following activities that was used to gain a comprehensive understanding of the website issues and user needs in order to create an effective and engaging experience:
• Stakeholder interviews to set the goals and objectives for the redesign
• UX audit to identify and prioritize potential usability issues
• Web data analytics to understand website performance
• User interviews to identify user needs and motivations
• Competitive analysis to benchmark against competitors
• Empathy mapping to identify pain points and potential solutions
• Site mapping to create a blueprint for the renewed website
Branding exercises were conducted in parallel by the Branding Designers together with the Marketing Team.
The objective is to gain a comprehensive understanding of each stakeholder and their expectations. The team's main focus was to assess the business objectives of each stakeholder, determine their target audience, evaluate how the website could support their business goals, and identify any design or technological limitations.
The stakeholder interviews was conducted through 45-minute Zoom interviews involving 8 stakeholders from 4 different departments.
Highlights:
• Guide customer through the buying journey
• Increase focus on due diligence
• Highlight our research to educate customers
• Emphasize the 21Shares unique selling proposition
The objective of conducting data analysis for 21S Discovery is to extract valuable insights and knowledge from the data that can aid in decision-making. The team analyzed various data sets obtained from Google Analytics and SendGrid to understand how users interact with the website and its performance over the past six months. Specifically, the team examined user behavior, engagement metrics, technological aspects, and popular pages and products. They studied how users arrived at the website, their geographic location, language, and device usage. The team also analyzed user engagement, such as the number of users, time spent on the website, scrolling behavior, and most visited pages. Additionally, the team investigated the characteristics of newsletter subscribers, including their self-classification, company, and geographic location. The aim was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the data to aid in decision-making.
Highlights:
• Product pages are missing important information such as ISIN/WKN numbers in the SEO title and common terms like "ETP" or "ETF."
• Most users come from German-speaking countries, but the preferred language is English, followed by German, Italian, and French.
• Users primarily use desktop and mobile devices, with Chrome and Safari as the leading browsers.
• The homepage is the most visited page, with "About Us," "Product," and "FAQ" being the most engaging pages.
• Regional preferences exist, with some products ranking better in specific languages.
• ETP primers and insights drive most of the traffic for research.
• There were 154 errors in total and 294 potential tracking events that could have helped make better data-driven design decisions.
• Newsletter subscribers are mostly English-speaking Europeans from Switzerland and Germany, with a mix of backgrounds including individual investors, large financial institutions, direct competitors in the ETF space, small individual companies, and media companies.
The purpose of conducting user interviews for 21S Discovery is to gain a deeper understanding of the participants' attitudes, beliefs, desires, and experiences. Additionally, the team explored direct competition and sought to uncover any features that could be replicated. The team prepared a questionnaire based on UX audit and data analytics insights. Four potential customers were interviewed for 45 minutes over Zoom to improve the website's user experience.
Highlights:
• Users want industry-standard analysis tools and a longer-term performance overview for their investments.
• The company's branding is somber and not as exciting as its products.
• Users appreciate the intelligence behind the products and the company's specialization in crypto.
• The website needs improvement in highlighting the company's research, history, and product information.
• Users would like to receive updated news and research on the products they already invested in.
• Direct communication from a member of the company is necessary to stay up-to-date on upcoming product launches.
The purpose of the competitor analysis for 21S Discovery is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors' websites to see where we stand and how we can improve. We evaluated both direct and indirect competitors based on usability and functionality criteria.
Direct competitors included companies such as VanEck, CoinShares, and Invesco, while indirect competitors were iShares, Amplify, and GlobalX ETFs.
For usability we looked for informative and well-structured content, easy-to-use navigation, adherence to design guidelines, and accessibility features such as translations and currencies. We also checked for help and instruction documents, search features, and outstanding user experiences.
For functionality, we assessed the website's speed, SEO optimization, and responsiveness. We evaluated how fast the website loaded, how well it was optimized for search engines, and whether it was responsive across all devices.
Content:
• Improve product and company information, add educational content, press coverage, and highlight research and services offered
• Providing a separate step-by-step guides for each partner bank and offering personalized support can make us stand out
Navigation:
• Categorize products, add second layer navigation on product pages, and improve search and filter functionality
• Offering a beginner-friendly product categorization can make us stand out
Design:
• Establish a consistent page structure, add more interactivity, and create clear branding guidelines and a design library
• Finding a balance between crypto and traditional finance in our design can make us stand out
Accessibility:
• Adding more languages, ensure complete and accurate translations, and allow users to select their region
• Providing educational and research material in multiple languages can make us stand out
Speed:
• Optimize file size and ensure images are compressed before uploading
SEO:
• Address general SEO issues, create a keyword structure, and provide landing pages with specific content in multiple languages
• Creating landing pages around specific keywords can make us stand out
Responsiveness:
• Create custom UI elements for mobile and tablet devices, such as easily clickable buttons on product pages
The main purpose of the empathy mapping session for 21S Discovery was to gain a better understanding of the customers' attitudes and behaviors. The exercise involved using the online whiteboard tool "FigJam" and answering persona questions related to the customers' goals, tasks, feelings, influences, pain points, and interests. Six participants from different departments and three facilitators were involved in the exercise, with a three-minute time limit for each question. The answers were then reviewed and sorted into subcategories to create a visual empathy map of the user. The exercise aimed to help the team improve the website's user experience by gaining insights into the customers' needs and preferences.
In order to improve the navigation on their website, 21S Discovery conducted a card sorting exercise to categorize their products. The exercise involved taking all the products and services offered by the company and placing them on individual cards. Participants were then asked to group the cards into categories that made sense to them. The exercise was conducted with a mix of internal staff and external users to get a broad range of perspectives. By analyzing the groupings, the team was able to identify patterns and create a more intuitive navigation structure for the website. This helped users find the products and services they were looking for more easily, resulting in a better user experience. Overall, the card sorting exercise proved to be a useful tool for improving website navigation and making the website more user-friendly.
As part of a larger initiative to redesign the website, 21Shares underwent a rebranding process. The goal was to create a new brand identity that reflected the company's values and mission. The team worked on developing a new logo and other visual elements to create a fresh and modern look for the brand. After the rebranding was completed, a validation process was conducted to ensure that the new logo was well-received by the target audience. The team conducted testing with a sample of the target audience to evaluate the perception of the new logo. The results of the testing were analyzed to determine if any further adjustments were necessary. New logo scored 72% overall success rate. Logo Study Details
The success metrics used to measure the results of the website redesign were indicative of a significant improvement in user experience. The prompt for users to rate the website resulted in a consistent 4.5 out of 5 rating on average. Additionally, user retention increased by 30% as per web data analytics. This indicates that users are finding the website more engaging and are spending more time on it. It was also observed that primary CTA button clicks to contact sales increased by 22%, which demonstrates an improvement in user engagement and conversion rates. These metrics are a testament to the effectiveness of the website redesign in improving user experience and driving business results.
visit website ↗︎