"Blockchain", "Wallet", "Hold", "Gas fees", "Staking"... These terms can be overwhelming for anyone looking to venture into the world of crypto assets. Yet the same person performs daily bank transfers, adds sort codes or IBANs, checks their accounts, and uses their bank card without the slightest concern and with complete ease. The difference? Decades of user experience optimisation in traditional banking, versus a crypto ecosystem still largely designed by and for insiders.
This divide reveals a fundamental challenge: mass adoption of cryptocurrencies will not depend solely on technology or regulation, but on the ability to create an accessible and reassuring user experience. For Sarah Pietrasik, a UX designer specialising in complex software, the key lies in a radically different approach. Starting with first contact with the application or website: "Creating good onboarding means removing barriers. But first you need to identify them." This philosophy requires radically rethinking customer segmentation.
Don't target everyone
The primary mistake of crypto services lies in a misunderstood universalist approach. "Saying 'everyone' means saying no one," states Sarah Pietrasik. "You don't address an 18-year-old wanting to invest their £200 Christmas money in crypto the same way you address a 60-year-old wanting to invest part of their savings. It's not the same language, not the same level of simplification."
This segmentation directly influences interface design. Rather than creating a single complex solution, the recommended approach involves developing "modular applications that provide more or less assistance depending on the profile". A young user familiar with digital technology will need less guidance than a traditional customer discovering the crypto universe, and the site or application must take this into consideration.
This logic contrasts with early crypto applications. "They addressed a highly specialised world, designed for insiders with particular jargon," our expert explains. Dark interfaces, masculine graphic codes, "dark web" aesthetics: the complete opposite of traditional banking codes based on simplicity and reassurance.
Reconciling two visual universes
The fundamental design challenge? Making two opposing aesthetics coexist. On one side, the crypto universe favours dark interfaces and technical vocabulary. On the other, the banking environment relies on clear interfaces, visible buttons, and minimal information within a reassuring framework.
"The solution isn't to bring crypto codes into the banking universe, but rather to take reassuring banking codes and apply them to crypto," specifies Sarah Pietrasik. Practically, this means transforming the term "wallet" into "portfolio" within the familiar banking environment, using universal UX codes (like the login then password sequence), and avoiding any "unnecessary cognitive overload".
This approach addresses a major trust issue. "The greatest difficulty in design is establishing trust between a user and their product. It's even more difficult when we talk about crypto: you're handling your money, the interface displays jargon terms, and you sometimes need to go through several platforms to do the same thing."
Guidance over technical complexity
Beyond the interface, differentiation lies in user guidance. Unlike traditional crypto platforms that simply offer technical functionalities, the banking approach integrates a structured educational dimension.
"It's crucial to provide decision-making support tools," emphasises Sarah Pietrasik. "We've established an academy with tutorials, news updates, and everything users need to stay informed." This approach addresses a major challenge. "When you want to invest money and search online, there's a trust problem," observes Sarah Pietrasik. "Can you trust the information you find?"
Innovation lies in integrating reassurance mechanisms from the first interaction. Contextual FAQs on the homepage, intelligent form pre-filling, real-time tracking of validation processes: elements that can remove barriers identified during user testing.
Measure to continuously adjust
Continuous improvement relies on rigorous methodology combining behavioural analysis and field surveys. "We use behavioural analysis to track user journeys. We can, for example, see precisely where 70% of people stop in a purchase process," explains the designer.
This quantitative approach, complemented by qualitative interviews, identifies real friction points. Amazon's "$300 million button" example perfectly illustrates this logic: replacing "Sign in" with "Pay" and offering account creation after payment increased sales by 45%.
For crypto services, this methodology often reveals apparently minor interface problems with major consequences: "If 80% of users don't understand they need to click a button at a given stage, it's a real usability problem that needs solving."
Think about the ecosystem holistically
The UX approach must consider all actors involved in the crypto value chain. "There isn't just the end user buying crypto, there's also the bank advisor, who is as anxious as the buyer because they don't know much about crypto. So the interface must allow them to learn and visualise their learning curve."
This systemic vision also includes compliance officers who "need their interface to validate transactions". Each profile requires a specific approach: educational interface for the end customer, support tools for the advisor, functional dashboard for the controller.
This multi-actor complexity explains why crypto integration in banking environments requires deep UX expertise. "When we create initial scenarios for banks, we take these three profiles and ask how to address them all."
Towards controlled democratisation
The challenge goes beyond simple interface optimisation to touch on financial democratisation. By making cryptocurrencies accessible through the reassuring codes of traditional banking, UX design potentially opens access to new financial products for populations previously excluded from this ecosystem.
As Sarah Pietrasik summarises, referencing a quote from Airbnb founder Brian Chesky: "Our real innovation isn't enabling people to book a house; it's designing a framework that will allow millions of people to trust each other..." For cryptocurrencies, the challenge is identical: creating the conditions of trust that will enable mass adoption, beyond the circle of insiders.
In this market entering commoditisation, user experience becomes the only real differentiator. To successfully integrate crypto into banking environments, it's no longer optional : it's vital.