In 2017, the MailTime team started a blockchain project, Measurable Data Token (MDT). Measurable Data Token is a decentralized data exchange ecosystem that connects the users, data providers and data buyers.
MyMDT is the client side portal in the MDT ecosystem. It is where the users receive and manage their rewards (MDT tokens) for data-sharing.
A simplified model of the MDT ecosystem
What We’re Building
Why in-app?
To create a seamless sign-in experience for the users and lowers the barrier of entry.
What people?
MyMDT is integrated into the MailTime app first. The target users are MailTime users.
From data we learned that MailTime users are mostly millennial, aged 20-45. There are more male users than female, about 6:4. A user has 2 email accounts on average.
Here are some assumptions:
MailTime creates a brand new experience of email communication by converting emails into IM. Therefore, users should be open to innovative ideas.
Only a small portion of MailTime users are familiar with cryptocurrency.
Why rewards and what rewards?
We believe that users should share the profits from data exchange. By giving out rewards, we want to encourage people to contribute their data in an anonymous and secure way.
The rewards will be MDT tokens (a cryptocurrency).
My Role
My role is a combination of design, research and project management.
Worked with the founder to define project goals;
Communicated with the engineering team to understand technical requirements and set priorities;
Planned and led the research project;
Designed, piloted and conducted survey and interviews;
Collaborated with the marketing team on PR content.
Project Status
A private beta version was tested this summer with around 200 participants.
Timeline:
Feature mapping and wire-frames- Spring 2018
Hi-fi design, development and closed beta testing - Summer 2018
Key Features
MDT tokens will be deposited to MyMDT when the user opts in for anonymous data-sharing.
Rewards from data-sharing are not real-time. Therefore, we designed simple tasks to:
allow users to get MDT tokens immediately and familiarize them with the product;
and help users understand the value of MDT tokens to increase opt-in percentage.
Users can transfer their MDT tokens to any email address. This will be very useful and attractive to people not familiar with cryptocurrency.
Users can also transfer their MDT tokens to any ETH wallet address.
Users can exchange their MDT tokens for gift cards or value-added services to monetize their tokens.
Challenges
Tight Timeline
We scheduled to release a closed beta version in 3 months.
Technical Difficulties
2 key features, rewards for data-sharing and exchanging MDT tokens for gift cards, have technical requirements and will take a long time to implement.
Unanswered Questions
Data-sharing is a sensitive topic. We have a lot of unanswered questions and uncertainties that we did not feel confident to commit to any designs.
Will people resist the idea of data-sharing and overlook the fact that it is safe and rewarding?
To what extent do we want to be transparent?
How do we build trust? ...
Wire-framing
The wireframes V1.0.
The Final UI
For UI design, the goal was to create a new brand identity that is clean, trusting and professional because the product is associated with people’s digital assets. I decided to use a different set of UI guidelines because MyMDT is an independent product.
The final UI was in collaboration with Naixin Zhang after I iterated and finalized the wire-frames. Naixin and I worked together on the color palette and component styles.
New User On-boarding
The “Transfer Out” button was moved to each account card, giving the “Earn MDT” button more space and more prominent as a CTA.
Earning Rewards
In the closed beta version, the rewards are registration reward, a reward for sending out emails in MailTime, and a reward for adding a phone number to the account. This was due to engineering constraints. The initial design has a reward for inviting friends, which is a typical growth strategy.
Animation: Celebrating Rewards
I designed a special animation for claiming rewards because it is a celebratory moment for the users. I want to bring joy and celebration to the users.
Token Transfer
Security Settings
A phone number was added to the security settings, in addition to PIN. This is to add a second layer of security for the users.
Transactions
Loading and Empty Stage Design
Page Transitions
The new page usually slides in from the right and slides out to the right, to help the user better navigate between pages.
The Closed Beta Testing
Research Purpose and Methods
After deciding what we want to learn from the research, I decided on four research methods:
Survey - comprised of a series of questions and distributed to all participants.
1:1 Interview - a 1-hour length interview with think-a-loud and open questions.
Mixpanel data - we set up events in Mixpanel for more insights on user behavior.
Support feedback - we set up online chat groups for all participants, where they can ask questions or make comments anytime.
The checkmark indicates which research purposes the method or data source helps with the most.
Results
The closed beta testing was from July 16, 2018 to August 3, 2018. We recruited around 200 beta testers from MailTime’s users and the MDT communities.
Selected Findings
Usability Issues
1. Point of Entry Lacking Affordance
The point of entry for transactions records is the account card on the home page. From the research we found that it creates a lot of confusions for the users.
Possible solution - From the heat map, it appears that most people’s first instinct was to tap the header area. The evidence supports the idea of putting the transactions icon back to the header area.
2. Redundant UI
Some people brought up in the interview that the “ Earn MDT” button was blocking the transactions records. From Mixpanel data, I discovered that less than 1/10 of the “Earn MDT” button clicks were from the transactions page.
Possible solution - The data confirms my decision to remove the button on this page in the next release.
Product Validation
Survey data shows that the average rating of how much people like MyMDT is 4.3. Also 50% of survey respondents answered “5 - love it” to this question. During user interviews people also gave positive feedback on MyMDT.
The survey also asks what people like about MyMDT. As shown from survey data, the results validated the design and the two core features of the closed beta version.
To be more specific, a lot of people like the idea of transferring MDT tokens via email. It is a much faster easier way and does not require any blockchain knowledge.
Data-sharing Preferences
From the interviews, we learned that people in general are open to the idea of data-sharing. The only difference is that people have different conditions. Some people are trusting and will opt in for data-sharing with few conditions; others might require a lot of information and assurance before opting in. It is like a spectrum.
MyMDT guarantees that user data is anonymous, aggregated and secure, satisfying most people’s requirements.
Building Trust as a Digital Wallet
In the interviews, when asked the question “do you feel MyMDT is safe and trustworthy”, all interviewees gave position responses. Their reasons are
The UI feels professional;
It asks for a phone number as a second layer of security;
Knowledge of blockchain and cryptocurrency helps to believe that the product is safe and secure.
We also discovered more about how to make people feel safe:
a brief statement or label of the security technology (for example, the Norton Secured Seal on e-commerce site);
knowing that their peers are using the same product - i.e., social proof;
two-factor authentication;
the reputation of the company or the brand.
Identifying Priorities for Next Steps …
Affinity Diagram
I labeled UX issues with purple post-it and product strategy issues with yellow ones.
Together with the marketing team, we put down every piece of user feedback on a Trello board. Then I printed out all the cards and used affinity diagram and identify all the issues.
Priority Framework
A simplified version of the priority chart.
With many issues identified, I came up with a framework to decide the priority of each issue.
The Y-axis represents how much frustration the issue causes and the X-axis represents how many testers reported the problem. Each issue is placed on the chart accordingly.
The purpose is to identify which issues are the most obstructive and affecting most people. All issues in the upper right corner should be paid more attention and should be addressed first.
The Next Steps
Improving Usability
We identified “finding transactions” to be the most difficult for people and it needs to be improved. Other notable issues are choosing the country code for the phone number and the task list.
Adding Gift Center
The research validated our assumption that people need a way to monetize the tokens and gift cards are the most popular.
Adding “Invite Friends”
In our initial design, we added a referral system where people can invite their friends to MyMDT and get MDT rewards. Even though we didn’t build it due to the tight timeline, the research showed that it has great potential. People are interested in the referral program and want to recommend MyMDT to their friends.
Data-sharing Feature
We discovered that most people feel comfortable sharing their anonymous data in the MDT ecosystem, because the ecosystem meets most people’s conditions for data-sharing. The next step will be exploring designs to support the data-sharing feature.