Stakewolle project

Stakewolle

A crypto staking company needed a redesign. The product owner had ambitious plans and the team was eager to build. I established design processes, introduced a product approach and helped marketing collaborate with design.

Timeline

Six months for the brand, landing page and platform; another six months for implementation and design review.
Team

Product manager, frontend and backend developers, and me as product designer.
Users

Stakewolle delegators
Design system

Rebuilt the visual language on top of MUI.
Platforms

Web only

My role and team

I owned the visual design across the website, platform, social media, video covers, partner materials, merchandise and branding.
The frontend developer and I also shared business and systems analysis responsibilities. We met developers daily: the product was technically complex, and design helped resolve many constraints.
The team typically included seven developers, a manager, a marketer, the product owner and me.

6 months

to design the experience and hand it over for development
6x

growth in website visitors after the redesign
8x

growth in delegated assets six months after the website redesign
1000+

users joined the gamified platform in six months

Process

Research

I studied the market, staking and the existing audience, then developed hypotheses to guide the redesign.

Redesign

The scope covered the logo, social media and website. My main hypothesis was that a friendlier, more transparent relationship between validator and delegator would build trust.

Website and social media

The website was a key acquisition channel. Visitors then checked Twitter before deciding which validator to stake with.

A gamified crypto staking platform

After the social media redesign, users became more engaged in conversations. We identified an opportunity for a staking platform with a rewards system.

About Stakewolle

At the time of this case study, Stakewolle was a Cosmos ecosystem validator with $13.8 million in assets under management, compared with around $3 million when we started working together. Company article

What are staking and validators?

Validators help maintain the integrity and security of Proof-of-Stake blockchains. Token holders can delegate assets to a validator and receive staking rewards. This differs from a bank deposit, but the comparison helped explain the concept to new users.

Crypto market research

Binance publishes research annually. I used its 2022 report when starting the project.

11,7%

of circulating ETH
was staked
55%

buy cryptocurrency as a long-term investment
51%

of users consider crypto a regular source of income
15%

of users consider crypto their primary source of income

Geography

Emerging markets dominated the list. People used cryptocurrency to:

diversify investments and trade for potential returns
protect savings against inflation
transfer money
have fun

Crypto investor profile

95%

men
72%

under 37
41%

hold a bachelor's degree
37%

use borrowed capital to invest

Research

There were over a thousand Cosmos validators. Several stood out through distinctive approaches, so we needed to define our own.

Audience research

When the project began, Stakewolle had over 1,000 Twitter followers and more than $1.5 million in delegations. We surveyed followers about why they chose us, their investment strategies and their ideal validator.

Twitter survey

Over 100 followers took part. At the end, participants could leave their contact details and receive results via Telegram. The responses helped reveal users' fears, frustrations and needs.

Twitter survey results

70%

stake coins for the long term
80%

value a validator's active role in the crypto community
75%

want transparency and involvement in decisions
95%

rate their crypto knowledge as average or above

User pain points

Users worried about losing funds or a validator disappearing.

Lack of engagement

Users wanted to take part in ecosystem decisions. Validators could involve delegators in votes, but few maintained close communication.

Delegators knew more than the average crypto investor but still needed guidance from an experienced source.

Delegators wanted to monitor their assets and stay informed about the validator and token.

We needed a tone of voice that matched our audience and addressed its main concerns.

The work covered three areas: social media, the website and a staking platform. We redesigned social media first, then the website, before building the gamified platform from scratch.

Success criteria

I used the 2022 baseline. The main measure was growth in delegated assets, with Twitter audience growth as a supporting measure.

Followers

1,100 Twitter followers
Website

5,000 visits per year
Delegations

$1 500 000
Platform

no platform or users yet

Mascot and recognition

The new voice was friendly and trustworthy while remaining rational. Wolle, a young shark, guided users through complex crypto concepts. The mascot appeared across the website and social media, making the brand more recognisable. A later subsidiary in Hong Kong was named after it.

Twitter: before and after

The social media team needed templates to create visuals quickly without a designer. In the year following the redesign, the follower count grew 10x.

Website: before and after

Only 20% of site visitors came from social media. Over the year after the redesign, visits grew from around 3,000 to 25,000.

Website metrics

Visitors and visits

Visits grew from 5,000 to 23,000; unique visitors grew from 3,000 to 19,000.

CTA conversion

The main staking CTA's click-through rate rose from 2% to 6%.

Acquisition channels

We had four acquisition channels: Twitter, YouTube, the website and external staking services. We decided to add a fifth: our own staking platform.

Staking platform

Low commission was a key factor in choosing a validator. We could not undercut the market's commission rules, so we introduced staking cashback through our platform. Users could also complete partner tasks to learn about blockchain. More tasks meant a higher level and lower effective staking fees. This gave the platform a distinctive proposition.

We built interest among delegators before launch

Before the MVP launch, the company attracted several million in investment and more than ten partners. Larger market players noticed the team, resulting in several internal development contracts.

Entry points

We promoted the platform on social media, while two main website CTAs led to registration and the delegator dashboard.

Gamification

We promoted the platform on social media, while two main website CTAs led to registration and the delegator dashboard.

Staking

Delegators could view their staked amount and expected cashback by network and token, collect rewards and delegate assets.