Designing for DeFi

DeFi has a design problem. Not because the interfaces are ugly — many of them are quite polished. The problem is that they're designed for people who already understand DeFi.

When I joined 31Third Protocolto design their multi-asset swap platform, the first thing I did was try to use every competing product as a complete beginner. The experience was humbling. Token approvals, slippage tolerances, gas estimation — every step assumed knowledge I didn't have.

The complexity tax

Every DeFi protocol pays a complexity tax. The underlying mechanics are genuinely complex — smart contracts, on-chain settlement, cross-chain bridging. But complexity in the protocol doesn't have to mean complexity in the interface.

The best analogy I've found is the ATM. Behind that simple screen is an absurdly complex system of interbank networks, real-time fraud detection, and distributed ledgers. But you don't think about any of that. You insert your card, enter your PIN, and get cash. The interface absorbed the complexity so you don't have to.

That's what good DeFi design should feel like.

Lessons from 31Third

At 31Third, we were building a platform where users could manage on-chain portfolios structured as ERC-20 tokens. The challenge was making multi-asset swaps feel as simple as a single transaction.

Three principles guided the design:

Progressive disclosure. Show only what's needed at each step. Advanced options exist, but they're tucked away until you need them. The default path should work for 90% of users without any configuration.

Contextual confidence. Every action that involves money needs to feel safe. We used clear confirmation states, human-readable transaction summaries, and real-time price impact indicators to build trust at every step.

Familiar patterns. DeFi shouldn't feel like a foreign country. We borrowed interaction patterns from banking apps, trading platforms, and even e-commerce checkout flows — things people already know how to use.

What Zebec taught me about time

Streaming payments are a strange concept. Money that flows continuously, like water from a tap. When I worked on Zebec Protocol'sv2 redesign, the biggest challenge wasn't the UI — it was the mental model.

How do you visualize money that's always moving? We experimented with progress bars, animated counters, and flow diagrams. What worked best was the simplest approach: a number that updates in real-time, paired with a clear start and end state. People don't need to see the stream — they need to trust that it's flowing.

The craft in crypto

I believe Web3 is going through the same evolution that early web and mobile went through. The first generation of products is built by engineers for engineers. The second generation is where design starts to matter — where someone decides that the interface should serve the person, not the protocol.

We're in that second generation now. And it's where I want to be.