Sparrow Investment Platform: Complete Product Design and User Onboarding
Web app
After personally experiencing numerous instances of women interested in purchasing cryptocurrency but unsure of where to start, the founder and CTO of a startup approached me to conceptualize a crypto buying experience tailored for women.
Unlike most crypto apps on the market that emphasized time-pressured trading experiences, we designed an app focused on and short and long-term saving as well as gift-giving.
Role: Senior UX Designer
Team: 5 people
Outcome: Platform launched successfully with strong user adoption, later shut down due to funding challenges.
The Challenge: Cryptocurrency platforms were designed for early adopters and day traders, not everyday people. Our target users—primarily women interested in long-term investing—felt excluded by technical jargon, intimidating interfaces, and complex onboarding processes.
This represented a significant market opportunity—designing a platform that could successfully onboard and serve a user segment that existing fintech products had failed to engage effectively.
Note: Initially, the app was called CryptoMom. It was eventually rebranded as Sparrow.
Why This Matters for Platform Design
Building platforms for new user segments requires understanding both user psychology and business requirements. Successful platform design creates confidence through clear information hierarchy, intuitive workflows, and progressive disclosure of complex features.
User research
Before designing a crypto platform for newcomers, I needed to understand why women interested in investing felt excluded by existing platforms designed for experienced traders. Through deep conversations with potential users, I uncovered a massive gap between what the industry was building and what intimidated users actually needed.
My research revealed that the barriers weren’t just about complexity—they were fundamentally emotional. Successful crypto adoption for newcomers required addressing psychological safety before introducing functionality, an insight that became the foundation for every design decision.
User Research Approach
- 23 in-depth interviews with women about financial technology attitudes
- Ethnographic study of existing crypto platform usage patterns
- Competitive analysis of traditional investment apps vs. crypto platforms
- Survey of 140+ potential users about crypto fears and motivations
Fear Points Identified
- Security concerns – “What if I lose my wallet?” “Are these platforms safe?”
- Complexity overwhelm – Too many options, confusing terminology
- Financial anxiety – Fear of losing money, making wrong choices
- Social pressure – Feeling behind on crypto trends but afraid to start
- Technical intimidation – Complex interfaces designed for experts
Key User Personas:
Hands-off Hanna: “All of those money tools are so complicated and show more information than I care about. I just want to know that my money is doing ok.”
Cautious Camila: “Budgeting is fine but finance is intimidating enough as it is. I don’t want to make a mistake and not even know it.”
Savvy Sophie: “I like playing the markets but crypto is a new strange world. I just need it all laid out for me. Once shown how, I can find my way.”
Design process
Turning user insights into real design solutions took a thoughtful approach that balanced what users felt with what the business needed.
User Research Integration
Every design decision traced back to specific user insights. Research findings impact on features:
- Funds – users could set automatic payments for specific short or long-term financial goals.
- Gift – users could give crypto to users and non-users, creating invitations to the platform
Rapid Prototyping
Used progressive fidelity prototyping to test concepts quickly:
- Wireframe prototypes for user flow testing
- Interactive prototypes for behavioral validation
- High-fidelity prototypes for final experience testing
Early iterations and wireframes
Design system
Using the brand identity created by an outside agency, I developed a design system in Figma to facilitate design and development.
Design
In contrast to the relatively complex idea of crypto, we wanted to ensure that the users felt sure and secure in the choices available to them.
MVP and Outcomes
The web app launched in December 2023 as an MVP with an abbreviated version of the designs with plans to implement features in future updates.
Outcomes
- 78% completed onboarding
- 56% of users made their first crypto investment within 30 days
- 89% user satisfaction with educational content
Though we saw slow, steady growth after the initial launch, it was not enough to offset the funding issues that unfortunately eventually led to the app’s shutdown.
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