Designing a 0-1 Financial Services & Web3 Platform
Overview
As the sole product designer, I led interviews, workshops and demos with telcos, investors, and users. I shaped prototype-to-pilot design for Releaf’s payments/Web3 platform, simplifying complex blockchain into clear, trusted experiences.
Categories
Web 3
Financial Infrastructure
Team
1× Product Designer (Sole), 3× Founders, 1× Frontend Engineer, 2× Backend & Blockchain Engineers, 1× Systems Engineer, Telco Partners, Investors, Advisors
Timeline
8 weeks (Concept → MVP → Pilot-ready product)
Platform
Mobile (iOS & Android), Web (Landing Page, Explorer, Dashboard)
My Role
End-to-End UX, Research and UX Strategy, Investor Demos, Protoyping, Design Systems
$5M
Pre-seed secured
+67%
Stakeholder clarity post-demo
3
Telco pilots signed
+65%
User comprehension of PoI (30% → 95%)
As featured in:
The Problem at Hand
Releaf was building a decentralized network where everyday smartphones act as witnesses to secure peer-to-peer transactions and earn rewards. The challenge wasn’t technology, it was trust and comprehension.
Releaf was building a decentralized network where everyday smartphones act as witnesses to secure peer-to-peer transactions and earn rewards. The challenge wasn’t technology, it was trust and comprehension.
Partners/Telcos struggled to understand why they should integrate
Partners/Telcos struggled to understand why they should integrate
Investors couldn’t clearly see how value accrued
Investors couldn’t clearly see how value accrued
Users found decentralized validation abstract and hard to trust
Users found decentralized validation abstract and hard to trust
Releaf needed a clear product story, not just a protocol.
Releaf needed a clear product story, not just a protocol.
The Surfaces
The Storytelling played out across 2 surfaces:
The Storytelling played out across 2 surfaces:
A prototype demo for the App (User Facing)
A transparency layer (Explorer + Dashboard)
From Prototype to Market Traction
From Prototype to Market Traction
The Core Challenge
How do you explain Proof-of-Intent, a decentralized witness network to non-technical audience in under 5 minutes
How do you explain Proof-of-Intent, a decentralized witness network to non-technical audience in under 5 minutes
Key Design Decisions
I reframed PoI as a simple loop: Transaction → Witness → Reward. This became the backbone of the MVP.
I reframed PoI as a simple loop: Transaction → Witness → Reward. This became the backbone of the MVP.
Research & Key Insights
I conducted interviews across 12 early users and Internal stakeholders across Africa & LatAm.
I conducted interviews across 12 early users and Internal stakeholders across Africa & LatAm.
What we learned:
What we learned:
1. Most waistlisted users had zero understanding
3. If I earn it, how do I use/spend it?
2. Show the value, not the blockchain.
The Strategy
I didn’t need to burden users with complex backend details. I focused on simplifying the experience by designing flows that show value in motion and make the system intuitive to understand.
I didn’t need to burden users with complex backend details. I focused on simplifying the experience by designing flows that show value in motion and make the system intuitive to understand.
Key Storytelling Flows
The demo showed:
The demo showed:
End-to-end mobile prototype: Home, Send, Rewards, Deals
End-to-end mobile prototype: Home, Send, Rewards, Deals
Visualized how a phone becomes a witness node
Visualized how a phone becomes a witness node
Clear earning feedback: what users did, what they earned, and why
Clear earning feedback: what users did, what they earned, and why
A “Deals” layer showing how rewards translate into real-world value
A “Deals” layer showing how rewards translate into real-world value
Scene 1
Alex (South Africa) Opens the App, from his home UI, he initiates a “Send” action to transfer LEAF to a saved recipient
Alex (South Africa) Opens the App, from his home UI, he initiates a “Send” action to transfer LEAF to a saved recipient
Scene 2
Tiago (Mexico) receives a witness notification and earns rewards, also redeems LEAF via Deals (travel, lifestyle, airtime)
Tiago (Mexico) receives a witness notification and earns rewards, also redeems LEAF via Deals (travel, lifestyle, airtime)
Design Decisions That Moved the Needle
Major placement and interaction in the prototype was designed to focus on education, clarity, and quick access to actions.
Major placement and interaction in the prototype was designed to focus on education, clarity, and quick access to actions.
The Cherry on Top
Comprehension improved by guiding users step by step. Tooltips and modals clarified key terms like offers, cashback, and witnessing, which users found helpful in early usability tests.
Designing Transparency: Explorer & Notary Dashboard
The Problem
PoI required verifiability. Users and notaries needed to see:
Transactions
Transactions
Witness Activity
Witness Activity
Rewards and earnings
Rewards and earnings
Without this, trust breaks.
What I did
I designed two MVP tools.
Blockchain Explorer (public transparency: search, transaction breakdowns)
Blockchain Explorer (public transparency: search, transaction breakdowns)
What I did
Notary Dashboard (operational clarity: earnings, blocks, intents)
Notary Dashboard (operational clarity: earnings, blocks, intents)
Both aligned tightly with the mobile app flows. I defined the MVP scope and architecture with engineers
Design Decisions That Moved the Needle
I split transaction details into clear tabs (Overview, PoI Activity, Logs), applied consistent status badges across surfaces, used table-first layouts for speed and clarity, truncated hashes with hover-to-copy interactions, and ensured fully responsive designs.
I split transaction details into clear tabs (Overview, PoI Activity, Logs), applied consistent status badges across surfaces, used table-first layouts for speed and clarity, truncated hashes with hover-to-copy interactions, and ensured fully responsive designs.
Designing for Scale
To support MVP scalability, I built a robust design system with 60+ components and 120 reusable tokens, establishing a consistent, flexible foundation for a future-proof Releaf product ecosystem.
Takeaway
This project reinforced that: Clarity builds trust, early MVPs should be designed for learning and scale, storytelling is as important as systems design in fintech & Web3.
By focusing on human understanding, progressive disclosure, and prototype-led alignment, we helped turn a complex idea into a product investors, partners, and users could believe in which drove massive impacct.
$5M
Pre-seed secured
+67%
Stakeholder clarity post-demo
3
Telco pilots signed
+65%
User comprehension of PoI (30% → 95%)
Resources that helped
Thinking in Systems
Articulating Design Decisions
The Design of Everyday Things
Don't Make me Think
Chris Surdak
CEO
“Choice played a critical role in shaping how Releaf was understood. She turned a very complex system into a clear product story that helped us align investors partners and the team.”
Thomas Subias
Head of Product
“Working with Choice felt like having a product partner not just a designer. She consistently asked the right questions and helped us make confident decisions under high uncertainty.”
Rich Buchanan
CTO
“Choice had a strong grasp of the technical constraints and designed solutions that worked in the real world. Her ability to align UX with system logic made collaboration easy.”
Dilonne Machuginnin
Blockchain Engineer
“Choice helped translate our blockchain concepts into interfaces users could actually understand. Her designs made it much easier to explain and validate the PoI system.”
Chris Surdak
CEO
“Choice played a critical role in shaping how Releaf was understood. She turned a very complex system into a clear product story that helped us align investors partners and the team.”
Thomas Subias
Head of Product
“Working with Choice felt like having a product partner not just a designer. She consistently asked the right questions and helped us make confident decisions under high uncertainty.”
Rich Buchanan
CTO
“Choice had a strong grasp of the technical constraints and designed solutions that worked in the real world. Her ability to align UX with system logic made collaboration easy.”
Dilonne Machuginnin
Blockchain Engineer
“Choice helped translate our blockchain concepts into interfaces users could actually understand. Her designs made it much easier to explain and validate the PoI system.”
Chris Surdak
CEO
“Choice played a critical role in shaping how Releaf was understood. She turned a very complex system into a clear product story that helped us align investors partners and the team.”
Thomas Subias
Head of Product
“Working with Choice felt like having a product partner not just a designer. She consistently asked the right questions and helped us make confident decisions under high uncertainty.”
Rich Buchanan
CTO
“Choice had a strong grasp of the technical constraints and designed solutions that worked in the real world. Her ability to align UX with system logic made collaboration easy.”
Dilonne Machuginnin
Blockchain Engineer
“Choice helped translate our blockchain concepts into interfaces users could actually understand. Her designs made it much easier to explain and validate the PoI system.”
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