The final result, tested and rooted in the companyā€™s existing design system.

The Problem

Usability tests, customer service records and interviews showed the existing dashboard was cluttered, confusing, and required deep blockchain knowledge to interpret. Novices struggled to find and act on key data, while experienced users found it inefficient. The redesign needed to simplify complexity without losing depth.

The Solution

1. Research & Benchmarking

We interviewed stakeholders and compared Blockdaemonā€™s dashboard to competitors in Web3 and traditional finance. This revealed gaps and opportunities for improvement.

With the problem scope clear, the team researched best practices across industries.

2. Collaborative Workshop

A collaborative session with product, engineering, and marketing teams focused on two goals:

  1. Make the dashboard intuitive and actionable for all users
  2. Improve the visual hierarchy to highlight critical data

One of the many sketches produced during the collaborative ideation workshop with the team.

3. Iterative Design & Development

Prototypes evolved through continuous user feedback, ensuring alignment with Blockdaemonā€™s design system. Close engineering collaboration and regular leadership check-ins kept the project focused and flexible.

Preparing greyscale prototypes for early testing.

4. Testing & Launch

Rigorous QA in a staging environment resolved inconsistencies before release. Early user feedback praised the improved navigation and decision-making, with strong initial results.

Documentation of learnings after initial testing.

A New Approach to Testing

Recruiting busy, specialized participants for usability tests was tough. To mediate that, we experimented with synthetic usersā€”AI clones mimicking real usersā€™ traits. While still emerging, this method achieved 90% parity with organic users, offering a promising solution for future testing.

One of the slides evaluating effectiveness of Synthetic Users.

Measurable Impact

After launch:

  • User satisfaction rose from 65% to 92%.
  • Time to complete key tasks dropped from 8 minutes to 2 minutes.
  • Error rates fell from 15% to 3%.
  • Adoption increased from 40% to 85% within three months.
  • Support tickets related to dashboard use decreased by 60%.

The redesign delivered a dashboard that solved usability challenges and created momentum for wider redesign work. By focusing on user needs and fostering collaboration, the project improved both the product and Blockdaemonā€™s internal processes.