Sahal Wallet · Process

The full process

The research, personas and flows behind Sahal Wallet. The case study covers the decisions; this is the work underneath them.

02 — User Research

User Persona & Goals

Understanding who we design for — their motivations, goals, and pain points.

👤
Karim Hassan
Crypto Beginner, 26
Goals
  • Buy crypto safely without fear of mistakes
  • Understand his portfolio value at a glance
  • Send and receive assets with confidence
Pain Points
  • Confusing jargon makes wallets feel inaccessible
  • Security prompts trigger anxiety rather than reassurance
🧑
Rohan Verma
Active Trader, 31
Goals
  • Track multi-chain portfolio in a single view
  • Execute fast swaps with gas fee transparency
  • Monitor transaction confirmations in real time
Pain Points
  • Switching between multiple wallets for different chains
  • Slow transaction confirmations with no status feedback
👩
Diya Malhotra
DeFi Enthusiast, 29
Goals
  • Track yield farming positions and APY in one place
  • Integrate seamlessly with DeFi protocols
  • Manage NFTs alongside fungible assets
Pain Points
  • Fragmented DeFi dashboards require constant tab-switching
  • Complex wallet interactions for protocol approvals

03 — Business Challenges

Core Challenges

The systemic UX and trust barriers preventing mainstream crypto wallet adoption.

🔐

Trust & Security Perception

78% of users cite security as their #1 concern. Existing wallets bury security controls in settings menus, making them feel like danger signals rather than confidence builders.

🔗

Complex Multi-Chain UX

Active traders manage an average of 3.4 wallets across different chains. No wallet has successfully unified multi-chain management without sacrificing depth or clarity.

📚

Crypto Literacy Gap

61% of users abandon wallets due to complexity. Seed phrases, gas fees, and transaction signing remain opaque barriers that block onboarding at every step.

⛽

Transaction Fee Opacity

Users frequently discover total costs only after initiating a transaction. Hidden gas fees and speed options are buried, creating post-transaction regret and eroding trust.

04 — Secondary Research

Market Insights

Wallet Abandonment
61%
Abandon Due to Complexity
More than half of crypto users eventually stop using their wallet due to UX friction — not security failures. Complexity is the primary driver of abandonment across all user segments.
Power User Behaviour
3.4
Wallets Managed on Average
Multi-chain users maintain an average of 3.4 separate wallets because no single product handles all chains well. This creates fragmented UX and increases the risk of user error.
Security Priority
78%
Security as #1 Concern
78% of surveyed crypto users rank security as their top concern when choosing a wallet — but most rate their current wallet's security communication as confusing or anxiety-inducing.

07 — User Flow

The Journey

01
Onboard / Import
3-step guided wallet creation or secure seed phrase import with educational prompts
02
Dashboard
Unified portfolio view showing total value across all chains and assets
03
Select Asset
Browse assets with chain filters, real-time values, and gain/loss indicators
04
Swap / Send / Receive
Contextual action screen with recipient verification and upfront fee breakdown
05
Confirm Transaction
Plain-language summary with irreversibility warning and biometric signing
06
History
Transaction history with status tracking, hash visibility, and explorer links

08 — Toolkits

Tools & Workflow

The tools and methods used throughout the design process.

🎨
Figma
UI Design & Component Library
⚡
Principle
Motion & Interaction Prototyping
🧪
Maze
Remote Usability Testing
🗺️
Miro
Journey Mapping & Research Synthesis
🔧
Zeplin
Design Handoff & Developer Specs

02 — Process

Designing for trust
at every layer.

A five-phase design process anchored in the belief that security UX and usable UX are not opposing forces — that the best wallet is one that builds confidence while its safety mechanisms work invisibly.

01
Web3 User Research
Deep-dive interviews with 32 users across the spectrum — first-time buyers to DeFi power users. Mapped every point of friction, fear, and confusion in existing wallet flows across MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Phantom.
02
Security-First Architecture
Collaborated with the engineering team to understand the full security model — seed phrases, key derivation, transaction signing. Every IA decision was made with security as a first-class constraint, not an afterthought.
03
Dual-Mode UX Design
Designed a progressive disclosure system — a clean, reassuring default mode for beginners with progressive unlock of advanced views. Tested extensively with mixed-literacy cohorts to validate the handoff point between modes.
04
Visual Language for Trust
Developed the green/dark crypto palette, security iconography system, and premium dark UI language. Visual signals were engineered to communicate "safe vault" rather than "experimental app" — dark luxury meets institutional finance.
05
Wallet Component Library & Accessibility
Built a comprehensive design system: chain chips, asset rows, transaction confirmation flows, seed phrase display components, biometric prompts, and financial data visualisation tokens. Every component designed to scale across 12 chains and 500+ assets. All colour pairings were validated against WCAG AA — particularly important for the red/green positive/negative transaction indicators, which were given secondary icon encoding to be usable for colour-blind users. A product handling real financial assets has a responsibility that goes beyond visual preference.
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