Okcoin Mobile App
Deposit & Withdraw in Brazilian Real
Project Summary
Cryptocurrency adoption is expanding by leaps and bounds in the LATAM market. In Brazil alone, it is estimated that over 10 million people, 4.9% of the country’s total population, currently own cryptocurrency. With growing competition in the market with multiple exchanges, I was tasked with scaling and localizing Okcoin’s mobile app to support the unique needs of the Brazilian population.
Challenges and Opportunities
Expanding the platform to Brazil brought about unique challenges and opportunities that Okcoin had never accounted for in the app. Okcoin’s retail app was built primarily for customers in the US and Europe. The design and product teams met with several of our Brazilian colleagues to get an understanding of the Brazilian market where these key themes emerged:
Currency Devaluation
The Brazilian Real (BRL) has been devalued by over 60% in the last 10 years. This devaluation has led to widespread adoption of the US Dollar for residents there. When chatting with several of my Brazilian coworkers, I found that exchanging Real and Dollars is so common that the exchange rate is a constant news ticker on Brazilian television.
Digital Adoption
World bank statistics show that about 25% of the people in Brazil live under the poverty line, yet the country ranks high in digital adoption of mobile phones, app usage, and time spent on the internet. With the population having a median age of 32, Brazilians are eager to embrace new technology.
Mobile Banking
81% of Brazilians with mobile devices access their bank account via a smartphone app rather than through a computer. Brazil is one of the top 5 countries in the world whose population accesses the internet this way.
New Payment Methods
New payment methods needed to be added to the app to allow users to quickly deposit and withdraw BRL. Okcoin partnered with FacilitaPay, a LATAM payment service provider, to integrate PIX and TED transfers to the platform.
PIX is a real-time bank transfer that is integrated into every bank’s online banking system. PIX transfers have many advantages like no service fees and instant funding to the recipient. In 2021, the number of transactions processed through PIX surpassed those on credit or debit cards. TED is another bank transfer method available in every bank’s online banking system. While not an instant method, funds are usually processed within a day. TED transfers have a small service fee for each transaction but fees are lower when initiated online rather than directly through the bank.
Design Scope
I partnered with the Lead PM on the payments squad to define the acceptance criteria for the design work needed to integrate Brazilian Real into multiple features on the Okcoin app. We also collaborated with a Brazilian Content Designer to ensure that the English content could be localized to Portuguese.
Acceptance Criteria
Deposit
Integrate PIX transfers as a payment method to deposit BRL from a bank account to a user’s Okcoin balance.
Withdraw
Integrate TED transfers as a payment method to withdraw BRL from a user’s Okcoin balance to a bank account. If a user wants to withdraw USD, this will require a wire transfer to a US-based bank account.
Convert
Convert does not exist currently in the app. Design a new experience that allows users to convert USD to BRL, BRL to USD, USD to Stablecoin, and crypto to crypto (in BRL).
Buy
Users cannot buy without first depositing BRL via PIX. If a user does not have a BRL balance, include a way for the user to quickly top up their account to complete a purchase.
Sell
Sell crypto with proceeds going to a user’s BRL balance in the app. Surface a way to withdraw via TED after a sale.
The Solution
Having recently redesigned the deposit and withdraw experience in the Okcoin app, my goal was to use this as a base to build the fiat on and off-ramp for Brazil. Ensuring scalability in this deposit and withdrawal experience was essential to support future integrations with other regions requiring multicurrency support.
Multicurrency Display
Early ideas on how to display a balance within the app if a user has more than one currency. These explorations included opportunities for displaying more than two currencies to future-proof the design as Okcoin expands into new countries or regions.
Deposit BRL with PIX
Explorations on integrating PIX transfers into the existing deposit flow. Worked with our Brazilian Content Designer to get visibility into the transfer process when a user navigates to their online banking app to complete the transfer to their Okcoin account.
Withdraw BRL with TED
Withdrawing BRL from the app would be done with a TED transfer. TED transfers are a more traditional transfer method that requires the user to enter their banking information and save it as a withdrawal method in the app. With more information for the user to input, I explored options for the user to bypass manually entering their bank info and instead search for their bank.
Convert
With convert being a new feature, I collaborated with another product designer on the US-retail team to design a solution that would work for Okcoin customers in our other global regions. The US and European convert experiences were limited to crypto-to-crypto conversions, while the Brazilian experience included additional flows for fiat and stablecoin conversions.
Buy and Sell
If a user’s BRL balance does not cover the amount entered in the buy flow, an option to top up their balance is surfaced contextually without having to exit the flow. After a user tops up their balance with PIX, they can complete their crypto purchase.
Research
With the hi-fi design nearing completion, the payments team regrouped to discuss research opportunities to validate the design with Brazilian users. With the convert feature having the most complexity, we determined that it made the most sense to validate its usability. Working with our team’s UX researcher, we decided on a set of tasks and conducted unmoderated usability testing via usertesting.com
Final Design
Deposit
Multi-currency support to complete a BRL deposit with a PIX transfer or a USD deposit with a wire transfer. Live exchange rate information for USD and BRL is surfaced with an action to make an API call to refresh the exchange rate.
Withdraw
Withdraw from the BRL balance to a bank by adding a TED transfer. Search for a bank to have the bank info autofill or enter manually.
Convert
Convert USD to BRL, BRL to USD, USD to Stablecoin, and one crypto for another. Usability testing didn’t reveal major usability concerns in any of the flows other than testers instinctively tapping the secondary “Convert another” button on the success screen to exit the experience. I removed the “Convert another” button in hopes of reducing the decisions a user has to make after successfully converting.
Buy and Sell
Buy crypto using the BRL balance. If the balance doesn’t cover the purchase, easily top up with a PIX transfer and complete the crypto purchase once instantly funded. When selling crypto, funds are instantly applied to the BRL balance. From there, a user can keep the funds, convert them to USD, or withdraw them to a bank.
Next Steps
After delivering the design to the native engineering team, this project was put on hold as Okcoin shifted its focus to expanding global payments across the platform. Support for Brazilian Real will launch in-app by the end of 2022 along with support for the Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Great British Pound, Singapore Dollar, and Hong Kong Dollar.