Designing the "Passive" Lane for DeFi.
In 2021, crypto was loud, unregulated, and demanded full-time attention. To have a diversified portfolio, a user had to manage 10+ tokens, approve 10+ contracts, and manually rebalance positions. My goal was to build the "ETF of Crypto"—moving users from managing assets to owning an index.
The "Active Management" Tax
This cognitive tax made DeFi inaccessible to passive investors. The challenge: How do we make a highly volatile, complex instrument feel as safe and manageable as a savings account?
Cognitive Overload
Users were forced to manage multiple tokens, approve multiple contracts, and manually rebalance positions before making a single trade.
Fragmented Journeys
Protocols separated their marketing site from their product, forcing context-switching that broke the acquisition funnel.
The Trust Deficit
Gamified competitor interfaces signalled volatility and risk, alienating investors looking for passive growth.
Technical Barriers
High latency and complex wallet interactions created a hostile environment for non-technical retail users.
The Strategy: Simplification via Abstraction
The primary design challenge was concealing the technical heaviness of the protocol. A single purchase of PDI (Phuture DeFi Index) actually triggered multiple swaps and smart contract interactions in the background. The UI was designed to hide this "plumbing" entirely.
The "Black Box" Architecture
The "One-Token" Heuristic: Shifted the interface focus from the constituents (AAVE, UNI, COMP) to the product (PDI), reducing decision fatigue.
Invisible Rebalancing: Visualized monthly auto-rebalancing events not as "actions required" but as "value delivered," reinforcing the hands-off value prop.
Educational Tooltips: Integrated a learning platform, alongside an integrated tooltip system to explain intermediate/advanced concepts like "Yield" and "Weighting" in-context, allowing users to onboard without forcing them to read in-depthdocumentation.
The "Anti-Crypto" Brand
Institutional Typography: Used balanced, well-spaced layouts, sans-serif typography and calm, muted palettes to evoke the feeling of a fintech neobank (like Revolut) rather than a degen casino.
Transparency First: While we hid the mechanics, we exposed the data. Designed "Transparency Modules" that showed exact index compositions and fees, building trust through radical clarity.
Scaling the Architecture
The design system had to scale beyond just one index. The design system was architected to support the launch of additional products, such as CAI (Colony Avalanche Index) and Yield products without breaking the core navigation.
This modular approach allowed us to launch new investment vehicles in weeks, not months.
Impact
Macro-Trend Visualization
Designed analytics to emphasize long-term growth over micro-volatility (candlesticks). This psychologically reduced panic selling, driving the 211-day retention.
Institutional Credibility
The "Anti-Crypto" aesthetic differentiated Phuture from "gamified" competitors, signalling safety to passive investors.
Hypothesis Validated
Proved that retail investors would sacrifice granular control (manual gas settings) in exchange for a friction-free, one-click investment experience.