DE
Devconnect
/Wallet Unconference

Speculative design for reverse-engineering your wallet’s reputation

Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 11:30 AM · 29:05

In today's crowded digital wallet landscape, potential adopters face an arduous choice of what wallet to take a look at, then, download or sign up, and hopefully, keep using again and again. As tech features and user experience define user retention, this is a product reputation that facilitates the “test drive”, or even a decision to stay on the product website longer or close the tab right away. As with any other complex system, reputation can be reverse-engineered. When combined with speculative design techniques, these reverse-engineering results can give momentum to any new digital wallet — big or small, well-developed or buggy-alpha one— a chance to be considered along with widely used wallets. The only question: how fair is such reverse engineering?

Ira is an independent designer specializing in branding and visual design strategy. After years in the consumer and fintech branding realms, she joined Web3 in early 2018 and has since served as a Creative Director at companies big and small, helping founders win hearts and minds of early adopters and funders. These days, she runs her own design practice and conducts DIY (design-it-yourself) workshops for pre- and seed-stage companies.