Within the TON ecosystem, I worked on multiple products ranging from multi-signature wallets — Tonkey to staking services — KTON and developer tools — TONX API at TONX.
Although these products serve different functions and audiences, I encountered one recurring challenge throughout:
How might we reduce cognitive friction and help users feel safe, confident, and in control when interacting with Web3 products?
This question became the foundation of my design approach across projects. Instead of jumping into solutions, I focused on understanding real user struggles through systematic research — ensuring that every design decision directly addressed user needs.
In this case study, I share how I approached these challenges across products, the research methods I applied, and how those insights shaped the design solutions that improved clarity, trust, and usability in complex Web3 environments.
The information presented in this case study is for job application purposes and has been modified to comply with a non-disclosure agreement. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and not of any entity. This case study is not intended for commercial use.
Designing for Web3 isn’t just about fixing usability issues — it’s about making complexity feel safe, understandable, and within the user’s control. Across the TON ecosystem, the real challenge wasn’t features themselves, but the trust gaps that emerge when concepts are unclear, flows feel risky, and journeys become overwhelming. Addressing these gaps became the focus of my work across products.
At TONX, I led both UX and UI design across multiple products within the ecosystem — including Tonkey (multi-sig wallet), KTON (staking service), TONX API (developer tools), and Tonlend (lending protocol). My work ranged from understanding user pain points to designing thoughtful interaction flows and delivering clean, consistent visual design. I collaborated closely with product managers, engineers, and key stakeholders — including C-level leadership — to ensure that research insights were translated into intuitive, trustworthy, and scalable product experiences.
I led the end-to-end product design for TONX API — an RPC infrastructure that supports developers building on the TON ecosystem — as well as Tonlend, a lending protocol, and KTON, a staking service providing liquidity for TON-based assets.
My work covered the full design process, including competitor research, UX flow design, UI execution, and hands-on collaboration with engineering and product teams to ensure smooth implementation and delivery.
A multi-sig wallet for TON developers, currently managing over $400M in assets. For Tonkey, I was involved in the v2 to v3 upgrade, focusing on redesign planning and usability enhancements.
I take a research-driven, problem-first approach to product design — focusing on uncovering real user needs and aligning solutions with business goals. My process follows an iterative cycle of discovery, validation, and refinement, working closely with cross-functional teams at every stage.
At the beginning of each project, before jumping into solutions, I always start with research and exploration — prioritizing understanding over assumptions.
Before the official kickoff, I plan out a research strategy to define how, what, and why we need to explore — identifying the questions we need to answer, the methods we will use, and the goals behind the research. This approach helps ensure that design decisions are grounded in real insights rather than assumptions.
The following diagram shows the research plan I created for the Tonlend project:
One of my core practices is mapping out the end-to-end user flow of competitor products, organizing their key functions and interaction patterns. This helps me identify how they structure information, handle critical moments, and what design choices they make — both their strengths and their potential gaps. Along the way, I keep personal notes on my observations and hypotheses, often trying to reverse-engineer their design logic to understand whether their decisions would also apply to our context.
Through this process, I build a high-level understanding of the product landscape, which not only sparks early design ideas but also serves as a foundation for discussions with PMs and stakeholders.
Another example is Tonkey. Since Tonkey was a revamp project, I started by conducting interviews with stakeholder to understand their job to be done, key use cases, and pain points. This gave me valuable context about how the product was being used and what improvements would have the biggest impact.
After aligning on the overall direction, I translate research into user flows and early design explorations, using visual methods like flowcharts and journey maps. This helps me clearly communicate design ideas, identify gaps or friction points, and align more efficiently with PMs and engineers on the product logic.
When working on Tonlend, I analyzed common design patterns in similar products, evaluating their pros and cons. For example, I noticed that many platforms didn’t clearly explain the relationship between supply, collateral, and borrow in their user flows, causing confusion for users.
Through research and discovery across different projects, I started to notice recurring challenges that many Web3 products share — regardless of their specific features or audiences.While each product had its own unique context, the struggles users faced often pointed back to the same underlying issues.
Here are the three key UX challenges that kept coming up:
Web3 introduces mechanisms that most users are unfamiliar with — multi-sig roles, gas fees, staking conditions, RPC parameters. Without the right explanations, these concepts often lead to hesitation and confusion.
Users worry about losing funds or getting locked into a decision they can’t undo. When flows lack clear guidance or confirmation, this fear becomes a major blocker to action.
Key actions like wallet connections, staking approvals, or setup processes often involve too many steps, unclear next actions, or scattered information. The result is frustration, drop-offs, and broken trust.
Good research is only the first step — what truly matters is how those insights shape design decisions.Across Tonkey, KTON, and TONX API, I translated what I learned into focused design strategies that improved clarity, reduced friction, and helped users move forward with confidence.
Here’s how I approached each challenge — and the thinking behind the solutions across Tonkey, KTON, and TONX API.
Tonkey is an institutional-grade routing wallet designed specifically for the TON blockchain. It is trusted by the TON Foundation and widely used across the ecosystem by developers and institutions managing multi-signature assets.
I was responsible for the v2 to v3 product upgrade, focusing on redesign planning, improving usability, and aligning the interface with updated protocol requirements. My work spanned from stakeholder interviews and UI audits to workflow simplification and implementation support — ensuring the new experience was both technically robust and user-friendly.
One of the most common challenges we identified through stakeholder interviews and user data was that most users only managed a single multi-sig wallet. This insight allowed us to simplify the sidemenu design: instead of listing wallets as the default view, we chose to direct users into their wallet immediately after creation, removing unnecessary steps and streamlining the overall experience.
This decision was inspired by similar patterns in other wallet products like Zerion, where automatic redirection helps maintain user focus. By reducing redundant choices, we lowered cognitive load and helped users stay oriented — directly addressing the issue of conceptual confusion.
Additionally, we noticed that after wallet creation, the CTAs on the right-hand panel often became irrelevant or confusing. To resolve this, we shifted the panel content to focus on context-specific information, ensuring that users only see actions related to their current wallet state. This aligns with Nielsen’s usability heuristic of providing relevant information in the right context and supports the design principle of recognition over recall.
Another critical pain point in multi-sig workflows is the fear of making irreversible mistakes — particularly around transaction approvals and timing. Users often felt uncertain about what was happening behind the scenes, which created hesitation and trust issues.
To address this, I designed the transaction process with three clear stages to guide expectations and reduce anxiety:
Lower cognitive friction through clarity, context, and continuous feedback. Build trust by reducing uncertainty — not by adding more choices, but by guiding users through each decision with confidence.
KTON is the first-mover Liquid Staking Token (LST) platform on the TON blockchain — designed to unlock the full potential of users’ staked assets. It offers high yield, high liquidity, and operates on audited smart contracts, delivering institutional-grade security for both individual and enterprise users.
I led the end-to-end product design, covering the entire process from competitor research and UX flow design to UI execution and collaboration with engineers to ensure smooth implementation and delivery. My focus was on reducing staking friction, increasing user confidence, and making complex staking workflows both understandable and approachable.
One barrier to staking is the abstract nature of future rewards — users need to feel that the effort is worthwhile. To address this, I designed the KTON staking interface to make benefits visible as early as possible.
This design taps into the behavioral principle of instant gratification — when users can immediately see the outcome of their actions, they are more likely to proceed confidently.
Visualize benefits early to reduce perceived effort and increase commitment.
The withdrawal process in TON’s staking system involves multiple non-intuitive steps: submitting a request, waiting through an unbonding period, and then withdrawing manually. Without clear guidance, users risk getting lost or making mistakes.
To simplify this experience:
By clearly mapping the journey, users can anticipate what to expect, avoid unnecessary mistakes, and feel in control throughout the process.
Support progressive disclosure and make system status visible to reduce uncertainty.
TONX API powers the 1B+ user Web3 SuperApp ecosystem by providing a reliable, scalable RPC infrastructure for developers building on the TON blockchain. As the backbone of TON’s decentralized architecture, it simplifies development, accelerates integration, and ensures long-term network stability.
For this product, I led the product design from concept to execution — including developer experience research, API onboarding optimization, interface architecture, and collaborative iteration with engineers. My focus was on reducing time-to-setup, clarifying RPC configuration flows, and improving developer confidence through smarter defaults and clearer documentation.
For developer tools, the first impression is critical — if developers hit friction during setup, they are far less likely to return. One of the biggest issues we identified in the early TONX API flow was that developers often weren’t sure what to configure, where to begin, or how to test the system quickly.
To address this, I designed the onboarding flow to automatically generate a default app and API key immediately after sign-up, complete with a ready-to-use RPC configuration. This allowed developers to start interacting with the system within seconds of completing registration, without needing to dig through setup steps.
Instead of asking users to create a project from scratch — which introduces multiple decisions before delivering any value — we gave them a working setup by default, which they could later customize.
Why it works (design reasoning):
Reduce the number of decisions required before users see value. Let them start using before configuring.
In addition to product work, I also contributed to strengthening the internal design system at TONX.
I introduced the use of variables and established clear component guidelines — ensuring visual and behavioral consistency across multiple products, while making the collaboration between design and engineering teams more efficient and scalable.
By implementing a more structured design system, we were able to:
This systemized approach was especially critical as the product ecosystem expanded, ensuring that every new feature or product could build on a solid, reusable foundation.
Designing for Web3 is not just about simplifying user interfaces — it’s about addressing uncertainty, building trust, and guiding users through unfamiliar territory.
Throughout these projects, I learned that reducing friction alone is not enough.
Psychological safety, clear expectations, and progressive disclosure are essential to help users feel confident navigating the inherent complexity of blockchain-based products.
More importantly, I realized that user research isn’t a standalone phase — it actively shapes product strategy, drives design decisions, and directly impacts success.As a designer, my mission is to translate complex, intimidating systems into understandable, trustworthy, and approachable experiences — one thoughtful decision at a time.
