An overview of how I redesigned the Radix Wallet information architecture

Project overview

Context

The Radix Wallet app was evolving and to include new features. So the original app menu was no longer fit for purpose. In order to meet user needs, we needed to update the entire information hierarchy so users could continue to navigate through the product with ease and speed.

Why it matters

To paraphrase Jarod Spool, “users don’t navigate apps, they forage”. Our job as content designers of digital products is to recognise that our users are hunters, not casual strollers. Our goal is to help them reach their target as quickly as possible. To this end, users journeys should be intuitive and naming conventions should be instantly recognisable.

My role

I was responsible for all copy on the project. I was also heavily involved in the discussions around taxonomy, information architecture design and section hierarchy mapping.

I worked alongside:

  • Product Manager

  • Product Designer

  • Engineers

The process

Audit and discovery

To get a clear picture of the current situation, the PM, product designer and I:

  • Reviewed the existing information architecture.

  • Mapped user flows.

  • Analysed recent feature growth and upcoming features to ensure scalability.

  • Reviewed user painpoints (based on our own experience and Discord comments).

Designing the information architecture

We worked alongside the engineering team as we designed the new information architecture for the Radix Wallet. We needed to know what made sense for them from a technical standpoint, and what was possible.

  • We started with a whiteboard and paper notes, listing all features and putting them into taxonomies.

  • We then committed these lists to a spreadsheet so we could see the exact hierarchy and user journeys.

Now we had our full app navigation, with all menus from each level of the hierarchy.

Designing the content

I came up with copy solutions for two known problems:

  1. Unclear feature and section names.

  2. Uncertainty around how to get to certain features.

My solution was twofold:

  • I would add a short description under each section name so it was instantly clear to users where they could find things.

  • I also changed some section/feature names, from technical nomenclature to more everyday language that users would intuitively understand. For example, I changed ‘Securified Sets’ to ‘Security Shield’.

To do this, I wrote down all the features we’d listed and gave them each a description. The descriptions could be no longer than three lines on the screen (preferable two) had to guide and inform the user.

Outcome

This image shows the old menu next to the new one. It has:

  • Renamed from Settings to Wallet Settings, to differentiate it from Account Settings (another section of the app).

  • Descriptions for each section.

  • Related sections partitioned into their own sub-groupings.

  • Six sections as opposed to the previous four, with some renamed or amalgamated.

The primary outcomes for this piece of work were:

  • Cleaner and scalable – app menu easier to navigate and room for the app to continue evolving.

  • Positive feedback – from internal stakeholders who we carried out our user testing on.

  • Positive reaction from users – on Discord, people appreciated the more human language and easier navigation.