How MetaMask can improve its onboarding UX for new users?
I recently applied for a product manager position with an international Web3 company. In the course of my correspondence with the HR manager, I was asked to do a free-form review of one of the products that I often use and suggest its improvements.
The task proved to be challenging, both at the level of selecting a relevant product and the direction in which I could improve it. However, I was fascinated by the work, and the resulting text seemed interesting for publication.
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Among dozens of products I use daily, such as banks, messengers, crypto exchanges, email, social networks etc. there is one which takes a special place in the lives of millions Web3 users as a starting point in their crypto journey, as their banks substitute and even as their new identity medium. This is MetaMask.
MetaMask is the most popular crypto wallet with 30 million MAU. A blockchain software technology company ConsenSys built it in 2016, and since then MM is the state-of-the-art crypto wallet.
MM has many features covering most of the crypto use cases. It works with ERC-20 and other EVM networks (BNB Chain, Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum). MM has a browser plugin allowing users to interact with dApps and mobile apps (Android, iOS). Built-in swap/exchange, DeFi and NFT extend its use-cases far beyond dire storing/sending/receiving crypto features.
MM is a non-custodial wallet, allowing users to keep full ownership of their assets by letting them store their private keys. Custodial wallets, on the contrary, control users’ private keys and so funds.
Among non-custodial MM competitions are Coinbase Wallet, Trust Wallet, MyEtherWallet, Coinomi, Exodus and BRD. Wallets differ in the number of blockchains and platforms maintained and other specific features.
How would I improve it?
Product improvement is making meaningful product changes that result in new customers or increased benefits realised by existing customers, whether by new product features or by improving existing ones. To define what might improve MM and not my personal views, specific needs and experience, I should first choose an audience or a specific task/stage to target, and a specific problem I want to solve.
As with any other product, MM users go through the Reach — Acquisition — Activation — Retention/Engagement — Loyalty cycle.
From my earlier research experience at Identix.Space, I learnt that the most hard task with crypto is onboarding naïve users, helping them to make their first steps during and right after setting up their first wallet.
The list of their issues and fears includes:
- New concepts existing only in the crypto world (seed, password, private and public keys, fees, etc.);
- No live human support;
- Overwhelming personal responsibility;
- Fear of unknown;
- Poor documentation (made by developers for developers);
- No tangible results or feedback after setting up a wallet. There are no clues on the next steps in the app;
- General mistrust of crypto related to scam and fraud risks.
Addressing these problems will speed up activating naïve users, help them make their first transactions, and finally grow LTV, essential Web3 product success metric.
Current state
Today’s MM onboarding is a straightforward wizard guide, a step-by-step process, allowing users to input information in a prescribed order. MM is a non-custodial wallet, so once setup, further steps such as buying crypto or receiving it from someone depend on users’ actions outside the app. Further sending or exchanging crypto demand gas, another new concept hard to get for a fresh user.
MM doesn’t offer users tools to check if they got it right, if they safely saved the seed, etc. MM doesn’t explain how to get hands-on experience in sending-receiving crypto. Users have to go outside the app, search for walkthroughs on YouTube, risking falling victim to fraudsters. For many new users, real world testing often comes with expensive mistakes.
Compared to banks and other financial apps, users can’t roll back mistakes in non-custodial wallets, such as a mistake in a not so friendly crypto address.
One needs to make at least several send/receive transactions to familiarise oneself with even these basic operations, set aside swap or lending/borrowing tokens.
Proposal
My proposal to MM onboarding product team will be to introduce into their onboarding some unconventional techniques:
- Onboarding tour around MM, and its interface and features, and/or
- Testnet wallet with tokens and a bot training users in basic operations (like “paper trading”) and/or
- Educational game for learning and practising features of MM.
If you have any amendments or corrections to my suggestions, I would be glad to hear them in the comments and discuss them
