Encouraging Tax Withholding on a Cryptocurrency Dashboard
About
Degen Tax is a tax withholding platform for cryptocurrency traders, or ‘crypto degens.’ With capital gains tax on every gain, degens actually end up trading with money that they don’t own. While most tax platforms in the crypto space focus on end-of-year reporting, Degen Tax is the only proactive tool for degens to set aside money for taxes in real-time.
I contracted with the development agency (@Luminode Labs) for the front-end UX design of the Degen Tax dashboard prior to MVP launch in August 2024.
Role
Product designer
Timeframe
July 2024
Deliverables
Responsive dashboard (prototype)
Taxes aren't fun.
Most degens are inclined to ignore their taxes, focus on their trades, and just see what happens at the end of the year. Especially in such a speculative market, however, this often ends up disastrous—with degens owing more than they have in the bank due to USDC conversion ‘doubling’ taxes.
At the end of the day, taxes aren’t fun. So how can we encourage users to set aside some of their gains for taxes nonetheless? With the system tracking trades and adjusting taxes in the back-end, the primary goal of the Degen Tax dashboard is to prompt users to balance the estimated amount that they owe with the amount that they have set aside.
SCOPE
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Discussions with dev team
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Discussions with founder
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Research on crypto space
DEFINE
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Problem statement
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Primary & secondary goals
IDEATE
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Information architecture
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Call-to-actions
PROTOTYPE
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Wireframing from low to high fidelity
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Incl. different states
TEST
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User and technical feedback
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Measure impact TBD
Focusing on the primary goal...
Constantly processing information to make decisions throughout the day, crypto degens prefer, and even depend on, quick calls-to-action
With this in mind, I decided to ground my approach in the user's primary goal on the Degen Tax dashboard: to balance what they owe with what they have set aside.
To accomplish this goal, users must (1) see the relationship between these two amounts, and (2) balance these amounts as needed.
... across scenarios
With this in mind, I outlined three scenarios (information→ action):
The amount owed equals the amount set aside→ no action needed.
The amount owed is less than the amount set aside→ deploy extra capital.
The amount owed is more than the amount set aside→ set aside capital.
Developing the visual hierarchy
Mirroring the steps needed to accomplish the goal, I determined the primary elements on the home page to be (1) a display of the relationship between the amount owed and the amount set aside, and (2) a call to action depending on this relationship.
Based on discussions with the client, secondary elements would include a summary of tax activity (gains, losses), a summary of points, and a real-time ledger of transactions.
By balancing action with information, the home page would encourage tax withholding while providing data on trading activity.
Expanding the dashboard pages
We then expanded this hierarchy to the dashboard’s structure. In addition to home, I created taxes, transactions, points, and account pages.
Working within ambiguity
While I was familiar with the crypto space at a high level, the project required on-the-job learning about specific details and nuances.
This was particularly evident for the tax and transactions pages. For example, how exactly are crypto transactions taxed? Which gains are offset by which losses? What information is necessary to show for each transaction?
Through secondary research and targeted conversations with the team, I was able to execute the design quickly and with confidence, without full initial knowledge of the subject area.
The Degen Tax dashboard effectively encourages users to stay proactive about their tax withholding by balancing information with action. Crypto degens can quickly understand their progress and and then take action to balance their amounts if needed.
Although the Degen Tax dashboard prioritizes the primary user goal, secondary information on trades and tax calculations help to distill and breakdown otherwise opaque topics for the user.
By maintaining a clear focus on the primary goal of the dashboard, we were able to encourage action while also providing access to additional information that is distilled and meaningful.
The dashboard is currently in development, with the expected MVP launch in August 2024. We are discussing a post-launch plan for continuing to gather user feedback and iterate the dashboard.
Key takeaways
LESS IS MORE
Faced with the prospect of entire dashboard of pie charts and data visualizations, it was critical to prioritize meaningful data in the context of the primary goal.
LEARNING ON THE FLY
While I was initially a bit intimidated by the particularities of crypto trading, through research and targeted questions, I grew more and more confident designing for the space.
DASHBOARDS ARE FUN!
I loved drawing on my previous experience with data analysis to experiment with different ways to portray Degen Tax's data as both rich and distilled for the user.