DeFi lending is growing. The design hasn't caught up.
Crypto lending — borrowing against cryptocurrency holdings without selling them — solves a real problem for a large and growing user base. Users who hold significant crypto assets often need liquidity: to fund expenses, to access stable-value currency without triggering a taxable sale, or to deploy capital into other positions. The traditional financial system's response is to ignore them or require collateral they don't hold in conventional form.
DeFi lending platforms exist to serve this need. But most of them are built for people who already understand DeFi deeply — which means they're opaque, jargon-heavy, and poorly designed for anyone encountering these mechanisms for the first time. The platforms that are friendlier tend to strip out so much functionality that they're not useful for people with real, complex positions.
Kreebox commissioned a 3-week design sprint to produce the full product design for a lending and borrowing app targeting Southeast Asian crypto users — a market where crypto adoption is high, DeFi awareness is growing, and the appetite for better-designed financial tools is clear.
3 wks
Brief to handoff — compressed sprint with no room for slow iteration
5
Core use cases addressed: borrow, lend, hedge, leverage, manage
2
Primary user types with distinct flows: borrowers and lenders
DeFi has a trust problem before it has a usability problem
The primary design challenge wasn't making the app easy to use. It was making it trustworthy. DeFi platforms carry a significant perception of risk — some of it legitimate (smart contract risk, liquidation risk, platform risk) and some of it amplified by widely-publicised failures and fraud in the space. A new platform entering this market has to earn trust before it can ask users to deposit assets.
The secondary challenge was progressive disclosure. Collateral ratios, loan-to-value (LTV) thresholds, liquidation mechanisms, and interest accrual models are concepts that experienced DeFi users understand well and novices don't. The design needed to make these concepts accessible to newcomers without hiding them from experts — and without creating a bifurcated product that felt like two different apps stitched together.
DeFi has a trust problem before it has a usability problem. Every design decision started there: how do we make the user feel in control of something that genuinely is complex and genuinely does carry risk?
Two primary users — different goals, different mental models, one product
The Borrower
Holds crypto assets and needs liquidity without selling. Mental model: "I have BTC, I need USDT, I want to get it without giving up my position." Key needs: understand what collateral they need to post, see their LTV ratio clearly, know exactly what happens if the ratio moves against them, and be in control of their loan terms. Risk tolerance: moderate — they understand they're posting collateral, they don't want surprises.
The Lender
Holds assets they're not actively trading and wants to earn yield. Mental model: "I have stablecoins sitting idle, I want them working." Key needs: see current interest rates clearly, understand the risk profile of what they're depositing into, track earnings over time. Risk tolerance: low — they're deploying this capital for income, not speculation.
The Advanced Trader
Uses DeFi products for hedging and leverage — taking loans to fund other positions, using lending to generate yield on assets held as insurance. This user knows exactly what they're doing and needs access to full functionality without simplification. The design serves them through depth: detailed position management, granular LTV monitoring, and advanced controls without hiding them behind simplified entry flows.
Use-case selection first — then progressive disclosure throughout
The first design decision was structural: users self-identify as borrower or lender before entering any flow. This isn't a limitation — it's a deliberate choice to reduce cognitive load at the moment of highest uncertainty. A user opening a DeFi platform for the first time should not have to understand both sides of the lending market before taking their first step.
Progressive disclosure applied throughout: key information about risk (LTV thresholds, liquidation price) is always visible, but the mechanics behind it are available on demand through contextual explanations rather than upfront. The goal was that a novice could complete a loan without understanding the full LTV model, while an expert could access everything they needed without hunting for it.
Risk communication without panic
LTV-based liquidation risk is the most critical information in the borrower experience — it's also the most likely to cause anxiety or misunderstanding. The design uses a clear, non-alarmist risk indicator system: a persistent LTV gauge on the active loan screen, colour-coded at three thresholds (safe, caution, critical), with the liquidation price always visible. Approaching the critical threshold triggers a specific notification prompt, not a generic warning. The goal was to inform action, not cause panic.
Two core flows, one shared portfolio layer
The product organises around three surfaces: the Borrow flow, the Lend flow, and the Portfolio overview. Each is designed to be navigable independently, but the Portfolio view provides the unified layer where all active positions — loans and deposits — are visible together.
Borrow flow
Collateral asset selection → LTV calculator (real-time: shows borrow limit as user adjusts collateral amount) → loan terms review (amount, rate, liquidation price all visible before confirmation) → confirmation → active loan dashboard with LTV gauge and repayment controls. The calculator is the centrepiece: making the LTV relationship legible before any commitment is the single most important trust-building interaction in the borrower experience.
Lend flow
Asset selection → current interest rate preview (real-time) → deposit amount input → confirmation → earnings dashboard. The earnings dashboard shows accrued interest by day, total deposited, and projected earnings at the current rate — giving lenders the passive income visibility that makes the product useful for their use case.
What shipped in three weeks
Borrow Flow
Collateral selection, real-time LTV calculator, loan terms review, and active loan dashboard with liquidation risk indicator
Lend Dashboard
Asset deposit, real-time interest rate display, accumulated earnings by day — passive income made visible and legible
Portfolio Overview
Consolidated view of all active loans and lending positions, LTV ratios, and liquidation thresholds — full position visibility in one screen
Risk Indicators
Three-threshold LTV gauge with liquidation price always visible — designed to inform action, not induce panic, at every stage of loan management
Multi-Asset Support
Seamless switching between supported cryptocurrencies with real-time rate equivalents — same flow for every asset pair
Advanced Controls
Hedging and leverage tools for experienced DeFi traders — accessible without being the default path for newcomers