Intro: Perps trading case study

Zerion already helped users track portfolios, manage assets, and trade on-chain. But for more active users, one major trading layer was still missing: Perps.

We had signals from user requests, internal interest, and market momentum that Perps were becoming an important part of modern crypto trading. The challenge was to validate the opportunity quickly and define an MVP that felt native to Zerion.

Role: Lead Designer.

Scope: Research, competitor analysis, UX flow, UI, testing, design system, specs.

Team: Product, engineering, design.

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I led the design work from research to final design. I worked closely with the product team and engineering, especially during API validation and edge-case reviews.

This was a team effort, but my role was to define the product structure, validate the flow, design the interface, and keep the experience aligned with Zerion's existing product system.

I started with competitor research across direct and indirect Perps products, with a strong focus on Hyperliquid and other trading experiences.

The goal was to understand what users already expected from this category: which patterns were standard, which information was critical, and where Zerion could make the experience clearer.

After that, I created a clickable prototype and launched an unmoderated Maze test with 89 participants in 2 days.

The test focused on three questions:

Maze testing showed that most participants already understood Perps, and 71 had experience trading them in other products.

That changed the priority of the MVP. The job was not to teach Perps from zero. The job was to create a clear, fast, and familiar flow for users who already knew what they expected to see.

Another challenge was deciding how much education to include. Perps can be risky and complex, but the research showed that most users already understood the category. Adding too much explanation would slow down the experience and stretch the timeline.

We kept onboarding, tooltips, and safety explanations, but reduced the priority of heavy educational layers. Instead, we focused on decision-critical information, clear hierarchy, and expected trading patterns.

The workflow was also different from a classic handoff. I designed early flows, reviewed them with the developer, and we checked Hyperliquid API constraints in parallel. This helped shape the design around what could be built cleanly, not just around ideal UX.

Some screens were assembled faster using our design system with AI-assisted tools like Claude Code and Figma MCP. This helped compress research, design, validation, and implementation alignment into under 3 weeks.

The final solution made Perps feel like a native part of Zerion, not a separate app inside the app.

One key decision was to use a dedicated Perps account. Users could deposit into it, see available balance, and track open positions. At the same time, the account stayed connected to the broader portfolio, so Perps still felt like part of everything the user owned.

The interface focused on clarity and speed: markets, positions, trade details, leverage, liquidation risk, and PnL were structured around the decisions traders needed to make.

The experience was designed to be familiar for existing Perps users, while still providing enough guidance and safety for users who needed more context.

The design was delivered in under 3 weeks.

The feature shipped and started earning revenue through referrals. After launch, the team continued improving the experience based on real usage and feedback.

Follow-up iterations included:

Perps became an important step in expanding Zerion from portfolio management into a more complete trading experience.

The next step was to keep improving the trading experience based on usage data.

The main opportunities were deeper position analytics, better PnL visibility, stronger navigation for active traders, and more advanced order types like limit orders.

The project also proved that AI-assisted workflows could help the team move faster when paired with a strong design system and close collaboration between design and engineering.