The Kinit beta app is a place where users can easily earn Kin and spend it within digital services they use in their daily lives. To help us iterate and learn quickly, we decided to focus the Kinit beta app on U.S. college students. This is an audience that is considered to be very curious, adventurous, interested in new experiences, and (most importantly) open to adopting new concepts by testing out new products.

With our target audience in mind and a clear idea of what we want to provide, we came up with the following key attributes as our ground rules. These focus points help us to achieve a great design experience while maintaining a lean startup approach. As we move forward, these values will deepen and develop as the app matures over time.

Simple

Our main goal is to create a simple interface that lowers the cognitive burden that often comes with using a new app. This allows users to enjoy an intuitive experience with a friendly and delightful look.

Easy

We are aware that both the tech and conceptual ideas behind our creation can be complicated at times. That’s why it is so important for us to create an easy experience that people can connect with from the start.

Trustworthy

When money is involved, it is important to help users develop a sense of trust right from the beginning. We create this sense of trustworthiness by being transparent with users about what we’re doing. We also take ownership over any mistakes that may occur.

Fun

We want to make the digital economy fun! You don’t need to be a crypto expert (or have a degree in economics) to use the Kinit beta app. In this testing and learning phase, all you need is the interest to learn and explore!

These key attributes drive everything about the product — from the architecture and UX to the final UI.

One of the biggest challenges of building a lean product is designing an experience that overcomes necessary compromises and simplifications, while remaining connected to the ideas we defined in our ground rules. The following are examples of experiences within the app. They will highlight how we have been able to enhance the experience even with a very lean approach.

Empty-state: second storyline

“Money doesn’t grow on trees!” While the expression may be an old saying, the tree metaphor can actually help us learn something about the Kin economy.

The vision for Kin is to create a way for people who provide value to be rewarded for their time and effort in the digital world. It’s much like planting and gardening: if you care, nurture, and invest in your garden, you can end up with beautiful flowers.

So how does this relate to an empty state? To emphasize Kin’s vision in the Kinit beta app, we created a second storyline based on agriculture to create a fun, surprising, and positive experience. Our goal is to make users smile while using our app, even during a simple moment without an earn or spend opportunity.