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Glow Finance
Glow Finance is a margin-based DeFi platform built on the Solana blockchain that enables users to deposit assets as collateral, borrow liquidity from shared pools, and manage leveraged positions across markets.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Industry
DeFi · Web3
PLATFORM
Web & Mobile
TIMELINE
2024—2025
Challenge
Decentralized finance platforms offer powerful financial tools, but often present them through technically complex interfaces. Users must evaluate market rates, manage multiple assets, and execute blockchain transactions, all while navigating unfamiliar concepts like wallets, confirmations, and collateralized positions.
The challenge was to reduce cognitive load while surfacing the financial signals users need to make informed decisions.
Process
To understand the underlying financial system, I began by conducting discovery sessions with the protocol team responsible for designing Glow's financial mechanisms. These conversations helped surface the key objectives of the Glow ecosystem and the behaviors the platform needed to support.
To contextualize Glow within the broader DeFi lending landscape, I conducted a competitive analysis of established platforms including Aave, Radiant, Compound, Silo, and Kamino. This helped identify common patterns in how users explore markets, manage risk, and execute transactions, as well as opportunities to simplify where existing platforms introduced unnecessary friction. The research consistently pointed to three fragmented user activities across existing platforms: discovering opportunities, executing transactions, and monitoring financial risk.
Working closely with the product manager, we regularly held collaborative workshops with engineers to map out the core features of the platform. Using affinity mapping exercises, I organized insights around user actions, financial mechanics, and system constraints.
These sessions confirmed the competitive research findings and shaped the product's core information architecture into three surfaces: Markets for exploring lending opportunities, Swaps for executing transactions, and Portfolio for monitoring positions. Each surface was designed to help users understand asset availability, execute transactions confidently, and maintain clear visibility into their financial positions.
Outcome
Before launch, multiple rounds of prototype testing validated key design decisions. Task-based evaluations averaged a 90% task completion rate across core workflows including asset swaps, market deposits, and portfolio monitoring. Participants who completed the tests also showed stronger return-intent for portfolio monitoring, with over 80% indicating they would regularly check their positions.
The redefined experience simplified how users interact with decentralized markets by consolidating key financial actions into a clear three-surface structure. By reducing unnecessary complexity and clarifying transaction flows, the product enabled users to move more confidently between discovering opportunities and managing their assets.
Bringing together core DeFi primitives into a single, capital-efficient interface, I helped position Glow Finance as a streamlined liquidity hub within the Solana ecosystem.
Back
Glow Finance
Glow Finance is a margin-based DeFi platform built on the Solana blockchain that enables users to deposit assets as collateral, borrow liquidity from shared pools, and manage leveraged positions across markets.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Industry
DeFi · Web3
PLATFORM
Web & Mobile
TIMELINE
2024—2025
Challenge
Decentralized finance platforms offer powerful financial tools, but often present them through technically complex interfaces. Users must evaluate market rates, manage multiple assets, and execute blockchain transactions, all while navigating unfamiliar concepts like wallets, confirmations, and collateralized positions.
The challenge was to reduce cognitive load while surfacing the financial signals users need to make informed decisions.
Process
To understand the underlying financial system, I began by conducting discovery sessions with the protocol team responsible for designing Glow's financial mechanisms. These conversations helped surface the key objectives of the Glow ecosystem and the behaviors the platform needed to support.
To contextualize Glow within the broader DeFi lending landscape, I conducted a competitive analysis of established platforms including Aave, Radiant, Compound, Silo, and Kamino. This helped identify common patterns in how users explore markets, manage risk, and execute transactions, as well as opportunities to simplify where existing platforms introduced unnecessary friction. The research consistently pointed to three fragmented user activities across existing platforms: discovering opportunities, executing transactions, and monitoring financial risk.
Working closely with the product manager, we regularly held collaborative workshops with engineers to map out the core features of the platform. Using affinity mapping exercises, I organized insights around user actions, financial mechanics, and system constraints.
These sessions confirmed the competitive research findings and shaped the product's core information architecture into three surfaces: Markets for exploring lending opportunities, Swaps for executing transactions, and Portfolio for monitoring positions. Each surface was designed to help users understand asset availability, execute transactions confidently, and maintain clear visibility into their financial positions.
Outcome
Before launch, multiple rounds of prototype testing validated key design decisions. Task-based evaluations averaged a 90% task completion rate across core workflows including asset swaps, market deposits, and portfolio monitoring. Participants who completed the tests also showed stronger return-intent for portfolio monitoring, with over 80% indicating they would regularly check their positions.
The redefined experience simplified how users interact with decentralized markets by consolidating key financial actions into a clear three-surface structure. By reducing unnecessary complexity and clarifying transaction flows, the product enabled users to move more confidently between discovering opportunities and managing their assets.
Bringing together core DeFi primitives into a single, capital-efficient interface, I helped position Glow Finance as a streamlined liquidity hub within the Solana ecosystem.