Config 2025: Trust is the currency: designing dollar bills, credit cards, and crypto with Jude Sue

[Music] Hi everyone, my name is Jude. Thanks

very much for having me here at Config.

Um, it's really great to be here with such a creative and inspiring audience.

All the projects have been so amazing.

Um, so let's dive in. Throughout my career, I've been

in. Throughout my career, I've been pretty fortunate to work on some amazing products for consumers at scale. When I

worked at Instagram on the stories product, I really thought that attention was the currency driving engagement and the success of our product.

As a design lead on Coinbase Wallet, which is a product in crypto/fintech, I was pretty sure that literal money, whether it was fiat

converted into crypto, was the currency driving the success of our product. Currently, I'm a member of the

product. Currently, I'm a member of the team at World Labs working to build the future of spatial intelligence. And what

you're watching behind me is a demo of just a single input image that's able to generate an entire world. The specific

use case here is for VR. What I've come to realize is that

VR. What I've come to realize is that whether we're working in social media, crypto, fintech, or AI, the foundational

currency that we as designers are trading in is actually trust. Trust is

the currency underlying all of these products, especially those in bleeding edge technologies. Working in spatial

technologies. Working in spatial intelligence is a bit of a 360 moment for me because before becoming a product designer and then leading teams of designers, I studied and worked as an

architect. And I'd like to think of

architect. And I'd like to think of great architecture as a dialogue between the designer and the user. It's

especially needed when you're in a new city. Maybe you're entering a building

city. Maybe you're entering a building that's a little bit mysterious for the first time. And whether you're a

first time. And whether you're a designer of digital experiences or real physical spaces, we really need to build trust with our users from the outset. I

think the Broad Museum in LA does a really great job um of this entrance.

It's a really great onboarding experience.

One of my favorite examples of trust is Villa Bordeaux in France. It was

designed for a wealthy publisher back in the9s, but the publisher had sadly been in an accident confining him to a wheelchair. So his brief for the

wheelchair. So his brief for the architect Rem Coolhouse was actually to design a complicated house as this home would become his entire world.

In other words, he trusted this architect with designing his entire environment. So instead of putting an

environment. So instead of putting an elevator in a dark corner somewhere, Rem designed this rising platform, this celebratory moment in the center of the

home. And here you can see even the

home. And here you can see even the housekeeper benefiting from this central platform. So today I wanted to talk

platform. So today I wanted to talk about trust. It might seem like an

about trust. It might seem like an obvious concept, but in fields like crypto and AI, it's especially important for us to dive in and sort of unpack the

details. We all know that trust is

details. We all know that trust is earned. We know that it's built over

earned. We know that it's built over time with every action and decision that we make as designers. And we know that it's

designers. And we know that it's fragile. We've all been there in that

fragile. We've all been there in that user interview where there's kind of a flicker in a user's eyes when they're confused and you can tell that you've kind of lost their trust and they're

hesitant to go next in the flow. So, if trust is the currency that

flow. So, if trust is the currency that we as designers trade in, what I have noticed is that when it works, we can

get users to do almost anything.

Stay with a stranger in a cabin in the woods sounds risky, but we've normalized it. And as we know, Airbnb has done a

it. And as we know, Airbnb has done a really great job building trust between two humans that didn't know each other before, but making this social contract

through an app, and this magical stay happens. This is 100% due to their

happens. This is 100% due to their design choices and a really deep understanding of the human OS and how it

works. When Uber came along, suddenly it

works. When Uber came along, suddenly it was safe to hop in the car of a stranger again and ask them to pick you up from the airport or to drive you to a job

interview.

The criticality of design's role in building this trust between users or two fellow humans that just didn't know each other before really can't be

understated. Crypto and AI are now

understated. Crypto and AI are now asking us to trust new systems in order to achieve new things with these interfaces. And it requires new levels

interfaces. And it requires new levels of trust. Because we're asking users to

of trust. Because we're asking users to learn new patterns and examples, it'll feel a lot like entering that dark museum for the first

time. Trust is the currency that we as

time. Trust is the currency that we as designers trade in. And we know that it can transfer because we're all familiar with these companies. We've seen them. We

these companies. We've seen them. We

maybe use them every day or every week.

It feels like they've been here forever and maybe they will be. But in reality, each one has been disruptive to the tools and the technologies that came

before it. Users have transferred their

before it. Users have transferred their trust from existing products like Skype to Zoom or Blockbuster to Netflix. We've seen it over and over

Netflix. We've seen it over and over again in communication, entertainment, productivity, and creativity.

If you go back far enough, you can trace all the way back in which these disruptors have taken and transferred trust from

incumbents. Sometimes I worry that the

incumbents. Sometimes I worry that the phrase disruption has been misunderstood to mean chaotic or crazy or disorganized.

But on the contrary, products and companies that strategically figure out how to get users to transfer and expand

their trust from one existing product or service to another end up being incredibly disruptive. Maybe you upgraded your need

disruptive. Maybe you upgraded your need to type on a Smith Corona to word processing on an Apple 2E. In other words, disruption is

2E. In other words, disruption is creative.

It can create new systems, new markets and new world orders all because of these small user flows and these user interfaces that we

design. So with this context in mind, I

design. So with this context in mind, I wanted to think for a minute about money. We take for granted that money

money. We take for granted that money works a certain way and that it always will work a certain way. But actually,

it wasn't too long ago that we placed our trust in gold. Gold bars became gold coins. Gold coins became paper. That's

coins. Gold coins became paper. That's

right, paper. And it wasn't even a singular form of paper. In 19th century America, if you were walking around San Francisco or anywhere, these were all

valid forms of currency circulating in the US at the same time. This really was the Wild West. In fact, one of these banks ended up becoming a

rugpull. That means that people invested

rugpull. That means that people invested their life savings and then the paper was worthless. Can you tell which one it

was worthless. Can you tell which one it was? Of course not, cuz they all look

was? Of course not, cuz they all look legit. But it actually ended up being

legit. But it actually ended up being the Bank of Singapore, which is the second row on the left hand side. And

that Bank of Singapore was actually based in Michigan, not Singapore in Asia. So this really was the Wild West.

Asia. So this really was the Wild West.

And it wasn't until the US consolidated into a single form of currency in 1913 that trust and faith was restored. And

this is why it's incredibly important that the brand of the United States is backing this dollar bill because we're no longer on the gold currency or the gold

standard. So are there echoes of this in

standard. So are there echoes of this in crypto today? Today there's literally

crypto today? Today there's literally thousands of digital assets to choose from. You could buy Bitcoin, ETH,

from. You could buy Bitcoin, ETH, Treasure, Doge, XRP, Salana. The list

just goes on and on. Not too long after I started working at Coinbase, the FTX scandal happened. You guys might

scandal happened. You guys might remember Binance getting under investigation and trust was at an all-time low. It was imperative that we as a

low. It was imperative that we as a design team earned users trust in every design opportunity.

And still today, trust and security are the cornerstones of the design, marketing, and messaging systems at Coinbase. I think the trustworthiness of

Coinbase. I think the trustworthiness of Coinbase's brand is actually one of their strongest modes, and it's a tough thing to replicate.

What I learned as a designer on that team was that what competitors do, what happens in the market, what's happening in the price of Bitcoin, all of that is

absolutely out of my control. But the one thing that we as

control. But the one thing that we as designers do have in our control is to give our products the best chance of being adopted by users that are willing

to give it a shot.

and Craft is one of our highest leveraged tools to do it. Studies have shown that it takes

it. Studies have shown that it takes about 50 milliseconds to make a good impression on a user visiting your website for the first time. The better

the first impression, the longer participants stay on that page and are willing to give it a shot. What might be your first

shot. What might be your first impression of this page?

Maybe the word simplicity comes to mind or it's like a helpful chat with a small with a friend that's smarter than you.

It's a little bit different from a search engine. We might take this for

search engine. We might take this for granted now, but the product breakthrough for GPT3.5, which is the model, was actually not technical. It

was the chat interface. It was that they figured out that the design should feel more like a dialogue with a friend. And

so it was it's really important to remember that it was a UX revolution and not just a technical one. What's your first impression of

one. What's your first impression of this page? Anthropics Claude is also an LLM,

page? Anthropics Claude is also an LLM, but you might use different words like human, warm, or polished. After all,

it's named after a person and not just the model. Phantom's wallet in crypto takes

model. Phantom's wallet in crypto takes a similar approach. It's pitched as your friendly companion through the difficult and wacky maze of crypto. And you can almost hear it talking like it's saying,

"Hey, this isn't going to be so hard.

Give it a try. It'll be fun. Maybe even

gamelike. We can keep it simple." And

they positioned themselves as sort of a fun guide through the world of self-custody. Design that feels like it

self-custody. Design that feels like it offers users a guiding hand through the unknown can be really powerful. And when it comes to self-

powerful. And when it comes to self- custody, the catchphrase you often hear is not your keys, not your crypto. In fact, at Coinbase Wallet, I

crypto. In fact, at Coinbase Wallet, I think we heard this phrase almost every day because it's the one self-custody product in Coinbase's suite. And by

self-custody, we mean that it's you.

You're 100% responsible for your assets.

We provide the UI, we provide the security, but ultimately you are the holder of the keys. With great power comes great responsibility. So when we relaunched

responsibility. So when we relaunched the app in 2022, we redesigned the warm welcome screens. We try to make the

welcome screens. We try to make the onboarding really simple. It was a really fullbodied app with the DAP browser, NFTts, DeFi, all of the things.

So we really try to make it feel simple and friendly. And I remember that when users

friendly. And I remember that when users got to this screen, they were asked to save a 12word seed phrase. and we knew it was a tough UX pattern, but that was

what was available at the time as an industry standard um with the tech. So,

we didn't have much of a choice. But as

a result, users were told not to put it in Gmail, iPhone, do not text a friend, anything that could get hacked. And so

many put it back in, well, paper, back to that old technology. And it felt really weird to put your crypto seed phrase on paper. Thank God for smart

wallets and pass keys now, but we're going to look back on this era and say, "Oh, when I when I was your age, I had to memorize 12word seed phrases and walk uphill both ways." So, we're luckily

past that now. But when it felt like you had your

now. But when it felt like you had your access denied, that you were locked out of your keys and your crypto, it felt really odd to people. I thought that the insight was that, oh, maybe people don't

trust Coinbase. But actually, what I

trust Coinbase. But actually, what I realized was that users had trouble trusting themselves to be the sole custodian of their funds. Think about it. When was the last

funds. Think about it. When was the last time you stole you stored gold bars under your bed? Or that if you got locked out of a bank, you couldn't call

a 1-800 number or customer support? It's

just an odd pattern to us now to have to rely on ourselves as the sole custodians. So, how do we get the next

custodians. So, how do we get the next hundred me million people on chain? That

also was a question we asked ourselves a lot at Coinbase. And Blackbird is an app I love for this kind of frictionless experience. For those of you in New

experience. For those of you in New York, this will be super familiar. Um,

many people in New York use it. You just

simply tag into a restaurant and then you get loyalty and points. It works a lot like a credit card or am. So, it

kind of uses an existing analog of a pattern that we're very familiar with and many people don't even realize that it's onchain.

So, as you tag into an into a restaurant, you're essentially minting an NFT every time you check in and it just works. I love that it's

just works. I love that it's frictionless and it's a pretty simple, clear experience.

As designers, I think we can actually lean into the fact that we're able to not just craft beautiful screens or beautiful NFTts or one-off moments of

delight, but we're actually able to design and plum intelligent systems that help build trust. And it's building those systems end to end that'll actually give us a lot of leverage in

building this trust and credibility with our users. So, let's look at Uber, a

users. So, let's look at Uber, a non-crypto example. We talked about this

non-crypto example. We talked about this earlier a little bit. It wasn't too long ago that when

bit. It wasn't too long ago that when you got into a black cab in London, you assumed that the company had done ID verification, background checks,

accountability training. In fact, there

accountability training. In fact, there was this book called the knowledge that cababies would memorize. They would

memorize thousands of landmarks, streets, roads to pass this test. It was

really hard. But then Google Maps came along and then Uber and suddenly knowledge was actually less important to consumers than

accountability. So Uber designed a

accountability. So Uber designed a system that actually rated the reputation, one for drivers and one for riders. That's something that would have

riders. That's something that would have been unheard of with a cab.

Within a span of about 10 to 15 years, users are expanding and transferring their trust from cabs to Uber and now to autonomous

cars. And because Whimo, for instance,

cars. And because Whimo, for instance, is an autonomous car, there's no need for a reputation system. There's no

score because self-driving cars are pretty systematic. They're pretty

pretty systematic. They're pretty consistent from car to car to car. And

so, you actually just need to give it feedback. You don't need to give it a

feedback. You don't need to give it a reputation score at all. So, let's think about what actually

all. So, let's think about what actually happens before you trust your life in the to be in the hands of this robot car. Um, before you get into an

car. Um, before you get into an autonomous car, there are a few ways that Whimo actually builds trust that I think are pretty interesting. Um, first, what they're

interesting. Um, first, what they're doing is looking, if you think about the pyramid of trust here on the right, it's sort of like Maslo's hierarchy of needs, but for trust. So, the higher up you go,

the higher the stakes. What they're

proving first to the user, they ask you to put in your initials and then pick a color. Very, very simple interaction

color. Very, very simple interaction pattern, but those are the initials that'll appear at the top of your car as a beacon when the car picks you up. What

I love about this is that it's a fairly low stakes moment for you to begin dialoguing with your car. And so you're beginning to build the trust that it has like a baseline relevance to you and

that it likes your interests and preferences and it can take that into account. Slowly higher stakes next is

account. Slowly higher stakes next is can this car find me on busy Moscone West or can this car find me where I am?

Not only does it find you, but it coaches you about how to find it and which way to go for pickup. So, it's a slightly higher level of trust that you've begun to um believe about this

car. By the time you actually get into a

car. By the time you actually get into a Whimo and you trust this robot car to drive you home for this magical moment, what's amazing is that the car has proven along the way through lower

stakes moments that it's worthy of your trust. And then the car just works. It

trust. And then the car just works. It

just drives itself. It's pretty magical.

In fact, here in the city, for some people, their level of trust is so high that they're even willing to send their dogs to doggy daycare unsupervised. Yeah. For me, that would

unsupervised. Yeah. For me, that would be the ultimate level of trust. I

trust. I know. Love

know. Love it. So, let's recap a quick moment here

it. So, let's recap a quick moment here about what we've talked about. We talked

about craft being a high lever tool in our control as designers to build trust.

We've talked about building systems, not just one-off screens. And we've talked about how this

screens. And we've talked about how this ladders up into consistency. Um, I think that consistency is actually really important for us if we want to take and

handhold our users into these new worlds and these new experiences that we're crafting for them. They have to trust that we will be consistent with them through this

experience. After all, another

experience. After all, another definition of trust is really just consistency over time. Think about your deepest friendships, your closest um

flatmates or friends, relatives. They've

proven to you over time that they're worthy of your trust. I love this quote from Dr. Feay

trust. I love this quote from Dr. Feay Lee. She's known as the um godmother of

Lee. She's known as the um godmother of AI. She's the co-founder of World Labs.

AI. She's the co-founder of World Labs.

And I really respect how her research in AI has always sought to protect human dignity. It's not just about meeting

dignity. It's not just about meeting needs, but it's actually above and beyond that. Products that assume the best of

that. Products that assume the best of users and they say, "I know you're worthy of this. I know you deserve this." that can confer an enormous

this." that can confer an enormous amount of dignity to our users. And it's

our understanding as designers of the human OS and this northstar of achieving more dignity for our human users that'll

really elevate all of our experiences. That's it. Thank you.

experiences. That's it. Thank you.

[Music]