Make the trade read like a sentence
Choose an asset, decide whether it will finish above or below a strike, set the expiry, inspect collateral, and see the winning return before committing.
PRODUCTBRAND· 2021
Divergence Protocol
Made a self-custodied options protocol legible without hiding the financial model
- Timeline
- 2021
- Role
- Product Designer - UX/UI from scratch
- paired instruments
- 2
- connected layers
- 7
Process & contextStrategy, decisions, outcomes, chronology, and sources
Process & contextStrategy, decisions, outcomes, chronology, and sources
Context
An options protocol asks people to reason about direction, strike, expiry, collateral, liquidity, and settlement while approving irreversible wallet actions. Simplifying the interface could not mean hiding the financial model.
Product decision
Build one interaction grammar around paired Spear and Shield instruments. Above and below, buy and underwrite, add and withdraw, active and settled all remain visually related while the consequence of each action stays explicit.
Outcome
The system grew from a trade ticket into a responsive product spanning market creation, liquidity, positions, settlement, farming, rewards, rankings, and the mainnet launch language.
- 2
- paired instruments
- 7
- connected layers
- Web + mobile
- responsive scope
Spear and Shield express above and below outcomes.
Trading through incentives and launch share one system.
The same model survives a narrow trading surface.
ScopeProduct Strategy, UX Architecture, Responsive UI, Launch Campaign
Sources & prototypes
Key decisions
Keep inverse actions visibly paired
Spear and Shield, add and withdraw, and stake and unstake reuse structure while color and iconography make the directional change unmistakable.
Treat liquidity as a lifecycle
Market comparison, pool composition, active positions, expiry, claiming, and withdrawal stay connected instead of collapsing into one generic deposit action.
Let participation have culture
The Dive Bar, LP objects, rankings, and rewards made protocol participation recognizable without separating the campaign from the product world.
Product chronology
From protocol mechanics to a public product
The work moved outward in layers: establish the mental model, prove the core trade, resolve the liquidity lifecycle, then carry the system into participation and launch.
Phase 0101 · Model Translate the protocol without disguising it
Map direction, strike, expiry, collateral, liquidity, positions, and settlement into a shared product vocabulary.Phase 0202 · Trade Pair Spear and Shield
Turn above and below outcomes into two related instruments with one readable trade-ticket grammar.Phase 0303 · Liquidity Design market comparison and LP state
Iterate from broad market comparison into focused pool context, then connect holdings, active liquidity, rewards, and expiry.Phase 0404 · Lifecycle Close positions, settlement, and withdrawal
Keep open orders, exposure, LP shares, received collateral, and approval state legible through the end of the transaction.Phase 0505 · Participation Build the Dive Bar, rewards, and rankings
Extend the product into farming, staking, claims, leaderboards, and ownable LP-position directions.Phase 0606 · Launch Package the system for mainnet
Use real product objects to explain Pro Mode, onchain options, liquidity, and participation across desktop, mobile, and campaign assets.
01
One system for a complex financial model
The interface keeps calls, puts, strikes, expiries, price ranges, collateral, positions, and settlement comparable without disguising the mechanics of the protocol.
02
Make the trade read like a sentence
The trade ticket turns an option into a direct prediction. Toggle the paired states: asset, direction, strike, expiry, collateral, and potential return remain in the same reading order.
Shield: the same grammar resolves into the inverse below-price position.
03
Buying and underwriting remain comparable
The denser market views expose strike, expiry, price, range, and premium while keeping buy and sell modes structurally related.
04
Iterate from comparison into context
Liquidity architecture moved between side-by-side asset markets and a focused table with price, probability, volume, and strike context. Both directions preserve comparison without flattening the market model.
05
Positions and settlement stay inspectable
06
Withdrawal closes the liquidity loop
The inverse action is not buried. The interface names the LP shares being burned, the collateral being received, and the wallet approval required to complete the change.
07
Liquidity needed its own operating model
Providing liquidity is not one action. The workspace separates farms, active positions, rewards, staking, expiry, claiming, and withdrawal while keeping pool composition visible.
08
The Dive Bar gives participation a place
Farming and staking became a named, atmospheric destination rather than a detached yield dashboard. Pool cards, APR, stake, claim, and cumulative rewards remain operational inside that world.
09
Rewards make participation legible
10
Make an LP position recognizable
A pool position became an ownable visual object whose waveform, pool pair, term, and color could change without losing the protocol identity.
11
One launch narrative, desktop and mobile
The public site explains the protocol through the same product objects: paired instruments, the Dive Bar, liquidity provision, and the teams and audits behind the launch.
12
The product became the mainnet campaign
13
A campaign system, not one launch image
Pro Mode, trading incentives, rankings, rewards, and the Dive Bar shared one product-led visual language that could explain a feature or stage a market moment without leaving the product world.