GetCards

Nigerian consumers face severe monthly limits on international spending using local bank cards. While cryptocurrency offers a structural workaround to buy global goods, it introduces massive friction: wallets, seed phrases, exchange rates, and acute user anxiety.

GetCards is a platform by BuyCoins Africa that lets Nigerians buy global gift cards from over 3,000 online stores using naira bank transfers. Customers could choose a card and value, make a transfer, and receive their gift card within minutes.

Abstract the blockchain entirely. My goal was to design an end-to-end purchasing experience where the user interacts exclusively with familiar local e-commerce patterns, leaving the underlying crypto conversion completely behind the scenes.

1. Zero-onboarding checkout

Account creation is a primary drop-off point. I architected a strict guest-checkout flow. Users select their brand, input a delivery email, and go straight to payment. By eliminating sign-up walls, we minimised time-to-value for high-intent shoppers.

2. The localised payment anchor

Instead of generating a crypto deposit address, the checkout surface presents a standard Nigerian bank account number, bank name, and exact Naira amount.

• Familiar Patterns: Users complete the payment via their existing mobile banking app using everyday bank transfer mechanics.
• Microcopy as a Trust Anchor: Because exchange rates fluctuate between selection and payment, the design uses upfront microcopy to set expectations about potential differences between the estimated and final amount.

3. Designing for third-party API latency

Because GetCards leveraged the global Bitrefill platform engine to fulfil gift card orders, the checkout journey introduced a multi-layered technical waiting state. The design had to seamlessly bridge local banking settlement time with external API processing.

• Humanising the Black Box: I replaced technical backend states with a humanised, reassuring progress tracker (e.g., “Transfer Received” → “Order Processing” → “Order Received”).
• Anxiety Mitigation: To ensure users didn't panic or close the browser during the API round-trip, the UI featured dynamic loaders, clear time expectations, and explicit guarantees that the digital voucher would be dispatched via email.

By treating cryptocurrency strictly as backend infrastructure rather than a user-facing feature, the design matched the user's existing mental model. The project proved that the most sophisticated UX is often invisible, allowing users to access global commerce using tools they already know and trust.