Struct Finance: founding designer for tranched DeFi on Avalanche

Project overview

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Struct Finance is the first DeFi protocol on Avalanche to bring tranched structured products on-chain - customizable fixed/variable yield vaults built on top of yield-bearing assets. I joined as founding designer and owned the brand, dashboard, factory flow, vault surfaces, marketing site, and design system through V1 launch (June 2023), the +129% TVL week that made Struct the fastest-growing DeFi protocol on Avalanche, and the auto-pools era that followed.

Client

Struct

Date

2022–2024

Industry

DeFi / Structured products

Role

Founding Product Designer

Timeline

Pre-launch through auto-pools era

Stage

0 → 1

Services

Product Design, IA, Brand, Web Design, Design System

Context

Tranching is a 100-year-old idea in traditional finance - split a yield-bearing asset into a fixed-yield slice (lower risk) and a variable-yield slice (higher risk, leveraged on top). Almost no DeFi UI had rendered it cleanly before Struct. The mental model is alien to most DeFi users, who are used to APR numbers and not risk slices. Struct's job was to make tranching feel as obvious as a swap. My job was to design that surface from blank canvas - brand, factory, dashboard, vault - and make sure it survived institutional-grade scrutiny without losing retail accessibility.

Problem

  • - Tranching is a TradFi idea most DeFi users have no mental model for - the UI has to teach without lecturing.
  • - Fixed and variable tranches share the same vault but have very different risk profiles - conflating them in the UI is dangerous.
  • - The Factory (permissionless product creation) introduces a power-user surface that beginners can't crash into.
  • - Avalanche DeFi at the time was crowded - the brand had to feel serious enough for institutional partners and approachable enough for retail.
  • - No design files, no system, no shipping bar - founding-stage from day one.

Selected visuals

Approach

The principles and concrete choices that shaped the work - what we picked, and why we picked it.

  1. 01

    Fixed and variable tranches as distinct mental models

    The same underlying vault produces two opposite user experiences. The UI treats them as two products with their own surfaces, copy, and risk explanation - not as two columns in a table.

  2. 02

    Front-loaded risk

    Every tranche choice surfaces what you're trading off (locked yield vs. leveraged exposure) inline at the moment of decision, not in a separate disclosures tab.

  3. 03

    Factory as a power-user surface, not a default

    Permissionless product creation is powerful but dangerous as a default. Factory lives behind a deliberate entry point so beginners can deposit without ever opening the creator flow.

  4. 04

    Institutional-but-approachable brand

    Struct needed to look serious enough for Blizzard Fund / FBG Capital and approachable enough for retail LPs. Solved through type and density, not through a clinical visual language.

  5. 05

    Token-driven design system

    Set tokens, primitives, and density rules that auto-pools (Jan 2024) and the Struct token launch shipped on top of - no chassis redesign required.

Metrics

  • Funding

    Pre-launch (2022)$3.9M seed - Blizzard Fund (Avalanche), Bison Fund, Bixin Ventures, Double Peak, FBG Capital, AVentures DAO

    CoinMarketCap Academy · Funding outcomes; design is one factor among many.

  • V1 launch

    No live product (pre-June 2023)Live on Avalanche (June 21, 2023) - customizable structured products via tranching

    CoinDesk

  • Post-launch traction

    $0 TVL pre-launch$350K → $800K TVL in 7 days (+129%) - fastest-growing DeFi protocol on Avalanche by 1-day and 7-day TVL gain that week

    CryptoPotato · A specific week post-launch; TVL is influenced by incentives and ecosystem context.

  • Product surface I shipped

    0 (blank canvas)Brand, marketing site, dashboard, factory flow, vault surfaces, and design system - all live

    Struct Finance

Impact

  • - Founding designer - designed Struct end-to-end from blank canvas through the $3.9M seed and V1 launch
  • - Translated tranching (a new DeFi primitive) into a UI users could actually navigate
  • - Set the brand, dashboard, factory, and design system the team kept shipping on into auto-pools and the token launch

Qualitative outcomes

  • - Tranching, an unfamiliar primitive, became deposit-able for users without a TradFi background.
  • - Brand cleared the institutional bar (Blizzard Fund, FBG, Bixin) without alienating retail LPs.
  • - Auto-pools (Jan 2024) and the Struct token launch shipped on the same chassis without screen-level redesign.