Noble Express
USDC is one of the most commonly used stable coins in crypto. Noble Express exists to serve the sole purpose of getting it to and from anywhere across networks in a fully decentralized fashion.
Client
Noble
Type
Product Design
Year
2024
Process
One bridge to rule them all
Bridges are a crowded space in crypto – fragmented across ecosystems, tokens, and underlying technologies. The result is constant uncertainty: which bridge to use, for which asset, and in which situation. Noble Express addressed this by focusing on a single stable coin almost everyone already uses, and maximizing compatibility across nearly all networks. Design DAO was tasked with shaping the UX for this deliberately opinionated product.
Building the MVP
In 2023, we designed a simple prototype optimized for speed of implementation while still being intentional in its UX. It followed familiar bridge patterns where they helped users orient themselves, but stripped away unnecessary complexity. This made the product immediately legible to users in the space and gave us a strong foundation for gathering early feedback – especially around where defaults worked and where flexibility became confusing.
Building the v1
The core issue with most bridge UIs is that they prioritize flexibility over clarity. For v1 in 2024, we shifted to an intent-driven design: breaking the experience into clear, sequential steps instead of exposing everything at once. This allowed us to guide attention, reduce cognitive load, and handle edge cases more gracefully. We complemented this with features like multi-wallet connections, cross-network balance fetching, and remembering previously used wallets and routes—making repeat usage faster and more predictable.
Outcome
When I recently interviewed people for a different client in the space and asked them which bridges they used, Noble Express came up often times as their favorite one, which makes me proud.
