Gianpiero
Albino
Albino
I recently had the opportunity to work on a fascinating project with a startup that creates open Data & AI tools powered by Web3 tech. My role as a lead designer was to collaborate with the research and UX for the initial version of the platform. Our goal was to create a user-friendly NFT marketplace for content creators that offers decentralized data and Web3 services. As the lead product designer, I played a crucial role in making this services accessible to a wider audience beyond just developers.
While Nevermined already offered services existing in the market, their target audience was primarily restricted to developers and technical users. The challenge lay in creating a platform that was accessible, intuitive, and user friendly for everyone, particularly content creators and even users accustomed to Web2 platforms.
We carried out qualitative research, conducting interviews with both experts and potential users to gain a comprehensive understanding of our users and the perspectives of stakeholders. Through this research, we pinpointed content creators such as musicians, video producers, generative artists, and NFT artists as our target audience. We transcribed and analyzed the interviews, categorized the insights, and developed a product roadmap informed by our findings.
As we explored the insights from our qualitative research, it became clear that safety, opportunities, content promotion, new features, ownership, and financial benefits were essential to our target audience.
The creators want to retain full ownership of their minted NFTs themselves, not that they art controlled by Nevermined or whoever writes the smart contract.
Selling NFTs on their own website is seen as prestigious and personalized.
Marketing is the biggest challenge.
The tool must have a clean design that is usable for non-techies
The primary objective of this project was to develop a platform accessible to a wider audience beyond just tech savvy users. Our initial focus was on creating an intuitive design to facilitate user navigation across various services. Since we also aimed at attracting Web2 users, we designed a familiar onboarding experience featuring a straightforward email and password login. This setup automatically creates a wallet and provides all necessary tools for blockchain interaction in the background, streamlining the onboarding process.
Recognizing that many Web3 users prioritize anonymity and may be reluctant to provide personal details, we offer them the option to bypass this step and connect directly with their wallets.
Recognizing the users' desire for greater control and ownership of their content, we considered offering them the option to create a widget showcasing their content on their own websites through embedding a small line of code. We believed that making this widget customizable in terms of design would empower users to adapt it to their website standards.
Understanding that not every content creator is proficient in HTML, we explored plugin options on CMS platforms such as WordPress or Webflow to simplify the process for non technical users.
Based on the research findings, we identified marketing as a significant challenge for content creators. Major marketplaces typically do not prioritize promoting small creators, yet users express a need to establish a presence on these platforms for better visibility. Therefore, a key feature for this project was to promote creators' work both on our platform and across major marketplaces by integrating their APIs or smart contracts with our platform.
We also implemented a subscription feature for users' content as part of our services, allowing users to create various plans offering different levels of access to the content.
In conclusion, our journey in developing this NFT platform has been both challenging and rewarding. By leveraging our expertise in blockchain technology and user experience, we successfully addressed the needs of content creators and users alike. Throughout the project, I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with the team and witnessing the platform's evolution.
While I didn't directly contribute to the UI design, the experience of developing this NFT platform has been enriching. We have created a platform that not only empowers content creators to showcase their work but also provides users with a seamless and engaging experience.
