UX Design for Quarky's AR NFT Marketplace

Quarky represents a specialized non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace exclusively designed for the trade of interactive three-dimensional (3D) collectibles, aptly referred to as 'Quarkies.' This innovative platform introduces a novel NFT gallery application that harnesses augmented reality (AR) technology to seamlessly bridge the physical and virtual realms, thereby enabling immersive interactions with your NFT assets.

Project Focus

The goal of this project was to develop an iOS application capable of displaying two NFTs stored within an Ethereum wallet, with the added functionality of seamlessly integrating and showcasing these NFTs within an augmented reality environment via the Quarky Application.

My Role

In this project, my role as the UX Designer was focused on interpreting the blue print into actionable items, feature prioritizations, research, basic branding, Lofi and Hifi wireframes and prototyping. I maintained a close working relationship with the CEO, who also served as the Project Manager, and collaborated closely with developers to ensure the seamless implementation of the design solution.

My Approach

Getting Started

At the outset, I conducted a series of comprehensive meetings with the Project Manager to gain a deeper understanding of the project's scope. Our strategy revolved around developing a functional prototype that incorporated critical and pivotal features, which would subsequently undergo rigorous testing by actual users.

Some of the functionalities that were to be included in the MVP were;

MVP should connect to an ethereum wallet with two NFTs that contain metadata on 3D image file location

MVP should demonstrate gallery view of the ethereum wallet that lists the NFTs in the wallet, and individual detail view of the two NFTs

MVP should leverage spatial recognition and geolocation recognition technology to overlay the augmented reality objects on top of real physical places using front and rear cameras

MVP should enable access to the mocked NFT collectibles and be able to place them into the augmented reality spaces and lock the augmented reality objects within some environment even if the user moves and changes her positions

MVP should enable users to take photos with the collectibles

MVP should demonstrate that we can leverage 'Content Address' and 'Geolocation Coordinates' to pin an NFT collectible to a specific location

around the globe. After discussing the functionalitites in depth, we were also able to arrange them in a menu. So we had;

User Journey Map

Subsequently, we engaged in detailed discussions to outline the end-to-end flow of the MVP version of the app. From these discussions, I was able to create a comprehensive User Journey map."

Site maps

To ensure a comprehensive visualization of the user experience and to enhance our understanding of how users would engage with the MVP, I engaged in a collaborative effort with the team to construct a detailed site map

Lo-Fi Wireframe

To align thoughts and perspective with the team, I drafted a few wireframes proposing how the experience was going to turn out.

It was important to define a brand identity at this stage. One of the most important things I considered while working on the brand system was simplicity and scalability.

When I had the Northstar set and every bit fleshed out I moved to the high fidelity design.

Here is a brief prototype I made to handoff the designs to developers Click Here

Final Words

I delivered and handed off the designs to developers. The designs were developed but this product didn’t make it to live. However It was a huge exposure for me in Augmented Reality.