Marketplace for enthusiasts to mint, buy and sell NFTs

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With the rise of the NFT boom in 2021, many startups were founded, and exchanges began building NFT platforms for their users. When our company launched its cryptocurrency exchange, we realized that NFTs presented another goldmine we could tap into. This recognition led us to the need to build an NFT platform where users could mint and trade NFTs.

We immediately went to work to understand users' needs, the market landscape, and what competitors were building. After extensive research, we developed flows and designs that would be intuitive and user-friendly. This strategic approach ensured that our platform not only met market demands but also provided a seamless and engaging experience for our users.

In 2021, NFTs became very popular, and many platforms were created for minting and trading them. However, many of these platforms were hard to use and confusing. Our company saw an opportunity with NFTs but needed to build a platform that was easy to use and competitive.We needed to develop a solution that would simplify the process of minting and trading NFTs and make it fun for people to mint and trade NFTs, while setting ourselves apart from existing competitors.

After thorough research and multiple iterations, we arrived at the final design for our NFT platform. Our primary focus was on simplicity and ease of use.

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Our goal for this project is to create an easy-to-use NFT platform where people can mint and trade NFTs. We aim to make the process simple and intuitive for categories of users, whether they are new to NFTs or have a ton of experience. We want our platform to be secure, reliable, and user-friendly, standing out from other platforms in the market.

To get things started, I conducted a preliminary market research to gain a comprehensive understanding of the NFT and crypto currency landscape. This research encompasses market size, user demographic, competitor analysis, market trends, technological landscape and regulations.

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We analysed all the collected insights from the user interview and survey and arranged into an affinity map so we can come up with some valuable information that could lead to a possible solution.

Based on the affinity map, we were able to come up with six pain points that our user persona was experiencing and needed a solution to.

We understood that addressing these pain points will not only make our product stand out, it’ll also attract users to be fully engaged in using the product and in-turn increase referrals.

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We used wireframe to quickly test the ideas and iterate without much effort and finance. We started by sketching out the wireframe, tested it in house, iterated and tested it with potential users. At the end of the iterative process, we adjusted our designs and came with a better product design.

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We created a style guide to enable us have a consistent design with the crypto exchange and make design and development efforts less stressful.

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To check how easy and effective the NFT platform we’ve designed is to use. We conducted a user testing before going into development and further release into the market.

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We wanted to measure the success of the NFT platform over time to make sure it meets user needs and also profitable for the business. To validate this, we focused on key metrics that are important success indicators.

One of the metrics we tracked was the percentage of users who complete onboarding, mint an NFT and list it for sale. We also tracked the time it took to mint an NFT. The goal is to know if the issue is a design or technical problem.

We tracked net promoter score which is the willingness of a user to recommend the platform. Since we have a referral program, it was easy to input who referred who. Finally, we tracked user retention rate and new user growth rate. One of the success of a product is on how many people return to use it and how fast new users get to discover the platform.

The results are a landing page, a web app (Web, iPad and Mobile) and an academy where people learn about NFT

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While designing this product, we were faced several challenges that required us to be flexible and go back to the drawing board. We couldn’t skip or ignore some of these challenges so we don’t waste time and resource only to hit it in the future.

The first challenge was the complex industry we were building for. We needed to comply with a lot of regulations as the company is based in Europe

Another challenge is the technicality of building a platform that can mint NFT cross chain. We wanted to ensure our users can mint on Solana and other platforms that weren’t as expensive as Ethereum.

Despite these challenges, we were able to overcome them using design thinking methodology. By remaining focused on the users and testing and iterating regularly we were able to design a platform that was very easy for the user to navigate.

This product design case study highlights the success of using the design thinking methodology to design products. By focusing on the needs and desires of users, we were able to create a product that not only addressed their pain points but also exceeded their expectations.

The success of this project is a testament to the power of design thinking and its ability to drive innovation and improve products. By adopting this approach, we were able to create a product that not only met the needs of our users but also differentiated us from our competitors in the market.