UX/UI Designer
RareMint Collectible NFT Platform
Platform: Website
Role: UX Research, UX Design, UI Design
Tools: SurveyMonkey, Miro, Aha, Milanote, Figma, Usability Hub
What is RareMint?
RareMint is an up-and-coming Blockchain Network whose first app will be a trading platform for digital sports collectibles. The NFT market is exploding right now, and I got in on the project's ground floor. This case study will be a documentation of my UX research process and the design thinking behind this product.
What was the outcome?
As of the time of writing, the founders of this project are in talks with many large sports memorabilia collectors with the aim of acquiring high-value collectibles to be sold on the platform. Much of the research outlined here is being used in the pitch deck.
First Steps
Being the first and only designer on the team, I needed to understand the Blockchain space and the people who invest in alt-coin projects better. Before reaching out to any potential users, I wanted to read a bit online. I did this secondary research so that I would be able to better prepare my interview questions and screener survey. I got a little bit of information about the motivation behind crypto investors and enthusiasts. Of course, what I learned here was just assumptions to validate with participants later.
Crypto investors get very involved in the communities for the altcoin projects that they believe in.
Crypto investors are always on the hunt for promising alt-coin projects to invest in, with the goal of making money quickly or over time.
Who should I talk to?
I wanted to find people who were alt-coin investors. I wanted to know how they found projects to invest in, and once they find these projects- how do they decide whether or not to invest? There was another group of people I also wanted to target- sports memorabilia collectors. I wanted to gauge their interest on collecting digitally. With this in mind, I sent out two separate surveys.
• Are you a crypto investor?
• Do you invest in alt-coin projects?
• Do you collect sports memorabilia?
• Are you interested in possibly getting involved digitally?
User Interviews
After screening participants with my survey (Released via multiple social media channels), I had a group of five collectors and five alt-coin investors. Next up was to talk to these people and get to the heart of their motivations, goals, and frustrations. I crafted an interview guide for each group consisting of open-ended and non-leading questions.
Synthesizing the data
I created an affinity diagram to make sense of what I had learned from the potential users. I grouped information together that was related and labeled them. It turned out that some of my previous assumptions were validated by user input, but there were a couple of differences between the investors that I interviewed. They didn't all invest for the same reasons. The memorabilia collectors also had different motivations.
Creating User Personas
From the synthesized user data, I created four personas from the 10 people I interviewed. These realistic representations of our users will help us moving forward in the design process because we will know their goals, motivations, and even frustrations with their current options.
Competitive Analysis
In order to get a sense of what similar products were out there, I conducted a competitive analysis with the goal of discovering what others were doing right, and gain some insight into what we could do to improve what is already out there.
Otis
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“The stock market for culture”
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Sneakers, art, collectibles
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Huge educational piece
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Mobile and web
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Not blockchain-based
NBA Topshot
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Purchase “moments” or short videos of iconic sports moments
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Blockchain-based
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Officially licensed by NBA
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Build a collection of related moments
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Web-based
Journey Maps and Problem Statements
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The crypto investor is always keeping his eye out for promising projects and coins. He hears about FraX on Cointelegraph or some other reputable source. He does his own research. He likes this project because he wants to diversify his portfolio and sees promise in the profitability of the coin. He invests in items that he feels confident will appreciate, even if its in the long term. He is willing to hold. He promotes the token to other investors.
Problem Statement- Kevin, a long-time crypto investor who makes informed investment decisions, needs to be able to find and acquire NFTs that interest him so that he can diversify his portfolio and make money through appreciation over time.
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This user will shop come to the platform in his spare time to browse items that he may want to add to his collection (buy shares of). And makes purchases based on his analysis of whether or not the item will appreciate over time.
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The collector cares about showing off his items, so the AR/VR renderings will be quite important to him. He may also care about talking about his purchases with other collectors on the platform.
Problem Statement- Cam, a tech-savvy Sports memorabilia collector, needs to be able to see the value of blockchain technology and NFTs in order to invest in shares of high-value sports memorabilia so that he can make a profit over time and show off to his friends.
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While he may not have knowledge about the technology, he has many years of experience collecting memorabilia, and his main reason for participating is personal fulfillment and nostalgia.
Problem Statement- Henry, a Sports memorabilia hobbyist who has no knowledge of Blockchain, needs a way to easily learn and digest varied information in one place so that he can understand the benefits of blockchain technology and NFTs in order to see the value in the product and ultimately expand his memorabilia collection.
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This person will probably hear about the project through other crypto enthusiasts and investors. This person is reactionary and buys into projects due to FOMO. Feeling like they are a part of the community and are helpful to the project is a huge motivation for them. They are probably young and may have gotten lucky on a crypto investment in the past. You can find them talking about the project and giving each other advice on telegram.
Problem Statement- Evan, a crypto enthusiast who often acts on impulse, needs to be a part of a project that he feels passionately about in order to feel like he is part of a community that is achieving something bigger than himself while simultaneously making money over time.
Exploring what our future product may look at feel like. I will choose which style tile to go with by conducting A/B testing with UsabilityHub and asking stakeholder opinions. Here are a few examples.
Style Tiles
User/Task flows
I created user flows to address the needs of each persona. It was clear that since many of our users would not have much experience using Blockchain products, so I spent some time outlining the first-time user flow with an emphasis on educating the users about the product.
Low and Medium Fidelity Wireframes
I made and tested low-fidelity wireframes after sketching to brainstorm ideas for screens. The idea here was to test the basic functionality of the product. After testing them with users, I moved on to medium fidelity. I gave the users three tasks as outlined in the user flows.
1. Read an article about NFTs.
2. Purchase an NFT from the Offerings.
3. Sell one of your NFTs.
5/5 users completed the tasks in under two minutes. Two users mentioned wanting to be able to see information about an asset before having to connect their wallets. It was also said that the learn page should be broken up into smaller pieces.
High Fidelity Prototype round 1
Testing and iteration on these high-fidelity wireframes is ongoing. To read about how I do usability tests, check out my article. Thanks for checking out my case study and I will be back with a final update soon!