A platform that gives artists and creators complete ownership of their digital assets and intellectual property rights.
Design Brief
‘Creator Console’ is an NFT management platform/dashboard that empower artists to take full ownership of their IPRs, creations and assets, by leveraging the blockchain technology.
Our brief was to design an ecosystem that lets the creators fully govern their IPRs and generate revenue
Company
Create Protocol
Timeline
4 months
Role
Responsible for research, UX research, conceptualization of features, UX design, assistance with UI design and user testing
MY DESIGN APPROACH
(01)
My design approach places a strong emphasis on the platform’s core features, allowing creators and artists to create profiles, manage their digital asset and navigate smoothly through the NFT marketplace lifecycle. This includes the steps of understanding how the platform works, uploading digital assets, minting on a marketplace, analysing its performance and monetising a sale.
CHALLENGE
(02)
WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM
Our primary problem was creating a streamlined ecosystem, where even a novice to Web 3.0 and NFTs could easily understand it
Additionally, how to empower the creators and artists to fully own and enable them to govern their IPs.
How to remove fear and hesitance of users.
WHAT ARE WE SOLVING
We’ve designed a flexible web and mobile platform for creators and artists.
You do not need to be a coder to be able to use the console to make contracts for your IPs.
The console works across multiple blockchains making it very convenient to use.
The ability to book/order assets/NFTs on chain.
Designing a system convenient for first time users
Crafting a seamless flow to make custom contracts for digital assets.
Discoverability and distribution on the relevant marketplace.
Flexibility in choosing the right blockchain and swapping in between.
Analyzing and tracking the marketplaces and the assets’ performance
Royalties management from the sale and rent of the digital asset.
DESIGN PROCESS
(03)
Following the design processes gave me a streamlined direction to focus on the users and business needs, while also giving me the opportunity to iterate and improve the designs.
USER RESEARCH & FINDINGS
(04)
We interviewed 5 users in an average of 20 minutes to ask some questions about their experience with NFTs, Web 3.0 and the blockchain technology. Expert interviews were also taken to get an understanding of the latest NFT trends.
EXPERT INTERVIEW
“Lack of basic understanding of blockchain prevents an average user to get into the world of NFTs and crypto. A platform that streamlines the process and make it easy for even an average user to understand how the blockchain works, then, there is definitely a market for everyone.”
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Some of the research questions include,
We created a set of open-ended questions focusing on the features of the app and also the expectations and need of the users.
How did you get introduced to crypto/NFT and how long have you been in the scene?
What was your first impression of NFT like?
How was your journey of understanding the entire crypto/NFT ecosystem like?
How long did it take? Did you receive any help and resources for it?
How well versed do you think you are with the knowledge now?
Do you feel secure while dealing with NFTs?
What motivates you to be a creator on the web 3.0 space?
What kind of NFTs do you usually sell?
What do you think about your aesthetic given the current market?
How do you come up with the pricing of your assets?
How often do you sell an NFT? What is your selling experience so far?
Do you think you need any assistance? If yes, then what kind?
How do you manage all your assets?
Do you use any softwares to help you with that?
What do you think can help you effectively manage your assets?
Do you require any sort of chat assistance for the process?
Do you require any sort of dummy guide or an onboarding process?
Do you feel that the platform provides you a simple, user-friendly interface to manage your assets.
Do you feel a segment should be included for providing solutions to FAQs.
Artists are unsure if it is possible to generate good revenue from the platform.
Many users do not understand blockchain.
Users are skeptical about losing money from the platform.
CONSOLE CREATOR USERS
(05)
WHAT ARE THE USER NEEDS?
Creator Console platform will be used by different personas across various geographic demographic.
In addition to our direct customer, the creators and artists, NFT enthusiasts, collectors and brands fall under the user pool.
Artist
Noriko
Primary action includes understanding blockchain, account registration, uploading a digital asset, creating custom smart contracts, listing, renting, selling and monitoring performance
NFT Collector
Girish
Primary action includes browsing the marketplace, bidding for an NFT, buying, renting out, and reselling NFT
Brands
dApps
Primary action includes browsing the marketplace, bidding for an NFT, collaborating with artists, buying, renting out, and reselling NFT
DESIGN GOALS
(06)
The experience review helped us define our focus areas for creating this platform.
PROCESS
(07)
Identifying and prioritising user jobs
A comprehensive list of user jobs across personas were framed and features were explored. This laid the foundation of our MVP.
An Example of a Job-To-Be-Done would be
Step 1
Actor
As a native NFT artist
Step 2
Situation
When I need to upload an artpiece
Step 3
Motivation
I want to rent my artpiece
Step 4
Outcome
So that I can earn royalties
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
EMPATHY MAPPING
PAINS
Efficiency
Community
Revenue generation
Actionable insights
GAINS
Complexity
Lack of user friendly tools
Lack of transparency
Technical challenges
Rapidly growing market- Optimise solution process
Most platforms extend to a single marketplace
Smart contracts building requires technical knowledge
Lack of compatibility when minting on multiple chains
There is no community building in platforms
The gas fee to mint NFTs is very high on other platforms
DEFINITION OF FEATURES
(08)
CREATE, MANAGE, DISTRIBUTE
A no-code platform to create and manage NFTs and distribute to web3 dapps, marketplaces, metaverses
TRACK AND ANALYZE
Creator can also track the analytics related to their collections and analyze user behavior to build engagement loops.
MONETIZE
Console offer tools for creators to engage and monetize using web3 native infrastructure.
COLLABORATION
Console abstracts all the complexities from creation to listing NFTs and provides collaboration and community support.
CONCEPT IDEATION
(09)
Step 1
A creator upload a digital asset.
Step 2
The platform turns the IPs into NFTs.
Step 3
Creator can manage, analyze & generate revenue.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
(10)
LOW FIDELITY SKETCHES
(11)
We designed the low fidelity of the main user flows of the dashboard to know the screens, to see the future flows and organise the ideas that we had for the console.
CARDS AND COMPONENTS
(12)
REJECTED DESIGNS
(13)
After completing the low fidelity, we approached a few users that were initially interviewed during the primary research process to conduct a usability testing. This was done after designing the mid-fidelity of the dashboard. Accordingly the following designs were rejected.
PROTOTYPE
(12)
FEATURE 1
Console dashboard
The console dashboard provides a comprehensive view of of your contracts, listings, rentings, royalties, wallets and analytics of how the NFT is doing in the marketplace.
FEATURE 2
Custom Contracts: Deploy on Testnet
The console allows users to create code-free custom contracts without the steep learning curve of technical know-hows.
The feature to deploy on testnet is specailly helpful for first-time users to deploy contracts as a practise on testnet without having to list it on the actual marketplace. The users can than deploy the contract on the main net.
FEATURE 3
Mint assets
The console allows users to create code-free custom contracts without the steep learning curve of technical know-hows and then deploy it on the main marketplace.
FEATURE 4
Marketplace extensions
Compatibility when mining on multiple chains and avalability of several marketplace.
FEATURE 5
Complete control
The artists have complete freedom to list items at the price and time of their choice
FEATURE 6
Complete ownership
The artists have complete freedom over their digital assets. They have the freedom to make changes to their assets and also have the right to earn royalties whenever their digital asset exchange ownership.
Mobile View
USER TESTING
(13)
After completing the Hi-fidelity, we approached a few users that were initially interviewed during the primary research process to conduct a usability testing. The users suggested changes in the visuals of the UI. Their suggestions included making the UI look, feel and have a more generic NFT aesthetic.
FINAL PRODUCT
(13)
According to suggestions made during the user testing, the UI of the console was sliglty changed to give it a more NFT and techy-feel aesthetically. By this time my role was coming to an end, and I was involved during the early stage of the changes.
Style Guides
(13)
Brand Philosophy
We endow artists with absolute authority and dominion over their digital creations. To harnesses a sharp, minimal, and neo-futuristic design language to embody our steadfast dedication to pioneering digital autonomy.
We aim to deliver a frictionless experience that underscores simplicity and transparency for our users.
Vision: Bringing together creators in web3.0 community to co-create and collaborate. Also providing an enhanced creation experiences.
Mission: Creating an ecosystem of creator focused Dapps, experiences, communities, DAOs, and brands.
Impact
14
Ownership
Over 3000 artists benefitted financially.
Digital literacy
The ease and accessibility integrated in the product helped gain edge cases gain confidence.
Encouragement
To grow and explore
Get Funded
Just with prototype we managed to raise Pre seed funding.
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