A UX Design Research Case Study on NFT Arts.
Preface
Art collecting and investing have traditionally been limited to the well-connected and ultra-wealthy. However, the emergence of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) can democratize the future of art, bringing art collecting within reach of everyone’s lives. Anyone with an internet connection has the ability to collect art that has been tokenized on the blockchain. Moreover, the use of DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) has enabled fractional ownership for some of the most expensive NFT art pieces.
The NFT landscape is highly community-driven, yet currently, there is a lack of a social platform dedicated exclusively to the NFT community. The following is a case study on how a social art platform can improve the overall experience of the NFT art community.
Project At-a-Glance
Musea envisions a communal space for the future of digital art. It is a decentralized social gallery platform that bridges the gap between artists from their audiences; and creators from their consumers. The platform allows users to showcase their NFT creations and collections while engaging and socializing with the community.
Musea believes that NFT Artworks aren’t just transactional, they can be emotional and social. There is a story behind every piece of artwork no matter the medium. NFT art needs community and engagement.
This case study follows my research and design journey from ideation to execution of the Musea application by using Design Thinking and a Human-Centered Approach.
Timeline and Role:
- Duration: This project was completed as an individual capstone project over a 10-week period (Mar-Jun 2021) while balancing 1 to 2 additional team-based projects.
- Roles: UX Research & Strategy, Interaction Design, UI Design, and Branding.
Research and Prototyping Tools:
Figma, InVision, Adobe Photoshop, Miro, Otter.ai, Calendly, Zoom Video Conferencing
Project Outcome:
A mobile application that improves the interaction experience between NFT artists and collectors.
Key Moments:
- Showcase NFT artworks: Display NFT creations/collections on a mobile virtual gallery by connecting your personal profile with your crypto wallets. Now all your NFTs are within a hand’s reach.
- Engage with the community: NFTs aren’t just transactional, they are emotional and social. Build relationships with your audience and engage the growing community in building the next generation of art.
- Convert your audience into patrons: Bridge the gap between you and your audience. Use Musea as a marketing platform to convert your audience into patrons.
Click here to view final prototype (desktop for best experience)
Curious about my process? Read below ↓
How it all started…
In February 2021, I was interested in purchasing my first NFT on SuperRare. I wanted to learn more about the artwork before bidding, but there was no way to reach out to the artist conveniently. I had to track down the artist’s social media account (in this case, Instagram), and send him a direct message. It was a daunting experience, to say the least. I wondered how many buyers have considered buying but didn't do so because of the disconnect between artists and collectors.
What’s more important, this made me realize: art isn’t just transactional, it's an emotional and social experience. It is not enough that they merely exist within marketplaces and private wallets.
What is a Non-Fungible Token (NFT)?
Before diving into the project, what exactly is a Non-fungible Token (NFT)? To simplify, an NFT is a one-of-a-kind token that identifies ownership of a digital good. When a transaction is initiated, a contract is created in the form of a code that is then minted on the blockchain network. Everyone may see this contract, as it is a permanent part of the blockchain. An NFT can be thought of as a digital certificate that certifies that someone “owns” a digital asset, such as a tweet, YouTube clip, or work of art.
1. Design Challenge Outline & Potential Constraints
Problem Space
Currently, NFT artworks are only seen as speculative assets people buy and sell. There seems to be a missing component that can bring this space beyond a short-lived fad — there must be a social aspect.
Yet, there is a lack of social platforms dedicated to NFT artworks. Artists and collectors are unable to communicate conveniently. Furthermore, artists also find it difficult to promote their work and engage with the community.
This leads to the question…
How might we build a social space that allows artists to display their NFT artworks so that they can easily communicate with their audience?
Secondary Research —Current Landscape
Sales of digital artworks have soared in recent months with surging demand for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Collectors and speculators have spent more than $200 million on an array of NFT-based artwork, memes, and GIFs in the month of February in 2021, according to market tracker NonFungible.com.
Although there are currently platforms that allow collectors and artists to display their works, most of these platforms are merely marketplaces that have limited capacity for social interactions. There has yet to be a way for NFT artists and collectors to display their artworks on a social platform that is specifically dedicated to crypto art.
Project Hypothesis Statement
I believe providing a mobile social platform that is dedicated to showcasing & communicating tokenized artworks for NFT artists will create a better interaction experience between the artists and collectors.
I will know this is true when I see the following…
- NFT artists express willingness to use the application
- positive feedback from the NFT online communities
- increased signup rate, session length, monthly active users, and retention rate, etc.
Potential Constraints
Establishing constraints to the problem space will help to focus the development of the project.
Technical Constraints:
- privacy & security challenges — ensure protection for data stored & accessible to a shared ledger.
- ability to integrate all crypto wallets on the market.
- potential limitations to file formats integration.
Socio-cultural Constraints:
- there is a lack of understanding for NFTs and blockchain, this limits the segment of the population that would become users of the app.
Business Constraints:
- resource — shortage of blockchain developers.
- budget & finance — reliably delivering profits.
- schedule — short timeline due to competitive space.
2. User Research & Key Insights
Exploratory Interviews
To receive early validation for my problem space, I conducted 3 exploratory 1:1 interviews with verified NFT artists to better understand their journeys and experiences with the NFT space.
This step at an early stage of the project is critical because it is important to establish users’ needs and wants before going further in a specific direction. Moreover, the NFT space is evolving rapidly. Speaking to people who are currently involved in the space can get valuable insights to better understand potential opportunities and challenges.
To recruit NFT artists for interviews, I reached out to various Discord and Reddit NFT communities. All the interviews were conducted with Zoom Video Conference and transcribed through otter.ai. It was a rewarding and insightful experience, as I got to talk to amazingly generous and talented artists coming from different backgrounds.
Key Insights & Findings
Through reviewing the interview notes and records, important insights and themes were derived. Here are the three major themes found from exploratory interviews with NFT Artists:
- Over-saturation & lack of segmentation: The NFT landscape and its marketplaces have become oversaturated with the exponential growing supply. Furthermore, it is both difficult to be discovered as an artist and discover other artists of interest due to the lack of segmentation on most NFT marketplaces.
- Inconvenient to showcase & communicate artworks: A big challenge for NFT artists is that it is highly inconvenient to market their works. This is in part because the NFT space does not have a dedicated place whereby artists can conveniently showcase all of their personal tokenized works across different wallets & blockchains. Also, it is difficult to communicate with their audiences across various platforms. It is a very scattered experience.
- Importance of community: It is crucial to cultivate meaningful and long-standing relationships with the community to succeed in the NFT landscape. This can be done through being active on various communities/platforms, as well as engaging/sharing others' works.
3. Opportunities of Intervention
Persona Development
At this stage, I translated the findings from my user research into a persona that represents the core attributes of my target users for my digital intervention. The process of crafting them primed my sensitivity and empathy to my users and ensured my design decisions during my iterations address back to the user’s needs.
User Experience Map — Current State
Keeping our persona in mind, a user experience map is used to visualize the entire end-to-end user experience that an NFT artist normally goes through to sell a piece of artwork. This allowed me to identify the user’s pain points and turn them into opportunities.
With clusters of low points during the journey phases: ‘Marketing & Exposure’ & ‘Communicate with Potential Buyers’, this project will focus on providing a more streamlined experience for NFT artists to interact with its audience.
User Stories & Task Flow Diagram
Upon gaining deeper insights into our target user’s desired outcomes, I developed a task flow diagram that visualizes the proposed sequence of steps a user would encounter when interacting with my digital product.
As an application in the digital art space, content is a foundational feature pillar. ‘Post NFT Artwork’ was selected as the core epic (task) as content creation is a prerequisite for most of the other parts of the application. It will enable the possibility of other epics such as virtual galleries, communication regarding NFTs, and the discovery of NFTs on the platform. I then included the sub-task ‘communication’ as part of the task flow to explore an additional key feature of the application.
4. Design Explorations & Usability Tests
Based on the task flow diagram, I began ideating and sketching how the app may look like. Then, the sketches were translated into a mid-fidelity prototype using Figma. Last but not least, I iterated and improved the prototype after conducting usability testings.
Concept Sketches & Ideation
Based on the task flow diagram, I first began ideating and sketching how the app may look like. To find inspiration for the interface components of the app, I browsed and studied existing digital applications that are driven by the display of visual content. This includes numerous art galleries and marketplaces, as well as various social media applications.
After gathering these resources into an InVision mood board, I began sketching with pen and paper. This allowed me to quickly move through my ideas.
The sketches were executed with the following key considerations:
- Enabling users to seamlessly upload their NFTs on the platform from their crypto wallets.
- Optimizing the display of the NFT artwork on a mobile screen.
- Implementing the principle ‘Consistency & Standards’ by taking inspiration from existing social media applications.
Wireframing & Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Rather than going straight into a detailed high-fidelity, a mid-fidelity prototype was produced to provide a quick and easy way to attain user feedback on the initial ideas/flows. This prevents users from getting distracted by detailed high-fidelity prototypes and visual motifs when conducting usability testings.
Usability Testing
As part of the design process, I conducted 2 rounds of usability tests with 10 users to obtain practical, real-time feedback. The purpose is to collect insights and incorporate them to improve the design at the end of each round of testing. Users were asked to complete the following evaluation tasks:
- Choose NFT artwork via crypto wallet
- Input details for NFT artwork and upload
- Check newly uploaded artwork
- Review likes and comments
- Respond to unread direct message
Prior to each round of iteration, potential improvements derived from user tests were mapped out based on level of effort vs. user value to determine the priority for implementation due to time constraints.
5. Visual Identity & Branding
Brand Name
Personally, one of the fondest aspects of visiting a museum is the feeling of being in a communal space while appreciating art with others. The name Musea is said to be a rare plural word for ‘museum’. I hope to recreate a similar experience for the platform, hence the name Musea.
As for the wordmark, I chose the Neue Machina font family, described as follows:
Neue Machina is a powerful and meticulously crafted typeface boasting monospace/geometric type features as well as apparent and deep ink traps in its heavier weights. It is inspired by the aesthetics of robotics and machines — a font suited for the future of technology.
Colours & Moodboard
To define the look and feel of the application, I created a list of adjectives to capture how I would like Musea to resonate with its users. Using these words as a reference, I created a mood board to guide the color palettes of the application.
I decided on using a dark theme to convey a sense of dramatic, mysterious, and elegant feeling for the brand. For the accent color, I used gradients to bring a sense of depth and movement, while instilling futuristic energy to the application.
Logo
MUSEA’s logo is the result of the eye being both a sending and receiving agent. It is through the eye, that it can be used to examine and influence. The goal of the logo is to express some basic rules and beauty, convey an intellectual charge and give a hint of how it’s connected to MUSEA — a space where visual artifacts are exhibited and consumed by the eye.
6. Final Product — High Fidelity Interactive Prototype
7. Multi-Platform Integration — Apple TV
During my exploratory user interviews, one of the NFT artists mentioned:
It would be really cool if there is a way to project and showcase your NFT creations and collections in your own home.
As a challenge to create a multi-platform integration, I designed an Apple TV app with the following key features:
- Experience your NFT artworks on your TV with a full-screen automated display.
- Personalize your own albums to curate the artworks on display.
8. Future Thinking — DAOs
Future Thinking — Building MUSEA as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAOs)
The introduction of blockchain and smart contracts have unlocked new possibilities for organizational structures. While traditional organizations operate hierarchically and privately, decentralized autonomous organizations are collectively owned and managed by their members.
In this case, every individual member can participate in submitting and voting on proposals for the group, making them a great tool for transparent and efficient collective organization.
As NFTs continue to capture the imagination of creators and collectors, DAOs increasingly represent an important piece of the blockchain-enabled puzzle. I hope that the integration of DAO will open up new opportunities for global collaboration and coordination, building a new frontier for the future of art.
