User data collection
After the market research, we investigated our target audience to better understand people’s main barriers when working with NFTs and their product expectations. To collect the required data, we conducted quantitative and qualitative studies, including in-depth interviews, surveys, field studies, experiments, and observations. The research helped us make a list of features necessary for teams to work comfortably on NFT creation and distribution.
We got three user personas (admin, teammate, and finance manager) and worked through their frustrations. For instance, the admin fears they can’t analyze the NFT sales hectic-free. So we incorporated a convenient tool to do that right on the platform to address this pain point. Another frustration comes down to this: they won’t have enough skills and experience to implement the NFT marketplace. To deal with this problem, we enabled users to create, mint, and distribute non-fungible tokens without a single code line. Stores can be created with drop-and-drop builders, and the ready-made marketplaces can be edited and styled according to the brand’s visual identity. Besides, the NFT store can be integrated into the company website using API.
Speaking of teammates, they’re afraid of staying one-on-one with the platform. We addressed that fear by providing free consultations with Metstaq managers, service, and technical support at any time. In addition, we assigned appropriate functionality for every role not to overload users with unnecessary functions.
Apart from analyzing the user personas, we constructed the customer journey map starting from awareness and finishing with selling NFT. Based on that data, the Lazarev.agency designers created value propositions and hypotheses to develop a platform that conveys powerful blockchain principles, including decentralization, transparency, and uncensorability.
User flow as an extremely valuable UX design tool
Fully relying on data gathered during the UX research, we moved to the next stage, which is user flow — an essential step to ensure a smooth NFT creation process. By laying out the way customers move through the platform from the entry point to the final interaction, the user flow provides an aerial view of the product. Besides, it gives a great area for project improvement. For example, you can see alternative ways of solving users' problems or understand how to make them less complicated. It is also crucial for comprehending the product structure and further work monitoring.
At Lazarev.agency, we strongly believe that the user flow phase cannot be skipped by no means, especially for such complex products as Metastaq. It has innovative functionality that performs very specific tasks, so it's impossible to understand precisely how the project will work until you start iterating the flow.
Before creating a user flow for Metastaq, in particular for NFT creation and minting processes, we analyzed the flows of other similar Web3 products. We spotted certain errors, understood some technical frameworks, and started developing our flow, firstly identifying the crucial steps, then detailing them and improving. And we surely kept our users in mind throughout the process — both NFT-enthusiasts and newbies.
So, let's see what fundamentally important steps the NFT creation process at the Metastaq platform takes.
The user journey begins by introducing customers to the platform's functionality. Thus, the detailed and well-thought-out onboarding eliminates many problems associated with poor blockchain knowledge. Next, the user, if they're an admin, adds teammates and specifies the wallet details required for the minting process.
The NFT creation begins once a user uploads a separate art or creates a whole collection at once. Each art piece can be powered up with a key property, unlockable content, gift certificate, discount, or reward coupon. The next step will be to write the artwork title, description, and other vital details and add properties, if any.
Actually, that's it. NFT is ready, although it isn't minted yet. After that, the user can save the token as a draft to be able to edit, delete or mint it later on. If a teammate creates the NFT, they can submit it to the admin or go directly to the minting or release steps.
Let's see how minting is happening. As we mentioned earlier, the creation of smart contracts at Metastaq is automated and happens precisely at this stage. But for tech-savvy users, additional technical settings are available where they can create a new smart contract and deploy it to the network.
Users can specify the NFT value and add a crypto wallet at this stage if they missed this step during onboarding. Next, they proceed to the checkout and pay for the smart contract and NFT in crypto or dollars. After that, NFT is automatically saved to Collection NFTs with deployed status. In the future, it can only be released or burned.
After the NFT creation process, users can go another way and release the token or the whole collection. Firstly, a user chooses the NFT distribution method. They can create a dedicated webpage, get an API key and publish tokens on the website, in the app, or wherever. There are two more ways available — releasing NFT on the marketplace or generating a dynamic QR that leads to the page where NFT can be bought.
Then, a user follows the instruction according to the distribution method. For example, if you're creating a dedicated webpage, you connect the wallet to receive income from sales and choose a ready-made store template. At this stage, we made sure that users can easily create any store with the help of a drop-and-drop builder.
The last step is minting, which is the same as we've described above. Since Metastaq is a B2B product, it was essential to ensure a convenient collaboration between those who create NFTs and those who approve each stage of development. That's why we moved the minting process to the last step so that everybody involved could make corrections to the project.
Wrapping up
What a journey to NFT design! It was a long but hopefully informative copy. We’re pretty sure this guide will help you rock in the Web3 world with flying colors.
Let’s summarize: to beat the competition in the blockchain market, design NFTs platforms with user needs in mind. They should be educational, intuitive, and as simple as possible. Make use of UX research and the latest design trends to come up with such services. And remember that the Web3 profile covers experienced users as well as new adopters with no background knowledge of the blockchain.
See you next blog post. Stay tuned and before you go, add the Lazarev.agency site to your bookmarks for more design tips and inspiration.