Outland Art
Product Design | UIUX
An NFT (non-fungible token) platform designed to present insightful perspectives on a future-facing art world.
Launched and based in Los Angeles.
Team
1 Lead Visual Designer
1 Product Manager
CTO / CEO
1 UX Researcher
2 Engineers
1 Product Manager
CTO / CEO
1 UX Researcher
2 Engineers
Context
Outland Art's platform offers digital artiest technical and strategic support to connect traditional art and crypto art by partnering with museums, galleries, and other institutions.
Our team objective is to incorporate blockchain's complex mechanism into an easy-to-use platform by crafting a user interface with new design system. The previous design is outdated and also missing a lot of essential features such as featured product (with one click buy), crypto wallet, dashboard (with links to social media), etc.
Our team objective is to incorporate blockchain's complex mechanism into an easy-to-use platform by crafting a user interface with new design system. The previous design is outdated and also missing a lot of essential features such as featured product (with one click buy), crypto wallet, dashboard (with links to social media), etc.
Previous UI design
Problem
Creating UI/UX design for an NFT marketplace can be quite challenging due to the complexities of the terms, security concerns, trading risks and rules, etc. Terms such as smart contracts or Ethereum blockchain might seem too complicated for users because most of the times they just prefer to buy and sell NFTs without learning all these concepts .
As a designer, my task is to make the UX design of this NFT trading platform to be as easy to navigate as Craigslist. Therefore, we decided to create a minimalistic UI design to give the platform a look of a modern art gallery and a sense of exclusivity. On top of that, we proceeded with dark mode so that our users can concentrate on the NFTs instead of being distracted by a variety of colors.
As a designer, my task is to make the UX design of this NFT trading platform to be as easy to navigate as Craigslist. Therefore, we decided to create a minimalistic UI design to give the platform a look of a modern art gallery and a sense of exclusivity. On top of that, we proceeded with dark mode so that our users can concentrate on the NFTs instead of being distracted by a variety of colors.
Moodboard & Inspiration
User Survey and Interview
Once we decided on the overall design style and system, I collaborated with our product manager and UX researcher to create an online user survey to gain a deeper understanding of how our users intend to interact with the marketplace. Our UX researcher conducted a few interviews with current and potential users to learn more about how users would like the experience to improve and what features they would expect the most.
Key Insight
After completing a qualitative investigation of the competitive landscape and users' expectations, we learnt that users' pain points are searching, listing and purchasing process.
Searching & Saving
Instead of wasting time scrolling through all the content, users would prefer to click on the preferred category and filter the results to get the items that they are interested in the most as fast as possible.
As for the filters, our task is to make the search convenient and lead the users to their preferred result. For instance, items can be sorted based on different types of NFT.
Profile & Buying
Users will have personal profiles allowing them to connect with others in the community. These profiles also serve as a way to track saved NFTs and cryptocurrencies, eliminating the need for searching by name or number.
Additionally, users can monitor the history of their NFTs. Key details such as creation date and previous owners are essential for verifying the uniqueness and originality of an item. The history of previous owners and collections also influences the token's value. We provide all this information with a simple click.
Final Outcome & User Feedback
Despite my absence from the user testing conducted by Outland's CEO and CTO, confidentiality and legal considerations necessitated an independent evaluation with clients. Post the user testing phase, the findings were reported: users encountered no challenges in completing various tasks on the landing page. Valuable feedback was received, notably suggestions for improvements aligning the design style more comprehensively with the landing page's theme. However, budget constraints were cited by the CTO, preventing an immediate full website update, though potential enhancements are open for consideration in the future.
The response from users, as well as the Outland team and their clients/customers, was overwhelmingly positive. The redesign was appreciated for its comprehensive transformation of the landing page's visual style, striking a balance without compromising content or information priority. Importantly, the design approach introduced an engaging and enjoyable experience, fostering the belief that this would translate into increased site traffic and higher sales of their digital products. The positive user feedback serves as a testament to the success of the redesign in enhancing user satisfaction and overall product appeal.
