OBJECTIVE

How can we connect web3 enthusiasts to high-value NFT communities and products?

01

Problem

Web3 enthusiasts who are active in the NFT space or have interest in learning more about NFTs face three key problems:

FOMO

Users don't want to miss out on great projects - it could be for both social capital or financial.

Due diligence

Users often fall for scams. Most projects appear real but have no traction.

Potential Benefit

It is unclear from most projects what the buyers experience might be owning the NFT.

Most NFT projects talk about themselves on their websites or social media.
However, this may not be what users need deep down. Users really care about what value a project brings to them:

Will this increase my social capital - bring more attention, validity, and reputation?
Will I make more money investing in this?
Can this give me access to a community that I desire to be a part of, feel accepted?
Will this project help describe who I am, how I feel, or communicate what I identify with? Etc…

Users face cognitive overload trying to answer some of these questions while mapping them to what they see online.

Platforms use ratings to condense info

A Yelp rating helps reduce cognitive load by summarizing potential experience visiting that restaurant. Same with Amazon or IMDB (of course, there are exceptions)

User generated ratings won't work for NFTs (shilling)

NFT platforms use purchase volume to indicate ranking, which won't help explain the above needs
(We haven't solve this rating problem yet btw!)

02

Solution

The solution was to create a Chrome Extension for Twitter, since that is where most web3 enthusiasts discover NFTs

CTAs overlay on NFTs
The extension will detect NFTs on your twitter feed and provide a Call to action (CTA) button next to each of them so that the user can learn more about the NFT they discover by clicking on them.

Our goal is to get users to click on those CTAs and we're iterating on various affordances that might make them more interested in launching our tool.

NFT detail page
We're trying to keep users engaged by providing useful details:

1 To show that there are several NFTs that look very similar to this one, and could potentially be a scam. This helps with Due diligence.

2 The price establishes social currency - something expensive is perceived higher in status, like purchasing a rolex watch.
Price can also convey what the benefit might be of owning one.

3 6 Help users verify if the collection is 'Hot' or not and if they should FOMO in

4 Knowing the owner helps users do due diligence. A lot of people upload NFTs that don't belong to them.

5 A surprising learning was the affinity web3 enthusiasts were developing towards attributes - some users try to find NFTs that have specific attributes that reflect their beliefs or identities.

03

Process

Finding our why

I led this Vision workshop. I wanted our team to have alignment on some key topics before exploring solutions, such as why are we exploring this space, what unique capabilities do we have that differentiates us, what impact do we want on the world and what vision can we all get excited about.

User research

I conducted interviews in a discord group we'd set up. I wanted to understand what motivates users to look for NFTs, what does owning an NFT mean to users, how do users distinguish between good projects and bad ones, and a few others

Ideation & validation

We had 2 goals - how do we get adoption, and the other how do we get engagement. I tried to explore different triggers that might motivate users open our extension and also content to share with users that might get them to stay.

I then validated these mockups with members on our discord group. The test was mainly in interview format - I was trying to understand what do users perceive when they read the content we're showing them.

This project is still in progress and it's too early to conclude what the impact is!

A 'Yelp' for NFTs