Empowering gamers and gaming studios to transition from web2 to web3 effortlessly by making accessible and intuitive experiences.
I led design for AURA over a span of 4 months to scale their NFT marketplace building key product flows to buy, sell, mint gaming NFTs. Additionally, I contributed to their first design system, tournament flows as well as marketing and creative assets.
As part of a lean product team, I worked closely with founders, PMs, engineers and researchers to launch the 0→1 MVP for AURA using agile design practices.
My Role
Product Design Lead – Interaction design, visual design, user flows, prototyping, stakeholder management
Team
THE OPPORTUNITY
FROM
Limited capabilities
TO
Endless possibilities
THE CHALLENGE
UNDERSTANDING THE PRODUCT
A one of a kind gaming marketplace for – buying, selling and minting NFTs
AURA is a one of a kind web platform for gamers and game studios to buy, sell, trade gaming NFTs on desired blockchains. Using the platform, gamers can make informed NFT purchases, host tournaments or mint their own gaming NFTs. AURA is a subsidiary of KIRA studios, and is now called 'gamp.gg'
UNDERSTANDING THE USERS
To create meaningful impact, we first needed to understand who our users were and what they cared about.
01
Gamers
Gamers on AURA are mostly GenZs and millenials who are also crypto enthusiasts. With the uprise of NFTs, these users want to transition from web2 games to make the most out of their NFTs using play-to-earn platforms.
02
Gaming studios
Gaming studios on AURA and A listed studies with small in-house teams. This limits their capabilities to onboard their NFT's on platforms due to the complexities faced in the current infrastructure.
Stakeholder interviews were key to aligning user needs with business objectives.
I spent dedicated time with our stakeholders to figure out the basic needs and expectations. This helped me focus and consolidate the key features for the MVP to take the product to the market fast.
USERs WANT to
01
Find their next (or first) gaming NFT without spending time on research
02
Invest in NFTs that perform better in-game and give high returns
03
Mint their own NFTs and collections without any hinderance
04
Learn about web3 assets and understand the crypto market better
BUSINESS WANTS to
01
Increase new user investments to boost revenue through gas fees.
02
Increase people using their NFTs in-game to get deeper usage data
03
Onboard games and gaming studios to offer more options and increase user base
04
Migrate web2 gamers to web3 to expand market share and establish proof of concept.
Asking the right questions helped me define the major user flows
I sat with our stakeholders and spent some dedicated time with end users connecting over discord to figure out the basic needs and expectations. Due to tight deadlines to take the product to the market fast, this helped my redefine and consolidate the key features for the MVP.
01
How can wallet setup be simplified for Web2 users? – Onboarding
02
How users find NFTs they care about? – Discovery
03
How can users explore and get filtered recommendations? – Marketplace Navigation
04
How purchases can be made securely and efficiently? – Transaction Flow
05
How can we ensure clarity in fees, ownership, and NFT details? – Trust and Transparency
Tradeoffs for a fast launch - fast, cheap and efficient research
Ideally, after learning about the business and stakeholder needs I would dive deeper into knowing the actual user needs. Due to tight deadlines we had to look for innovative ways to find answers to some questions.
Remote user research
I became a moderator on Aura's Discord to talk to users first hand ensuring every user was heard, often testing out WIP features
Competitive Benchmarking
It helped to benchmark functionality and figure out best practices being followed in the market
FINAL DESIGNS
Homepage crafted to make finding the right NFT easy
One of the first things I created was the landing page for the marketplace. I took stakeholder alignments to decide the features of the homepage. The information architecture was derived from the common patterns seen across competitor platforms and the services offered by our platform
explorations
Multiple iterations for the NFT marketplace grid
The marketplace grid was one of the key components I worked upon showcasing the attributes of NFTs, helping users make informed decisions.
Game page featuring upcoming events and NFT grid
Speaking to gaming studios revealed the most important information that they want gamers to know. I made modular components to accommodate these needs.
IMPACT
New humans onboarded
NFTs Sold
Monthly active humans