Coinbase

UI/UX Designer

2021 — 2022

Scenario:

I Was hired by Coinbase to conceptualize and design a new NFT product for its users. This comprises of the
Complete wireframes that would capture a bold new vision for the crypto platform.

CONTEXT

In October 2021, Coinbase announced the launch of their NFT shop, a peer-to-peer marketplace that will make minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs easier than ever.

Just as they have helped millions of people access Bitcoin for the first time in an easy and trusted way, their passion is to do the same for the NFT Market. Things like Creating, buying, minting and selling NFTs should be very easy to achieve.

Coinbase NFT is proposed to be a peer-to-peer marketplace that empowers the imagination. With an intuitive design built on top of a decentralized marketplace, it is also proposed that the platform will put the art and artist’s experience at the forefront.

But something intresting happened...

WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?

At the time I worked on this project, Coinbase had already launched a beta release of this NFT shop that can be seen here .

Looking at that webpage from a designers point of view (especially as one who has worked across the web3 and Blockchain space) I am certain that the current presentation does not fully communicate the essence of the Coinbase brand and goals, at the same time it does not make much sense to someone who is a novice.

Coinbase mission is to"increase economic freedom in the world."

... and by enabling more people to join the creator economy and profit from their work, NFTs have an important role to play in helping them achieve this mission.

I wish to point out that the reason why I prepared this paper is to objectively build an improved solution I think should work by matching the companys' business goals with great user experience. Over the years there has been lots of ambiguity that surround the Blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFT space which I feel could be solved by subjecting web3 products to a more thoughtful, research and iterative process of design.

Current NFT website on Coinbase in beta mode

ISSUES I HAVE WITH THAT DESIGN

Coinbase has this unique Brand style that is a reference point for every lover of white spacing and minimalistic design and as a key figure in the crypto space I think a lot of work needs to be done on the platform to fully communicate the standard that the Coinbase brand has upheld all this years in reducing the ambiguity that surround cryptocurrencies.

A novice for instance might actually not understand how to find their way into the NFT marketspace assuming they jump on that web page for the first time, having zero knowledge of what NFTs are all about..

Rough iteration of the user dashboard

A quickly designed landing page

Context MATTERS ARISING
Learn fast
Conclusion

WHAT I DID

Adhering strictly to the Coinbase design style, I designed a new NFT Product for their users that would enable them buy, store and sell Digital assets.

The Hero Section:

A website hero section stands as a user's first glimpse of your company and offering because of its prominent placement towards the top of a webpage I decided to drive every action on that section towards explaining concepts and gaining conversion. One other thing you'll notice is that the first set of things the user will interface with on the platform is a featured Digital asset section with their bid tag on. The idea here is to entice the users, giving them hints on the extraordinary possibilities of NFT’s. People might be confused on a few things in life but almost everyone understands the language of money and that is why we have a bold price tag on display at the right-hand side.

Users Psychology:
"If the digital Asset on display worth 10.2ETH then i need to get started immediately so that i can earn too"

To spark early conversions I decided to incorporate an email ‘Get started’ button at the top for easy registration. Immediately after this section, I felt there was need to strengthen user’s conviction by giving them a hint of how the platform has benefitted people and the total number of people already using Coinbase NFT Store hence the stat section.. This can be seen in the image below.

Note:

NFT Marketplace falls into an e-commerce kind of product description I had to switch my grid pattern on the product dashboard page and this is intentional. From my past experiences, e-commerce platforms will get product missing or difficult to track/find on the platform this is as a result of us having thousands of products on display hence we can loose the user’s attention span as they scroll down the items card because of too much consistency.

What I mean by this is that when a user scrolls through a series of consistent information, they fail to give attention to the details of each product on display but breaking the flow using inconsistent grid pattern(system) reduces that by disrupting the flow.

My Proposed Coinbase NFT Crypto Art - Product Dashboard

Context MATTERS ARISING
Whaat I did
Conclusion

CONCLUSION

I had lots of fun working on this project, the entire process of conceptualising and designing a new NFT product for Coinbase through this project opened my eyes to understand new concepts of iteration and decision making that shapes the future of product.

Unfortunately, after submiting the full product concept and proposal to the coinbase team, my proposal didnt get a feedback from the coinbase team. After a few side projects that didn't reach their full potential, I have learnt so much about the core principles of launching a product, understanding clearly the problem you're solving and being razor-focused on that use case. People will be willing to use something that is easy to undestand. I hope to expand this product concept and have a healthy backlog of improvements to keep working through.

** In February 2023, coinbase confirmed that they are shutting down their NFT drops to enable them focus on other areas within Coinbase NFT. Hopefully i believe the team will come up bigger and better in the days to come.

Context Speed, speed, speed
What I did
Conclusion