Art and Blockchain
UI/UX Foundations Capstone Project
I experienced an empty market space when using the artist marketplace, Etsy. The platform itself is easy to use, even for first time shop owners like me. The interface is informative and yet still easy to grasp hierarchy and translate it into actions. What I noticed is that it only focuses on traditional currency transactions - they offer global exchanges, but they are all based off of the traditional gold system. Why not also offer blockchain?
Art has seen a huge increase in awareness, especially in the digital space, where transparent and undeniable ownership is established - NFTs. This method of blockchain has brought the artistic community together to exponentially accelerate careers. Why not bring this to Etsy, a traditional method of a digital marketplace, where this platform could also accelerate growth and awareness for the art industry?
The Process
My hypothesis: I believe that by adding a blockchain channel to an artist marketplace, such as Etsy that also supports traditional transaction methods, it will provide a wider reach for the platform to attract sellers and collectors alike.
I built and conducted a survey with the goal of sourcing feedback that would ultimately help find a solution to the empty space in the market. I surveyed a group of 28 people including those in the traditional and Web3 art spaces, individuals working with cryptocurrencies, and those who were completely unbiased and new to the blockchain and art worlds. According to the results of the survey, if Etsy opened this marketing channel, they would experience a rise in engagement and art promotion due to the wider reach from both art sellers and collectors alike.
I then started to generate a wireframe based off of the survey results. I built out pages that would walk the user through the entire process of experiencing Web3 on Etsy. This included a hero banner in the top fold of the home page, which lead to the NFT (non-fungible token) landing page, then to the individual Web3 artist page, then to an individual piece, and finally the checkout experience.
From there, I found successful inspiration and conducted another brief user survey to test out three components of the wireframe: color palette, button shape, and image shape. I utilized social media to collect feedback. I was then able to generate a high-fidelity prototype with this feedback and even explore options to expand Etsy’s total reach in the art and blockchain space.
The Solution
Click to see a high-fidelity prototype of the experience offered to Etsy users engaging in the blockchain channel.