Blockchain & NFT Marketplace Platform

Designing creator, marketplace, and transaction workflows for a Web3 platform focused on NFT publishing, bidding, wallet integration, digital asset discovery, and community-driven artist interaction.

The platform ecosystem spanned 20+ interconnected sections and over 200 screens across onboarding, creator publishing, NFT minting, marketplace browsing, bidding and checkout flows, wallet setup, feed and discovery experiences, discussion forums, private and public groups, settings, help center, and other community and transaction-focused workflows.

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Role

Lead Designer

Team

15-person cross-functional team

Scope

Discovery, UX/UI design, prototyping, and handoff across 200+ marketplace, creator, and transaction screens

Timeline

Multi-phase delivery over 17 months

Business Goal and Requirements

Community Engagement

Encourage interaction between creators and collectors
Introduce discussion and social features to increase platform activity
Support artist discovery through feed-based engagement
Build a stronger sense of community within the marketplace ecosystem

Marketplace Transactions

Create a clear and trustworthy bidding and checkout experience
Simplify blockchain-related transaction steps for non-technical users
Improve visibility into pricing, ownership, and transaction states
Support seamless NFT purchasing and publishing flows

Creator Growth

Simplify NFT publishing for first-time and experienced creators
Reduce friction during onboarding and wallet connection
Help artists showcase and manage digital assets more effectively
Encourage repeat engagement through creator-focused workflows

Discoverability

Improve visibility of creators and NFT collections
Support browsing through categories, hashtags, and marketplace filters
Make digital assets easier to explore through feed and discovery experiences
Create scalable navigation patterns for growing marketplace content

Wallet & Security

Simplify crypto wallet onboarding and connection flows
Increase user confidence around blockchain transactions
Surface wallet information and transaction states clearly
Reduce intimidation around Web3 concepts for new users

Project Overview

Opal was a blockchain-based NFT marketplace platform designed to support digital creators through publishing, marketplace transactions, wallet integration, and community interaction. The platform combined creator tools, social engagement, and transactional workflows into a unified Web3 experience focused on making NFT creation and discovery more accessible to both artists and collectors.

As a founding designer, I contributed across the full product lifecycle, from research and UX strategy to design systems, high-fidelity design, prototyping, and usability testing. The project spanned 200+ screens across marketplace, publishing, onboarding, wallet, and community experiences over a 17-month engagement.

Target Audience

Emerging Creators

Digital artists and creators looking for accessible ways to publish, showcase, and monetize NFTs.

Collectors & Enthusiasts

Users interested in discovering, purchasing, and interacting with digital assets and creators.

Web3 Newcomers

Users curious about NFTs but unfamiliar with blockchain concepts, wallets, and transaction workflows.

Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis was conducted across NFT marketplaces and social platforms including OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, Instagram, Snapchat, and Blockchain.com to better understand marketplace patterns, onboarding approaches, creator visibility, and engagement models.

Key Findings

NFT platforms prioritized transactions over community interaction
Wallet onboarding often felt overly technical
Marketplace navigation lacked clarity for new users
Social platforms influenced expectations around discovery and engagement
Creator visibility depended heavily on feed and interaction mechanics

Reserch and Insights

Users needed more trust during transactions

Bidding, purchasing, and minting NFTs involved irreversible blockchain actions, increasing hesitation and uncertainty.

Design Response:

IFocused on transaction clarity, validation states, pricing visibility, and review steps before publishing or checkout.

Creators needed stronger visibility and discovery

Artists struggled with standing out in crowded marketplaces and wanted better ways to showcase their work and build audience engagement.

Design Response:

Introduced feed-based discovery, creator-focused layouts, hashtags, categories, and community interaction features.

Blockchain concepts created onboarding friction

Many users were interested in NFTs but felt intimidated by wallet setup, transaction terminology, and unfamiliar Web3 interactions.

Design Response:

Simplified onboarding flows, progressive disclosure, and guided wallet connection experiences.

Marketplace complexity needed simplification

NFT platforms often overwhelmed users with technical information and inconsistent navigation patterns.

Created structured workflows, scalable navigation systems, and clearer information hierarchy across marketplace experiences.

Users expected social interaction

Users were looking for more than buying and selling, they wanted interaction, discussion, and creator engagement similar to modern social platforms.

Designed feed interactions, discussion forums, and community-oriented engagement experiences.

Progressive Onboarding for Creator Identity & Discovery

The onboarding experience was designed to feel lightweight and flexible rather than forcing users through a long setup process upfront. Users could move through profile setup, interests, creator discovery, and wallet connection at their own pace, with the option to skip steps and come back later.

Wallet setup wasn’t required during onboarding and only became necessary when users wanted to place a bid, purchase an NFT, or publish a listing. This helped reduce early friction and made the platform feel more approachable for users who were new to Web3 products.

Highlights

Flexible onboarding flow
Optional wallet connection
Interest-based personalization
Creator discovery during onboarding
Reduced friction for first-time Web3 users

Personalized Social Discovery Feed

The home feed was designed as a discovery-driven social space where users could explore creators, collections, and conversations through a more personalized experience. Instead of focusing purely on marketplace activity, the feed emphasized engagement through liking, commenting, saving, and following creators.

The experience also helped artists gain visibility, grow their audience, and connect with other creators through shared interests, content interaction, and community activity.

Highlights

Personalized discovery feed
Like, comment, save, and follow interactions
Creator and community engagement
Artist visibility and creator-to-creator discovery
Interest-based content recommendations
Continuous browsing experience for exploration

NFT Publishing Workflow

The publishing experience was designed to walk creators through each step of the process in a clear and manageable way, from uploading artwork and adding details to previewing the final post before publishing.

Design Priorities

Simplify the publishing experience for creators
Improve content visibility and discoverability
Give users more flexibility and control over publishing settings
Create scalable patterns across creator workflows

Key UX Decisions

Broke the process into smaller steps to make it feel less overwhelming
Integrated categories and hashtags directly into the flow to support discoverability
Added visibility and scheduling options to give creators more flexibility
Included a preview step so users could review content before publishing

Marketplace Listing Flow

Walkthrough of the marketplace listing flow, demonstrating how creators upload artwork, configure listing details, and prepare NFTs for bidding and marketplace visibility.

Marketplace Flow

Designed a marketplace browsing experience with filtering, sorting, and category-based discovery to help users explore NFTs more efficiently.
Integrated lightweight marketplace actions directly into NFT cards, allowing users to quickly view details, save items, or add assets to cart.
Created a slide-out cart experience that let users review selected NFTs without interrupting browsing flow.
Simplified the checkout process by surfacing wallet selection, pricing, network fees, and transaction totals in a clearer and more structured layout.
Focused on reducing friction during blockchain transactions through guided review and confirmation states before purchase completion.
Designed reusable marketplace and transaction patterns that could scale consistently across purchasing and bidding workflows.

Design System & scalability

With more than 200 screens across marketplace, creator, onboarding, and community experiences, maintaining consistency became a critical part of the product. Reusable components, interaction patterns, and layout systems were created to support scalability across the platform while keeping workflows visually and functionally consistent.

Created reusable marketplace and feed components
Standardized form, modal, and navigation patterns
Designed scalable interaction and transaction states
Maintained consistency across creator and community workflows

What This Project Taught Me

This project challenged me to think beyond individual screens and design for an entire ecosystem of creator, marketplace, and community experiences. It pushed me to balance usability, scalability, and interaction design across a large and evolving platform.