NFT Marketplace

Project Overview

Overview

In early 2022, NFTs were surging in popularity both online and offline. Blockchain.com aimed to integrate NFT viewing and purchasing directly within its wallet.

Key Goals

  1. Manage Owned NFTs

    Create UI for users to view and browse their owned NFTs.

  2. Marketplace Discovery

    Build an in-app marketplace to filter, sort, and browse.

  3. Transact & Transfer

    Allow users to bid, sell and transferring NFTs in the marketplace.

The Journey

Early Start

Studied industry leaders such as Opensea and Rarible. Identified key functionalities and best practices to drive the in-app experience.

Researching

Studied industry leaders such as Opensea and Rarible. Identified key functionalities and best practices to drive the in-app experience.

Early Designs

Initial concepts focused on integrating NFT browsing and collection management.

The Outcome

What We Built

As we iterated and tested, certain features came to light.

Building The Library

Developing reusable NFT-specific components to speed up the design process and ensure consistency across mobile and web platforms.

App Switcher

We shifted from embedding NFT features in the main app to a dedicated workspace, preserving clarity in the existing experience.

Live Marketplace

A feature-rich marketplace allowing users to explore collections, filter listings, and engage with digital assets directly in-app.

Owned Collection Profile

A personalized view for users to manage and showcase their own NFT assets within the wallet.

The Outcome

Transactions

As we iterated and tested, certain features came to light.

NFT Wallet

A dedicated wallet display designed specifically for NFTs, displaying only ETH and Wrapped ETH balances.

Purchasing NFTs In-App

Guided by early market research, we focused on making the buying process as simple and intuitive as possible.

The Outcome

Deconstruction

At around the 6 month mark, it was an unfortunate end of the road for our fully fledged marketplace product.

Back In The App

Due to market environments, we would be scaling back to a only view-only model back into the wallet.

Guiding Users

As we pivoted to a view-only experience, it only felt necessary to guide users in adding and purchasing NFTs.

The Wrap Up

Challenges

  1. Evolving Market Dynamics

    The NFT landscape was rapidly changing, continuously reassessing user expectations and feature requirements.

  2. Technical Hurdles

    When building, the constraint was not top down or mis-alignment but more of technical constraints.

  3. Mid-Project Pivot

    Delivering a seamless experience across both mobile and web required overcoming varying technical constraints.

Solutions

  1. Modular Architecture

    Being modular helped us to change to an evolving market in real time (eg. Bidding on NFTs on item detail screen).

  2. Help Across The Fence

    As we designed this product, we hit technical limits, not being afraid in reaching out to Opensea devs for help to unblock ourselves.

  3. Staying Nimble

    Being a small team, we were able to quickly drive time sensitive decisions such as pivoting the entire product direction in response to internal/external factors.

The Reflection

From Zero to Marketplace

I came into this project with limited NFT experience and left with a deep understanding of the space. We designed a near-complete marketplace, and I created a new design system along the way. When the project shifted to a scaled-back version, I pivoted fast and brought the same focus to delivering a solid view-only experience.

Flexible Outcome, Rigid Quality

Building the Blockchain.com NFT Marketplace was a real journey. Over the course of development, we built a nearly complete NFT marketplace with the ability to bid, sell, and transfer assets. A project that we can look back on and be proud of with learnings along the way.