Before we were ready to launch in 2022, my team wanted to add new offerings to draw more people to buy Daft Passes. The company decided to create an NFT analytics platform. This product would help users make NFT buying decisions by providing important information and a proprietary "Daft score". Users could also set a bot alert which would send them a notification if an NFT collection was trending. I knew the basics of UX and UI design, but took this opportunity to learn more and get hands-on experience.
Daft Analytics Startup
Overview
NFTs, or "Non-Fungible Tokens", became extremely popular in 2021. Each token is unique and can be different media forms such as art or audio files. NFTs are similar to cryptocurrency and are generated on web3 marketplaces.
The Brief
What started out as an NFT project evolved into a data analytics startup focused on the analysis of pre-minted NFTs. I was in charge of all visual aspects, from the creation of NFTs, to promotional material, to working on the UI of the analytics dashboard.
Daft Dogs NFTs
The company wanted to follow similar trends as other popular NFTs at the time. I had to balance the prevalent themes of offbeat, hand-drawn NFT features while still standing out as a unique product. I also had to work with developers to ensure the image layers would compile in the correct order to prevent features from obscuring each other
The Daft Pass
Daft Pass holders gained access to the ability to mint our randomized NFTs. We had decided on punk futurism as our product's aesthetic, so I designed the passes to incorporate these themes
Promotion
We have the products, but we need the hype
I created over 250 NFT features, which could be combined to mint thousands of different NFTs. However, these would be meaningless if people didn't know about our offerings. My next step was to create promotional material to spread the word about our products.
Promotional GIFs
I created several short animations, meant to draw the viewer's eye to posts teasing the launch of our NFTs on social media platforms like Twitter
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3D pass
I modeled a 3D render of the Daft Pass after teaching myself Blender. The cardholder was styled to match the punk futurism theme. At the time, 3D promotional material stood out in a mostly 2D landscape
Pivoting
Daft Dogs becomes Daft Analytics
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Icon Design
Big-picture UX features had already been decided, so I focused on UI design, creating unique icons for the platform to highlight proprietary features
Dashboard Mockup
I created a high-fidelity dashboard mockup to show what the analytics platform could look like. I also helped established style guidelines for color and typography
What I learned
Reflection
Ultimately, the startup did not launch because it was pulled in too many directions, which eroded team motivation. However, my involvement was invaluable for learning new tools and navigating cross-functional team dynamics. I worked with developers to understand constraints with compiling the NFT features. Project demands changed rapidly, so I learned to be flexible and upskill, when needed. I gained knowledge in Figma, Blender, and photoshop, in addition to hands-on experience with UX and UI design.
