PALLET MINT
Pallet Exchange, the leading NFT marketplace on the Sei blockchain, plans to add a minting feature to enable project launches directly onto their platform.
THE PROJECT
The objective of this project was to integrate a minting feature into an existing NFT marketplace. I conducted comprehensive secondary research to analyze competitors and identify market standards for a minting feature.
THE CHALLENGE
The primary challenge was the client's request for a "gamified" aesthetic that would entertain users while aligning with their video game-inspired branding and vision.
INTRODUCTION
My first challenge was understanding the user flow of minting. The process can be confusing, as many existing minting systems are convoluted, requiring multiple authentication and confirmation screens before actually minting the NFT. This sometimes leads to newcomers being scammed, making minting especially daunting. My goal was to design a straightforward and efficient minting process.
My second challenge was designing a minting experience that stands out from the standard ones on platforms like OpenSea, Magic Eden, and Rarible, aligning it with a game aesthetic - something akin to “character creation” of a video game. I envisioned a main minting page that showcased the NFT collection on a large banner, making it the centerpiece of the experience. While the specific color scheme and branding of Pallet provided constraints, they also offered a foundation to design an engaging experience.
My second challenge was designing a minting experience that stands out from the standard ones on platforms like OpenSea, Magic Eden, and Rarible, aligning it with a game aesthetic - something akin to “character creation” of a video game. I envisioned a main minting page that showcased the NFT collection on a large banner, making it the centerpiece of the experience. While the specific color scheme and branding of Pallet provided constraints, they also offered a foundation to design an engaging experience.
RESEARCH
To truly understand the minting process, I decided the best approach was hands-on experience. I registered wallets with two of the largest NFT platforms, Magic Eden and OpenSea, and went through the minting process myself. I carefully noted the user flow, identifying confusing elements and assessing the information that was provided to me on mint pages. Following this, I conducted a competitive analysis of leading NFT platforms and conducted interviews with people experienced in web3 and NFT minting.
I created an affinity map to effectively organize and group my insights. Some of the key findings via my research were:
- Most people noted that the mint process should be very simple and straighforward - they want the process to be as fast as possible and not bogged down with unncessary steps. This will have to balance with the client’s request of having a video game-esque minting process.
- Most people wanted extensive information about the collection provided on the mint page - including countdowns for different tiers (whitelist 1, whitelist 2, presale, general sale, etc.) and basic mint information (supply, price, buy limits, etc.)
- Most people referenced Magic Eden as the most intuitive minting page, which I personally liked the most as well (it was the easiest to use and provided the clearest information)