Aqsus is a decentralized e-commerce platform that streamlines shopping with Crypto. It’s built on Near Protocol, is peer-to-peer, and is targeted at both customers and businesses.
The engineering team presented me with a wireframe that shows how the features work from a technical standpoint and user stories and insights based on user and market research.
Despite the immense success of e-commerce it still suffers drawbacks concerning payment gateways and privacy. Web 3.0 resolves these issues by first eliminating the need for intermediaries. The current scene, however, lacks a go-to marketplace that accomplishes that.
Aqsus Foundation is building a go-to marketplace that allows users to buy or rent products or list their products for sale or rent, all using cryptocurrency, while eliminating the need for a middleman. With that in mind, my research process involved three focus points:
The MVP allowed users to rent books and clothes only. In my competitive analysis, I researched over 10 platforms and apps. I focused mainly on Etsy and eBay to see how well they did things from the customer and business sides of things. After that, I narrowed down my research to Rent the Runway and Hirestreet to get a better grasp of rental UX patterns, particularly for clothes.
I wanted the design to be up to Web 3.0 standards, so I researched relevant design principles. I concluded that the direction should be toward instilling trust and educating users. Therefore, my main focus was onboarding. I came up with eight principles, about which I made an online course after the project was done.
The app is built on Near Protocol and utilizes Near Wallet for payments and registration. I had limited knowledge on the subject, so I wanted to understand the technical aspect to know the limitations and possibilities. So, I conducted domain research and had interviews with the engineering team. The interviews proved to be incredibly helpful as we got rid of extra steps and created clearer user flows down the line.
While I was working on research and ideation, the in-house graphic designer (@mariamibrahim) worked on the brand including the illustrations.
I created a pattern design system of reusable components to facilitate changes down the line and handoffs to developers and other designers.
This project was complex and posed an excitingly unique set of challenges . I have decided to showcase a highlight of the solutions I came up with.
Initially, creating accounts involved creating a crypto wallet and verifying it with a deposit, so both seemed like the same thing. However, this wallet might have been created elsewhere, and that caused confusion. I compromised on friction and added extra steps to the process to enhance understandability and provide a better experience down the line.
Striking the right balance of friction is essential. While having a smooth experience is a must, some steps require added friction due to their importance.
Education and trust are the pillars of Web 3.0 design. I instilled trust by being transparent, using simple language, creating a friendly UI, and educating users. I took every chance I had to educate the users on the space and how to use the app, because that’s the key to gaining their trust.
The copy in the initial wireframe was filled with technical jargon. After understanding the technicalities from the engineering team, I rewrote everything using simple and common language with transparency in mind.
The user profile and crypto wallet information were on the same screen. I believe they have different purposes and levels of importance. I separated the two and expanded the wallet screen to enhance trust and transparency.
I used simple and familiar patterns for designing the customer flow. I tried to follow the conventional checkout pattern to reduce friction, even though the outcome was different.
Designing the business user flow was quite challenging due to the lack of sufficient resources and examples online. Initially, the interface for customers and businesses were merged. The first thing I did was separate the two and allow users to avoid clutter and confusion.
Since the app was peer-to-peer, everything had to be done by the users. I wanted everything related to orders to be in one place so users could easily keep track of things. The layout of that screen was changed for businesses to accommodate their different needs.
Shipping products back and forth was supposed to be handled by a third-party company, and that was the basis for the MVP. A change in business model required that the shipping be initially done by the users. I ended up having to rethink my approach and design a manual flow for customers and businesses.
After I designed the app, I worked with the graphic designer who created the brand to design a landing page to promote it. We went through several iterations of design and copywriting before settling on something the whole team liked. I then proceeded to build the landing page in Webflow.
Aqsus was the biggest and most complex project I have worked on. Designing for Web 3.0 with a team of engineers was a really interesting experience that pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me a better designer at the end.
With that in mind, here are some of the takeaways from this project:
