Transforming TinyNFT in a competitive NFT landscape
TinyNFT, an NFT marketplace, stands out with its distinctive system architecture and native cryptocurrency, "CloudCoin." The underlying technology enabled TinyNFT to offer features that even industry giants in the NFT market couldn't match.
Challenge - TinyNFT, despite its innovative approach, faced a substantial challenge — low user engagement and conversion rates. Platform analytics revealed a conversion rate below 20%, emphasizing a significant gap between the platform's potential and performance.
We initiated a heuristic evaluation to identify significant usability issues. The analysis enabled us to identify crucial areas for improvement before testing low-fidelity wireframes with actual users. In addition to numerous identified usability issues, we recognized that key user flows, including Create, Sell and Buy NFTs, were complex. A comparative analysis with TinyNFT's competitors revealed that TinyNFT's user flows were unnecessarily intricate for achieving the same purpose and goal as competitors.
Testing the low-fi wireframes with both existing and new users helped with identifying friction points within these key user flows. Furthermore, user interviews with existing NFT creators and buyers unveiled their reasons for not choosing TinyNFT, despite its attractive benefits.
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TinyNFT lacked some crucial features which directly impacted the earnings of the NFT creators. For example, there were no means for creators to promote themselves or their works, no option to mint copies of their NFTs to increase sales potential and no centralized place for creators to manage all their NFTs—whether staging for sales, removing from sales or deleting unsold NFTs. This limitation hindered the platform's ability to attract and retain talented NFT creators, a pivotal aspect in the success of any NFT marketplace.
We identified a significant drop-off in user engagement whenever users had to make payments, whether for minting or buying NFTs. They primarily experienced a drop-off because they had to navigate away from TinyNFT to purchase or upload CloudCoins from third-party websites or their CloudCoin wallet. Additionally, users faced authentication requirements at various points in the process before successfully creating or buying an NFT. This convoluted payment process contributed to user frustration and a decline in conversion rates.
Another major friction point was with the creation of NFTs, where the first step involved uploading CloudCoins (equivalent to paying) even before uploading the asset to be minted as an NFT. This approach posed two issues: users had to calculate the amount they had to pay based on the size of their file, introducing unnecessary complexity and it deviated from the standard norm of paying after purchase or only when the transaction is certain. This caused a major trust issue among first-time creators and, consequently, no conversions.
After few iterations of testing and refining low-fidelity wireframes, we reached a set of solutions that effectively address the major friction points identified, along with other usability issues uncovered through our research.
Creators can now mint multiple copies of their NFTs and manage them through a dedicated store. The platform automatically promotes valued works through features such as 'Trending NFTs' and 'Latest NFTs. Insights gathered from competitor analysis and user interviews unveiled key opportunities for TinyNFT to attract creators. To tackle this, we introduced two new unique selling features: creators can reclaim the costs associated with creating an NFT if it remains unsold. Additionally, they now have the capability to trade NFTs, even offline.
Integrating the CloudCoin wallet within the platform enables users to make seamless payments without leaving TinyNFT. It significantly reduced the clicks and authentication steps required to complete a transaction. While implementing this solution incurred development costs, the advantage of a uniform in-app payment experience resonated across all CloudCoin ecosystem platforms, which made the investment worthwhile for stakeholders.
We moved the payment system to the final step in the NFT creation process. It ensured that users had a clear understanding of the exact amount they would be paying, helping them make informed decisions. This modification not only enhanced transparency but also provided users with the opportunity to verify their details before proceeding to mint their asset as an NFT.
In addition to the TinyNFT platform, the client requested a temporary landing page to attract NFT creators. This page facilitates the initial phase of the product launch by showcasing populated NFTs. Analysis of competitors' landing pages and their marketing campaigns informed the development of our unique selling proposition and other compelling benefits for creators. Following thorough testing, we refined the landing page to seamlessly convey the essence of TinyNFT, making it intuitive for visitors to navigate towards the platform and explore it firsthand.
Our testing primarily centered around assessing the drop-off rate. Given that task completion heavily relies on users' decisions, especially involving financial transactions, our focus was less on the Task Completion Rate using a prototype. We defer the measurement of conversion metrics until the development and launch of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Meanwhile, the landing page proved effective, attracting interest from many creators who clearly understood the benefits highlighted on the landing page.
The drop-off rate among NFT creators while creating their first NFT was slightly higher than expected. Users primarily attributed it to a lack of trust in CloudCoin and we anticipate that the drop-off rate will decrease as CloudCoin gains more popularity.
The drop-off rate among NFT buyers during their first purchase was as expected. We attribute this outcome to the proactive addressing of usability issues and the implementation of enhancements to the buying process, including advanced search and filters.
With time and money at stake, we needed to find an optimal solution that balances low cost and high impact, sustains the current state of the product, attracts new users and lays the foundation for a long-term solution in the near future. This experience was crucial, testing our skills in balancing both the business and customer ends while simultaneously considering the future of the business.
We plan to enhance the payment system and other new user flows, reducing the steps involved as we introduce more features. While the current landing page effectively conveys the message, planned improvements aim to improve its visual alignment with the NFT platform, incorporating better images and illustrations for an improved user experience.
