I led a comprehensive redesign of Solana’s open source, self-serve NFT platform Metaplex. With a collection of tools, smart contracts, and frontend components, Metaplex allows creators to mint and sell NFTs on the Solana blockchain.
While gearing up to spin Metaplex into its own company, Solana wanted to rethink the buyer/seller experience of Metaplex and create a more intuitive product base that could be customized by creators who forked the code.
One of the first things we did was identify moments where we could educate users on the multi-step buying process. Our perspective was antithetical to the common “if you know you know” Web3 product design approach. We introduced strategically placed “how to” buttons throughout the product to guide the buyer through wallet setup, adding funds, placing bids, and more.
Initially Metaplex only supported NFT auctions. After launching art projects with a variety of partners, the team realized that we needed to offer additional sale types.
While auction mechanics would remain the same, we added the option of “instant buy”. This meant creators could run an NFT auction over a period of time but also accept a purchase outside of the auction for a higher, fixed price.
For an experience most akin to traditional e-commerce, we introduced the direct sale of fixed price NFTs.
With the success of NBA Top Shot, creators wanted the ability to assemble and sell their own mystery NFT packs via Metaplex.
To support the launch of mystery packs, we created collections—a simple way for creators to reveal all the possible artwork that a user might uncover when opening a pack. The collection page shows what you already “collected” in your wallet along with the available NFT supply across the marketplace.
We introduced wallet-based profiles to give users the power to manage their NFT collection natively on Metaplex and get a birds-eye-view of any auctions they’re participating in. Profiles also allow buyers to become sellers and flip their NFTs on the marketplace.
Using our newly-designed components, we could quickly imagine a marketplace view across the entire Metaplex ecosystem. The markeplace would provide the ability to view price analytics across all of Metaplex in addition to the performance of specific creators and assets. It would also let users explore artwork from multiple creators without having to navigate separate websites. 