UX Best Practices for NFT Marketplace Design

Online NFT marketplaces are becoming more and more popular every day. The digital collectibles are backed by blockchain technology which makes them complex and different from the current marketplace items listed in e-stores.

Marketplace- as it sounds is all about buying and selling. Making UI/UX design for NFT platforms can be time-taking since you have to figure out how to merge the complications of the blockchain into a user-friendly platform. Let’s explore some easy ways and tips for designing your own NFT marketplace in this guide.

What You Should Know First?

What is NFT – NFTs are unique digital assets on blockchain technology that are not interchangeable.
Why UX is important for blockchain – Blockchain technology is young yet complex. For more people to learn about it subtracting the jargon and complexities, the User Experience needs to be enhanced by being supported by suitable User Interfaces.
What is NFT Marketplace – NFT marketplaces allow users to buy and sell assets directly without having to know any underlying crypto-complexities.
Why UX is important for NFTs – User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design are crucial for the success of any company. When applied to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), UI/UX design becomes even more critical.
What should UI/UX designers do – A successful UI/UX design for an NFT marketplace should provide a user-friendly interface that allows anyone who has an interest in these digital items to purchase one without having to understand blockchain technology or how crypto tokens work.
For Web3 UX design Mindset and Principles you can check out the following write-ups:

Web3 Mindset for UX Designers

Web3 Design Principles

Essential Design Features of the NFT marketplace:

Single-category Market or All-Purpose Market

The first and foremost step would be to determine the type of niche you are fulfilling with your marketplace design. Sticking to the business niche is important prior to design.

Single-category market (say only Art-based)
All-Purpose market (Art, Music, Real Estate, sports, collectibles, entertainment, gaming, etc.)

For example, for the multi-categories platform, the first interacting screen should allow the users to browse the categories of their choice.

Whereas, the single-category NFT market would start enlisting the collectibles on their landing page. This should be the first priority for the designer to understand the client’s business and stick to it for implementation. Some examples to speculate business niche importance are:

Radion is a music-only NFT marketplace. The Radion allows creators to have an e-commerce-like platform where subscribers can buy a number of products or services listed as NFTs.

NBA Top Shot is a sport and athleisure NFT marketplace. It is a great choice for basketball fans who are looking to get involved in the world of basketball NFTs.

KnownOrigin is another versatile example of a single-category marketplace. It is an art NFT platform. It focuses on offering rare and collectible artworks in timed-released events, known as drops, which enable artists to control the number of copies released.

Welcoming the New Comers

The goal is to welcome all kinds of visitors with an attractive yet simple design. As a designer, we must always remember that new users and technically proficient people will be visiting the same site. To cater to that there must be an inclusion of

Walkthroughs
Guidelines
Pop-out info
Buttons, features, and menus with descriptions.

A little humor never hurt anybody. Adding something creative, witty, or funny gets users’ attention more quickly and ultimately trust is formed between the user and the platform. As we can witness below in the picture, the word “eat” right next to the word “use” is written in strike-through making it seem hysterical.

Showcase NFTs on the Homepage

The layout should also be uncluttered with no background images or distracting information. Choice of suitable alignment, simple templates or themes, and no-busy backgrounds is the key to perfecting the layout. Having the categories for the all-purpose NFt market can be a challenge, listing down the NFTs in a perfect format should be made possible with alignment, font choice, and image ratio on a page.

The first interactive screen of any platform is its Home Page. Implementing the “aesthetic-usability” feature on this page is preferred. The aesthetic-usability effect refers to users’ tendency to consider attractive products as usable as they look — even if they aren’t actually more effective or efficient.

Provide What Viewers are Looking For

Curating design to enable control for the users is another important design strategy. Making marketplace users feel like they can easily view the NFTs in-purchase and the ones on auctions to bid readily.

In marketplace design, control can be given by providing users with multiple options such as choosing the type of NFTs (Auction, non-auction, new, popular, etc.), setting the pricing range, filtration, and sorting items.

Allow users to search more precisely, by having the option of the filter. This will help in gaining happy visitors. People like to see what they want, using filters they can eliminate the non-required and easily navigate to the point.

Separate dashboards for buyers and sellers

NFT platforms have two primary target audiences — NFT creators and buyers. They want to achieve entirely different tasks, so make sure to design separate and relevant dashboards.

Here is how OpenSea is achieving this feature:

Seller Dashboard for creating NFT

Dashboard for Buyer to buy NFT

What to Hide and What to Highlight

Other than the assets’ listing standards, other important description features that should be highlighted as an NFT description is;

Different angles
Visuals
Owner Details
Pricing model
Potential buyers

Displaying detailed information on the NFT’s origin and background (history of all owners).

Allowing users to track their whole transaction history is part of an excellent user experience since NFT traders want to analyze their trading behavior to improve or judge the market while participating in NFT trading. Such a feature can include required data like the total number of NFTs sold, NFTs’ previous price, and so on.

While designing the description page. There should be an open/close description button to allow the type of viewers to look deep into the description or not. Populating information without having the viewers get to engage with the product above can be a little distracting.

Adding Tags for NFT Searching Optimization

Users want to see the exact thing they search for. Tags are the keywords associated with the product that helps the users reach their desired product in an easy and quick manner. Tags make navigation easier and bring exposure to the topics that consumers love. Putting Tags with the NFTs in the marketplace allow the searched category/item to pop right at the top so that the user does not have to spend time searching.

Buying and Selling Design Mechanisms in NFT Marketplace

Buy

The NFT marketplace platform should have a feature that allows users to buy and bid for NFTs listed on the platform. The bidding feature should include a bid expiration date and allow users to view details about the bids’ current status.

Sell

Sellers should have the option to select the type of buying process while minting an NFT or whether one has to transfer the ownership to another person. If he opts for fix price then he will enter the amount that he wants to sell, in case he selects the other option he has to select its metrics which include name, description, time duration, minimum price, and chain (if there are more than one), etc.

Adding Blockchain Network

Adding a Blockchain network is not essential but can be added as an extra feature

With unique requirements in mind, we choose an optimal blockchain framework and implement the blockchain network to base the NFT marketplace but you don’t necessarily operate on a single blockchain. Actually, if you do, your marketplace will face the same limitations as the chosen blockchain network. The resulting interoperability increases marketplace sustainability, optimizes blockchain energy consumption, and expands customer reach for your marketplace.

Integrating the Crypto Wallet & Checking Transaction

Just as a viewer finds the perfect NFT to buy or the NFT creator’s deal is closed they just want a quick route to get the fair transaction. To ensure that users have quick and secure transactions available on the marketplace a crypto wallet on a marketplace is a must. This can be made possible by designing a wallet that supports multiple crypto currency (Also dependent on the development area). Other than the technical metric, it should have a smooth and error-free UX. Adding feedback with each step by a user can enhance the user experience.

Transaction history or activities

Giving access to the users’ actions and transaction history on the marketplace is another viable feature. Buyers can check back and forth the worth/pricing of any digital asset and decide if new transactions they can work on without any errors.

Other Tips that will be helpful

Focused Navigation
Perfect Layout
Creating a listing page for sellers
User profile with the follower count and links to social media
Onboarding or “How it works” page

UX Analysis of Decentralized Exchanges (DEXes)

Ever wonder why do design competitors copy? 🤔 Designers usually copy the style, built, design, and all possible similarities and launch new products with slight changes.😵‍💫This statement begs a question: Why do UX designers copy the exact style?

It is because,

“The majority of users’ time is spent on other websites. This indicates that visitors want your website to operate similarly to every other website they are already familiar with.” –Jakob’s Law

This is the reason why many Decentralized Crypto Exchanges (DEXes) look almost the same with hints of different features to give their users a welcoming look and feel. 🤯

In this analysis, our UX designers picked out the 8 most commonly used exchange platforms and discussed the similarities and differences including unique UX features of the DEXes. We will be discussing the following DEXes:

Orca
Sushi
Symmetry
Raydium
Quickswap
Traderjoe
Sunswap
Osmosis

ORCA

Orca simplifies the trading, farming, and constructing of cryptocurrencies. On the Solana blockchain, Orca is the best place to exchange cryptocurrencies. On Orca, you may swiftly swap tokens (thanks to their Fair Real-time Price Indicator).

Key Features:

Users do not have to look for a place to search for any currency token. Right at the top, a search bar is available to directly input the token with its values.

Hassle-free trade of stablecoins in a separate tab. Users can easily trade the stablecoin with a high Annual Percentage Rate (APR) as compared to other platforms.

Targeted Users: Traders looking for a way to trade cryptocurrencies on the Solana blockchain.

SUSHI

Sushiswap supports 14 chains and offers an alternative to the trading of tokens from liquidity providers (LP). Users can purchase and sell through Sushi DeFi and decentralized exchanges using SushiSwap, which uses the Automated Market Maker (AMM) protocol.

Key Features:

The Converter provides for two types of users. Those who have the currency limit knowledge can easily swap the amount. The second tab “Limit” indicates all the limits on each currency for the users with no or less limit knowledge.
Sushiswap provides users with guaranteed security while trading to never lose their assets. The feature is known as SushiGuard. SushiGuard protects users from Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). Sushi developed this feature to protect users from front running.

The repetitively similar feature between Sushi and Ocra is the wallet connection functionality available at the bottom of the converter. It is for the user’s ease to get the wallet connection at a click.

Targeted Users: Crypto traders that seek multiple pool liquidity options.

SYMMETRY

Symmetry is known to be a fast DEX as it is built on Celo and xDai networks. Symmetric is made with the goal of promoting Decentralized Finance’s mass adoption, and it was created with the needs of new users in mind.

Key Features:

It has a slider range provided with the converter which allows users to enter the amount using a slider. Users can manage how to enter the amount by changing the input method from text to slider. By using the slider, the user gets quick value information by adjusting the thumb of the slider.

Secondly, it has a real-time crypto graph indicating the rise and fall of currency value. Easy for a user to make the decision for swapping. It is a comparatively better approach to update the users on the token values because visuals are memorized for a longer period of time than texts and just numbers.

Targeted Users: For the users who want to manage their assets, provides an on-chain pool; which means instead of paying the index holders, users get earning fees and high transaction speeds and almost no cost.

RAYDIUM

The problems associated with decentralized AMM architecture, such as excessive gas costs, pointless failed orders, and liquidity fragmentations, are addressed by Raydium.

Key Features:

Price is updated promptly which user can select whether to accept or decline the change. Providing this feature on the platform creates a sense of transparency which build the user’s trust. Having this feature guides the user to make the decision according to the price fluctuation and they will not be uncertain of what comes next.
Both of the currencies graphs exist on the main converter screen assisting the users to readily make any decision.
The navigation menu on the left is opened on the landing page for easy access to current or any other features. It also highlights the current page the user is on.
After every 10 sec, the price updates on every platform. This platform is also the same but here users have to click the approve button to make sure they are well aware of the price change before doing any transaction.

Targeted Users: Users of cryptocurrencies that require an on-chain order book AMM enabling the development of Defi to boost trading control.

QUICKSWAP

Quickswap functions similarly to Uniswap in that users provide liquidity and earn transaction fees when they swap tokens from these liquidity pools.

Key Features:

Real-time token info and other tokens info before swapping or making a transaction.
Token history right off the main panel for the past 5 years max. It is available in the pro mode for crypto experts to analyse the patterns.

After selecting the pair, it not just shows the information but also the pools where these tokens are present so the user can directly add the liquidity in that pool.

Targeted Users: Cryptocurrency traders that want to transact on a DEX powered by Polygon with almost no gas fees.

TRADERJOE

Other DEXes support the address access manually known as the pilot token, but in traderjoe, the token is reflected automatically at the converter. In many aspects, Traderjoe is similar to other decentralized exchange platforms accessible in the Defi area. Although it has tools for trading, liquidity pools, and yield farming, its standout feature, “The Rocket Joe,” is the main reason consumers utilize it.

This rocket will serve as the starting point for Defi protocols. It enables cryptocurrency producers to introduce their own token and build their Protocol Owned Liquidity from scratch.

Key Features:

In other DEXes, there is no functionality to know when a new token is added to your wallet. But it is available in Traderjoe. The import token option shows you if the token has been charged to the wallet.
- The procedure goes like this, add tokens directly to the wallet from the platform and after the swap, we have to manually add the tokens to our wallet by copying the token address to check the token amount.
For pro-crypto experts the chart with token history is also available by default, the users do not need to click and open any tab like quickswap. This chart helps them visualize and make a decision based on the crypto value patterns.
Traderjoe gives you an option to add the swapped token to your connected wallet. Right after the users trade the token, they are provided with the option to send the swapped token directly to their wallet, and it notifies the user when the token has been charged.

Targeted Users: It promotes the consumers’ usability with compelling advantages such as incentivisation. The system is user-friendly for new users.

SUNSWAP

A TRON-based trade protocol is called SunSwap. Its unique feature is that all trading fees are paid out to the protocol’s liquidity providers rather than the protocol itself.

Key Features:

Sunswap minimizes the additional step that is supported by other DEXes. Providing the direct sending of the amount to the other address after swapping. It allows the addition of the recipient and sending of the swapped token directly to another address.
It also provides a feature if in case the user wishes to swap and send the tokens to someone else then he or she can swap the token first and then send it to the respective person.

Targeted Users: Per users’ requirements, conversion between any two TRC20 tokens is possible based on system price.

OSMOSIS

At first look, Osmosis provides a welcoming attracting interface with colors and design elements. Vibrant colorful illustrations can easily attract users to engage with the platform. It can be appealing to some newbies as well.

Key Features:

Bigger token icons to clearly ease the user in indicating the currencies. Most of the dexes show the token icons in small size in contrast to that here on osmosis, they made them reasonably larger to show the tokens symbol in a more efficient way.

It also provides a simple navigation panel on the left side for the current and other available features.

Targeted Users: Crypto traders interested in an AMM on Cosmos blockchain.

Final Note 🏁

Before beginning the analysis, we discussed similarities among the DEXes and why users prefer them. This is why in the majority of the DEXes, the converter block being the heart of the DEX, is placed in the middle of the home page. Furthermore, we have noticed in Symmetry, Raydium and Traderjoe that they have enhanced the UX by adding a graph of crypto value. The visualization helps the users to make a decision based on the patterns, also, it is easier to memorize an image rather than text or numbers.

Two of the above-enlisted DEXes, focus on the usability of new users. Their platform is designed per the concept of ease for new users. This also adds to the favour of unique feature points. The user will only feel attended to if they get a proper guideline 📝 or a walkthrough 🚪 on any new website they enter.

To buildup a great user experience, speedy transactions, supporting rare digital tokens and providing users with better prices than the other DEXes are all secondary. Firstmost element is the interaction of the consumer with the platform. 👨‍💻

To achieve a top-notch neat user experience, the effort goes in by the creative and analytical thinking of the designers, the substructure and assistance of the developers as well as the rational guidance and support of the project managers. Only then, do the users get to enjoy a smooth interface with their desired options. As proven, teamwork makes the dream work! 🏆

We at Expedite, create experiences that are based on the best UX practices, market research, and user testing. Schedule your meeting with us right away to get your products best for a smooth user experiences.

Check out our METAMASK case study.