Blockdaemon
INTRO
Blockdaemon is a leading blockchain infrastructure platform in the Web3 space. Blockdaemon empowers businesses to quickly deploy and iterate innovative blockchain applications. It aims to reduce the complexity of working with blockchains through quick and easy configuration. It also provides monitoring for high availability and quality of service with institutional-grade security.
As a member of the Design team, I’ve worked on many projects, of which I’ll be going over Phase 1 of the ETH Protocol: Repositioning & Awareness project in this case study.
Before we explore the problem further, let's take a moment to understand some key terms, explained in a simple and easy-to-understand way with metaphors:
Protocols: They are standards and procedures for various aspects of a blockchain network, such as transaction validation, consensus mechanisms, network communication, and data storage. In the game of "Blockchain," protocols are like rulebooks that tell players (nodes) how to interact with each other. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple—these are some of the top protocols in the blockchain industry.
Nodes: They are devices that play a crucial role in maintaining the protocol network's integrity, validating transactions, and ensuring consensus among participants. Nodes are the players in this game who follow the protocols to validate transactions, maintain the network, and make sure everything is running smoothly.
Staking: Staking is a process in which crypto holders participate in the validation and consensus of a protocol. It involves locking up a certain amount of cryptocurrency in a wallet or staking platform to support the protocol’s operations. Staking is like players in the game of "Blockchain" locking up their digital coins to support the network, and it's related to nodes because stakers help validate and reach agreements, ensuring fairness in the game while earning rewards for their active involvement.
PROBLEM
In mid-2022, Blockdaemon featured a Protocols page displaying a comprehensive list of protocols it supported through APIs and other services. Ethereum (ETH) stood out as a particularly popular protocol for the company. Enterprise-level clients would frequently refer to these protocol pages to explore the available APIs and services, subsequently contacting the sales team.
However, a significant issue arose due to the outdated nature of most protocol pages. Both the design and content failed to reflect the latest offerings provided by Blockdaemon. For instance, the ETH Protocol page lacked information about recently launched APIs and services, such as the NFT API. Also, the page was lengthy and had a lot of text with very little visuals to support it.
Consequently, this lack of up-to-date information created a notable awareness gap regarding the new offerings for various protocols. Consequently, fewer qualifying enterprise leads contacted the sales team, hampering potential business opportunities.
This video demonstrates what the ETH Protocol page looked like initially:
OBJECTIVES
While there were a lot of things to do, here were my assigned objectives for this project:
Redesign the ETH Protocol page to reflect the latest APIs and offerings, while improving its visual appeal and reducing clutter. The aim was to create a user-friendly and visually appealing experience that effectively showcased the new features.
Generate awareness among enterprise-level clients regarding the newly launched APIs and offerings. Through targeted communication and promotional efforts, the goal was to ensure that these clients were well-informed about the exciting additions to Blockdaemon's protocol offerings.
Increase the number of qualified enterprise leads by successfully achieving the first two objectives. By enhancing the ETH Protocol page and raising awareness, the aim was to attract more potential clients who would engage with Blockdaemon's services and ultimately connect with the sales team.
OPPORTUNITIES
The ETH Protocol page design had become outdated over the years, failing to represent Blockdaemon's evolving brand identity. This presented an excellent opportunity to not only update the content but also revamp the design to align with the company's new visual direction.
In addition to focusing on the ETH Protocol page, this project provided a unique chance to create a Protocol page template. This template would serve as a blueprint for redesigning other protocol pages, ensuring consistency and a cohesive visual experience across the entire platform.
To successfully generate awareness about the new APIs and offerings, close collaboration with the marketing team was crucial. This exciting collaboration presented an opportunity to dive into email designs and ad designs, starting from scratch and crafting visually compelling assets that would effectively engage the target audience.
LOCATION
Los Angeles, CA, USA
TIMELINE
2 months
SKILLS & TOOLS
UX Research
UX Design
Brand Identity Design
Competitor Analysis
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Research
INTERVIEWS
While the visual redesign wasn’t a big challenge, understanding the APIs and services provided by Blockdaemon for the ETH Protocol page was surely one. I met with:
2 Product Managers
2 Marketing Associates
1 Head of Marketing
I asked the above 5 people about the new APIs and services that were being launched, as well as caught up about the existing ones. My Web3 technical knowledge was limited at that point, so I tried to learn more about how the tech works, so that I could redesign for it better.
I also needed to get into the minds of our enterprise clients. Because I had no direct access to the enterprise clients, I relied on the face-to-face interactions that our sales team has with clients on a regular basis, and met with 3 Sales Associates to understand the following:
What do enterprise clients need with regards to blockchain APIs and services?
What key metrics or statistics do enterprise clients prioritise when evaluating a protocol for their business?
What are some challenges enterprise clients face when they have to choose a vendor for their blockchain infrastructure needs?
What are some examples from your experience with emails, pitch decks or one-pagers presented to clients that have gotten a positive outcome?
The Sales team shared their insights from their experience directly communicating with our existing enterprise clients, and here’s the affinity map I created to understand what we needed to work on:
AFFINITY MAP
FINDINGS
Here are the findings from the above affinity map:
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
In addition, I conducted competitor analysis to gain insights into the blockchain infrastructure space, and here are the key findings:
I noticed that there were a few things that we absolutely had to build:
Feature list & details section with excellent visuals.
Stats like staking rewards and additional rewards for the protocols.
Blog posts section to establish trust with the client.
Docs section to enable clients who generally want to read them before making a purchase decision.
Define
USER PERSONA
We knew exactly who we wanted to target, since we were familiar with our existing enterprise clients. I drew up a user persona to make sure that everyone on the Product and Marketing team was aligned:
USER JOURNEY MAP
With Alex with us, I made a user journey map for what her journey looks like when she has to decide which blockchain infrastructure vendor to choose for her org’s needs:
INSIGHTS
We learned that we had to update our visuals.
We knew that we had to not only update, but also restructure the content on the page to show updated info, as well as info in a way that is appealing to our target client.
We had to build trust and respect with our target client.
Here’s what we decided to work on: