1. Overview

  2. Problem

  3. Role & Team

  4. Process and Decisions

  5. impact

  6. Reflection

 

 

  1. Overview: Color Me Cool

  • Product: Physical-to-Digital Collectible NFT (Mobile Web)

  • Role: Specialist, Design Research & Product Management

  • Impact: Generated 137 figurine submissions

 

2. Problem

  • Our NFT community of 8,000-10,000 wanted to see more Macy’s collectibles being produced after the last two years of Thanksgiving NFTs. Macy’s x Cool Cats NFT agreed to create a commemorative figurine with an embedded NFT as a free gift to the first 1,000 people that completed the Digital Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade game we created.

  • Research showed that nft collectors and communities gathered around collections that actively created collectibles. The business needed continue engagement with the digital macys Thanksgiving day parade experience to drive awareness of the second annual collaboration with Cool Cats NFT.

  • Users needed a quick and easy way to turn their physical collectibles into an NFT digital version as proof of ownership among web3 communities.

  • Regulatory complexity added constraints: consulting with internal and 3rd party legal counsel on blockchain and NFT regulations, tax implications, compliance w/ anti-money laundering, know your customer, and counter financing of terrorism laws, software integrations, required working cross functionally with enterprise security & risk management teams before work could launch live to consumers.

 

3. Role & Team

  • Specialist, design research: strong advocate for user centered design, lead by action with competitive/comparative analysis & low to medium fidelity wireframes and prototypes.

  • Collaborated with:

  • 3-5 engineers (front & back end)

  • 2 VPs (marketing and treasury)

  • 3 creative directors

  • 2 UX designers

  • 2 internal legal counsel

  • 1 external legal counsel

  • 3 risk management

  • 4 enterprise security

  • 6 marketing finance

  • 1 copy

  • 2 marketing creative

  • 4-5 external vendors

  • Leadership angle: ran a weekly web 3 meeting to discuss all things blockchain, crypto, NFT, taught colleagues how to create and use a crypto wallet to engage with web3 transactions including token based login, wallet based login, buys, sales and using different blockchain networks like ethereum, polygon, immutable, test nets and more.

  • Relentlessly advocate for user centered design via user research & testing, facilitating research synthesis sessions & competitive analysis, maintained close alignment with sr leadership and business goals.

4. Process & Decisions

Research;

  • 10 internal usability tests on proposed user flows

  • Identified high drop off at 2 specific points,

  • highlighted need for micro-copy & live feedback/system confirmation messaging.

UX improvements:

  • Created an intro video animation to guide users through using our 3D scan plugin api

  • Added email based crypto wallet api (from vendors) to reduce user friction points

  • Created custom email trigger / campaign for guidance throughout multi-month user journey

Visual / UI enhancement:

  • Advocated for simpler (feed-forward) copy, clear cat’s, retro gaming aesthetic(a departure from Macy’s core brand)

Collaboration:

  • Partnered with marketing creative, copy, creative directors on visual design

  • Partnered with UX to ideate and iterate user flows & lean prototypes

  • Partnered with legal to ensure copy compliance with laws and regulations surrounding crypto and nfts, update Terms of Service and Privacy Policy notices

  • Partnered with enterprise risk and security teams to vet software vendor compliance with company policies and cybersecurity practices like doc 2 type 2 & iso2700k to protect consumer data

5. Impact

  • X clicks/views/users/trophies

  • Created a collaborative NFT collection eith distributed authors under one collection contract

  • Improved overall colleague working knowledge of blockchain user experience via interaction patterns of mobile and desktop crypto wallet based transactions.

6. Reflection

This project reinforced the value of identifying small ux details and iterative product improvements in driving user engagement. Leading our blockchain and crypto initiatives gave me the confidence to step into more formal leadership as my role involved cross-functional collaboration with dozens of colleagues. As an advocate for user-centered design, I promote systems thinking beyond the customer, laying the ground work for broader team-level impact where it makes sense.