product design
Chainverse Data
Visualizing a community maintained knowledge graph.
Chainverse Data is a decentralized autonomous organization and startup whose primary product, Chainverse, is a community analytics platform that aids Web3 organizations in gaining insight on their users. It is powered by a community-maintained knowedge graph.
I worked with Chainverse Data as a solo product designer. The team was six people strong - mainly technical- and their previous designer had built out the MVP features. After helping out with a brand re-design, my objective was to continue market research and iterate on the Graph Exploration platform- to onboard new users and acquire stakeholders.
Timeline
October 2022 - January 2023
Subjects
Design systems
User flows
User interviews
Role
Product Designer
Introduction
Tabular databases, typically organized in rows and columns, are foundational to data management and exploration, however they are difficult to navigate, unsuited to call complex queries, and are rigid in structure- especially, in the context of processing, analyzing and interacting with data that is spread across multiple nodes or a network.
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO's) rely on decentralized data exploration to enhance their operations, primarily interacting with data residing on the blockchain ("on-chain data").
Knowledge graphs allow DAO's to map relationships between various centralized and decentralized entities- such as members, votes, propsals, and assets- enabling complex querying and creating a comprehensive view of DAO's governance.
Linking the back-end to the front, Chainverse's mission is to help DAO's gain insight into their users and manage operations by creating a visual knowledge graph interface that reduces cognitive load, allowing for both
Primary design
Solution Evaluation
After evaluating the existing interface created for the Graph Exploration Platform, I discerned parts of the user experience and flow that lacked intention.
Beside visual improvement, it was necessary to define clear information architecture that fit the needs of the users.
Breadboard
Information Architecture
Starting out, I sketched several solutions which maintained the MVP features of the existing application while concurrently improving upon the information architecture and highlighting user needs .
Wallet
Edge Relationship
User Flows
I worked very closely with Jordan and two of our infrastructure engineers to develop these flows. With our beta testing group already set up, it was easy to test and iterate upon these solutions quickly.
Facilitating Exploration, Search and Navigation
My main goal while designing the Graph Exploration platform was to make data actionable. To do so, I designed for personalization, adaptive navigation, interactive visualization and contextual discovery.
Low fidelity wireframe
Interactive Visualization
I wanted to make the Graph Exploration Platform at interactive as possible by optimizing for user touch points. This includes clicking on nodes to expand related concepts and entities.
V1
Adaptive Navigation
V1
Personalization
I wanted DAO operations to have a personal view of all related and interested activity by easily adding any component of information as a node to the canvas and corresponding graph, A/B testing between the “+” button and "explore" CTA.
V2
Contextual Discovery
I spent the majority of my time crafting flows between entities. It was important to emphasize relationships between entities through pathway connections. Aside from clicking and expanding nodes, users were encouraged to explore edges, highlighted in blue, to follow connections rom one concept to another in a structured way- one that interlinked various different types of resources for stakeholders and DAOs to utilise.
Final design ☆
Dynamic Sidebar
Takeaway
Challenges and Learnings
As the solo product designer, I dealt with a few constraints- I wore many hats and had difficulties concisely communicating design changes to our engineer, articulating the value of design decisions to the product manager, and balancing feedback from stakeholders.
However, this unique opportunity also taught me many valuable skills in communication, agility and resliency.
Managing cross functional relationships
Creating a shared language with our engineer, Jose, was a valuable skill I picked up on this job.
Aside from keeping my design systems organized, I also learned to communicate my designs with CSS fundamentals, provide context behind design decisions and even collaborate on problem solving, and create interactive prototypes to nail interactions.
Shipping on time
In fast paced startups that are focused on raising, getting the product into users and stakeholders hand is more important that creating a polished, finished product.
Striking a good balance between speed and quality was important to learn.
Effective user interviewing
Jordan and I conducted, on average, 5 user interviews a week. In the beginning, I would ask vague questions and was looking for answers that validate my design decisions.
Over time, I learned how to actively listen, to ask the right questions, and to thoroughly document feedback to sue towards further iterations.
