Moving forward with the Scatter Marketplace
So it has been a week or so since we released the Marketplace demo to the world. The response has been overall positive and I’d like to personally thank everyone for that.
I wanted to talk a bit about what I think still falls flat, where the interface doesn’t serve our users well, and how we’d like to move forward.
I also would like to make a public call for input. You guys know how we roll: publicly, and with pizazz. So if you have ideas or features that you’d like to see, now is the time to add a comment.
What we think is good.
Multiple blockchain and NFT standards
These are supported from the get-go and will allow projects that are already running to support the Marketplace, as well as helping to grow fresh, new standards like dGoods and Simple Assets.
Many ways to leverage your assets
Users can do more than just sell and buy assets. They can open their own store, rent out assets they don’t really want to part with, re-sell other people’s assets, and create auctions.
Search is front and center
We know that for the most-part the users who come to the Marketplace will know ahead of time what they are looking for. It should be easy for them to search for it, buy (or bid! or rent!) it.
Actions are clear
Wherever you are, it is clear what you should do. Buttons and actions are obvious and from initial user-testing the layout enables our users to find the thing they want to do.
Historical data
Each asset has a history, and we had a feeling that people would want to see it. Initial feedback says that we were spot on.
Customization
Stores are customizable in a fashion similar to Twitter and Facebook profiles. You have a header and a main image that you control, in addition to being able to manage your store’s widgets and layout. We’ll be rolling out color customization in a future release that will take it even further.
What we think needs improvement, rethinking, or polishing.
Basic explanations
For new users that land on the Marketplace they are totally lost without some hand-holding. We need to do better in ramping these users up and getting them into our digital economy.
I think that this means we need to have:
- An explainer video that describes what NFTs are, and why it is better for users that they have full ownership. It isn’t obvious to everybody what the benefits are at this stage.
- A better landing page that describes some of the capabilities of the Marketplace. We know what it does, but we have to be better at translating that for our users.
- A first-time tutorial that holds a user’s hand through the process of creating a store and buying an NFT would go a long way.
Social sign-in and a custodial service through tiered accounts
While not yet implemented in the demo, the intent is to allow non-Scatter users to get quickly up and running without too much hassle through sign-up via social media accounts like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. The Marketplace would hold users funds in a custodial service until they are ready to upgrade (for free!) to a full EOS account that they would have complete control over.
We think this is critical because the process of setting up an EOS account today is fairly cumbersome. It is a big ask for someone who just wants to play a game or buy a piece of art through the Marketplace.
Filtering and search results
If we’re talking about millions of assets, how users will dial in their search results needs some serious fine-tuning. We know that this is a big issue and are currently experimenting with different ways to filter and show large amounts of assets in a sensible fashion.
Store analytics
Part of the tooling that we think store owners will need is some basic analytics with standard KPIs that define:
- Store value
- Store growth
- Effectiveness of marketing efforts
The truth is that the core of the Marketplace will be the store owners themselves and we need to serve them first and foremost so that they can effectively access the growing economy we are building. I’m actively seeking input on this specific issue, so if there are specific types of data that you’d like to see for your store, please let me know below.
Better exploration
While I do think that the majority of our users will be searching for specific assets, we want to have a more robust exploration mechanism for Stores, collections, and assets. I’m still unsure how I want to tackle this as it is not well scoped at this stage of the project. I know it is necessary, but the details are still fuzzy.
Some criteria for a better exploration experience:
- Stores with good traffic should be pushed to the top as we can consider them well vetted by the community. This probably means some sort of “top stores” mechanism. We can leverage RIDL for this, too.
- We’ll want a way to suggest interesting assets, categories, and collections.
- There should be a section for new content.
Better browsing through bushiness
Right now the site is very hierarchical. This is partly my fault as it is very much how my mind is organized.
The truth of the matter is that a good Marketplace should be more.. bushy. It should have short branches that you can easily jump between because if you find an asset that you’re sort of interested in, it is likely that its cousin on a nearby branch will be exactly what you are looking for.
A UX pattern that I think will help with this is not having single assets open on their own page, but in a modal with “similar” navigation positioned in relation to the modal.
Better shopping experience
One of the places that I think we are weakest in our current iteration is how we handle repeat customers.
We are not exposing them to assets they have viewed previously, nor are we suggesting to them assets that are similar to those within the context of their return to the Marketplace (we do show similar assets in the single asset view). If we want to see the Marketplace succeed, I think it will be largely through improvements in these types of details.
More information will be coming down the pipeline soon.
If you’d like to stay up to date and be the first to know, add yourself to our mailing list.
Want to join the early Marketplace roster?
Send us your NFT-centric projects to business@get-scatter.com and make sure that when we launch, you launch with us.
DISCLAIMER: The items on the Marketplace test site, their names, and any other details about them are purely for mock purposes.They do not reflect the finalized assets, their prices or their respective projects in any way.
— Rami James | Telegram: https://t.me/Scatter | Website: https://get-scatter.com
Scatter is a blockchain application signature provider. We provide high quality tools for developers and users.
