Onboarding Artists to the
New Version of the Internet (Web3)

ARTHENTIC - CASE STUDY

Arthentic

NFT Onboarding

May 2020 - December 2021

Pivoting into the Metaverse

ArthenticMe LLC entered the pandemic as an events company for talented local artists in Orlando, FL. After taking a step back and brainstorming several options, we decided that the company would focus it's efforts on non-fungible tokens.

My Contributions

As the sole designer and developer at Arthentic (at the time), it was my responsibility to research and implement NFTs into the current business model. Before automating the process using a Web Portal, I perfected a manual method to create NFTs for artists.

Challenges

Audience's Knowledge of NFTs

Cost of Making NFTs

Let's Make Some NFTs

Scalability of NFTs as a Service

Who is Our Audience?

User Surveys

My first concern was discovering how much the arthentic audience knew about non-fungible tokens. As a community +700 people strong, the easiest method to gather data was a form sent through the email newsletter. Of the 203 people that responded to the inquiry, 161 people had no idea what they were. It was clear that our audience needed to be educated.

161 people never heard of NFTs
40 people had varying degrees of knowledge on the subject
2 investors had recently bought NFTs
A single 3D artist was in the process of making an NFT

Who is Our Audience?

User Surveys

Instagram Campaign

Arthentic's most active audience at the time was Instagram, where the marketing team conducted the networking division of the company.

After conducting a preliminary evaluation, I discovered that the team needed a posting guide.
The guide helped convey how future posts should be presented.
The 3-month campaign shown was created with Canva to provide a reference example to the marketing team.

How Much Are NFTs?

Business Needs Analysis

One major concern that a lot of artists had were how much they would have to pay to make non-fungible tokens. We wanted to alleviate the cost by connecting the NFT investors directly to the product. Because we were bridging a two-way market, Ethereum was the best choice for a blockchain, since the coin has the most users.

Potential NFT Marketplaces

OpenSea - Largest and compatible with Ethereum (and Polygon chain)*
Nifty Gateway - Made for artists
Binance Chain - Lots of extra services for making NFTs
Rarible - Exclusive marketplace

*Polygon was released after we launched our first NFT, allowing costless transactions

OpenSea + Polygon

After deliberating between many different options, I landed on the Polygon network was on OpenSea. A perfect solution which allows:

Gas-Free transactions (No cost to buy/sell items)
Multiples copies of the same NFT can be made

How the Artists Make NFTs

User Flow for the Onboarding Process

Now that the technology had been decided, it was time to examine how the users would interact with the system. It was important to keep in mind how web3 technology was different than web2 solutions, where a user's wallet holds their 'keys' to the data, which is stored on a blockchain. This gives the user ultimate control over their information, something Arthentic was keen to inform it's artists of.

Potential User Pain Points

Knowledge - Artists were confused on the potential of NFTs and why they should care to make them, as shown in the user survey.
Wallet Software - The UX on current wallets can be intimidating and unfriendly to non-tech users
Partial Completion - NFTs require multiple approvals to write onto a blockchain, leaving some artists thinking they created a token when they hadn't finished the process
Marketing - The artist has to be able to sell their NFTs to their audience who also (probably) has no knowledge of how to buy and sell in this new medium

User flow for the NFT onboarding process for Arthentic Artists

Web Portal and Beyond

Automated Onboarding Process

After working with dozens of artists, it became clear that the small team at Arthentic would not be able to keep up with the demand of managing the artist's NFTs. The main problem was that we needed a few items to make an artist's profile and each artist we added started a lengthy process.

OpenSea's Requirements

The OpenSea service required a few items from each collection(artist) we made:

Logo Image (350x350 pixels)
Profile Image (600x400 pixels)
Banner Image (1400x400 pixels)
A Description of the Artist

NFT Requirements

To make an non-fungible token, we required the artist to provide:

NFT File (>40 MB)
Name of Work
Description of Piece
Cost of the NFT

Arthentic's Requirements

To be a part of the Arthentic network, a vetting process took place that included:

Checking Social Media Following
Confirming Art Type
Exclusive Content for NFTs
Crypto Knowledge (for payouts)

These onboarding slides were designed to be easily spread via phone, the primary method of communication of most Arthentic artists. Unfortunately we found this to be the least effective method for getting the information from the artists as most didn't want to personally track their progress.

Solution

Website Forms

Forms were the obvious choice to gather data from our clients, since it gave the development team the most control over the information flow. I designed two sets of forms, one to onboard artists and another to onboard business clientele. Using the website style guide, the process was easy to create directly with code.

Outcome

Generating NFTs

Since the forms went live in Fall 2021, Arthentic has received 30 requests for various NFT projects. Due to the overwhelming level of demand, the company has chosen to lock the forms until an adequate NFT creation team can be formed. As of this writing, the company has implemented seven of those plans, which can be seen here:

Arthentic NFTs

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Onboarding Artists to the New Version of the Internet (Web3)