social.goods

Empowering stakeholders to invest in blockchain powered and impact driven projects

Discipline

UX Research, Web Design

Skills

Figma, Teamwork

Role

Project Mentor

Timeline

4 Months

Team

Patrick Cui
Riya Bhati
Joanna Ye
Manan Singh
Arshia Narula

Design Process

Exploring background context

Problem Space

Research

Synthesis

Ideation

Solution

The use of blockchain technology has become more widespread due to the rise of DeFi, but many non native users are unaware of the potential impacts of blockchain outside the financial sector

Research shows that typical investors do see value in supporting projects for social good, but many are uninformed and weary about the security and trust of investing in blockchain powered projects

Spring 2024 UX Research

HMW create an investment platform that utilizes blockchain technology to promote social good?

Defining Social Good

To guide our research, we will define social good based on the following qualities

Exploring background context

Research Methods

Problem Space

Research

Synthesis

Ideation

Solution

Digging Deeper

Goal: Understand values and motivations of target users, and assess potential pain points

Competitive Analysis

Goal: Assess current methods of project funding/management, identifying successful features and challenges faced by competitors, and exploring potential UI improvements

Using a prioritization matrix, we categorize the most pressing user insights

Synthesis

Problem Space

Research

Synthesis

Ideation

Solution

Motivations

What motivates people to invest in social good projects?

Reason #1

Emotional

People want to feel as though they are personally contributing to a goods cause & making an impact in their community. Emotion is a particularly strong factor for social good projects that impact an investor personally.

Reason #2

Logical

People look to gain returns on their investments, after conducting research into initiatives of interest.

Values

What do investors value most when choosing projects to invest in?

Barriers

Beyond lack of funding and user apprehension, there are a number of barriers that exist in the current user flow for project funding

Using our research, we can begin to ideate on system architecture

Ideation

Problem Space

Research

Synthesis

Ideation

Solution

Project Funding

What method of funding is most optimal for our platform?

Comparative Analysis

We evaluated our most high impact funding methods along 4 key metrics, derived from investor and project coordinator values.

Project Voting

How will voters decide which project should receive funding?

Comparative Analysis

I lead the team through evaluating our most high impact voting methods. We used 2 key metrics derived from secondary research and interviews.

System Architecture

Using a mixture of retroactive funding and tokenization, our platform aids social good initiatives through 2 phases of project funding. In order to be considered, initiatives must outline a clear timeline of measurable and immutable impact goals. During phase 1 selected projects are given initial grant funding to begin their work. At the end of phase 1, projects are re-evaluated and those that meet their phase 1 impact goals can have their tokens traded on our public marketplace, allowing them to recieve continuous funding as their token appreciated in value.

View our diagram here!

Project Selection

Projects submit proposals, providing measurable goals and future impact

In order to be considered, projects must outline a clear time of measurable and immutable impact goals.

Investors contribute to round 1 and round 2 grant pools, and vote on which projects should receive round 1 funding

Round 1 grant pools are distributed evenly between winning projects, in the form of stablecoin

Round 1

Projects are given x amount of time to reach their round 1 goal

Projects which fail to reach their round 1 goals retain their stablecoins minimum value

Round 2

Projects which reach their round 1 goal are allocated round 2 grant pools to appreciate the value of their stable coin

Public Trading

Projects eligible to enter round 2 get their token traded on our public marketplace

All users can show their support by trading the tokens of their favorite project, appreciating its value, contributing to m, and paying back investors

Investors are issued stable coins for their chosen projects, in proportion to their initial investment.

Doing it all again

Active token traders are given the opportunity to participate as a voter in the next project cycle!

Incentives

Our system provides tangible benefit to all actors on our platform, contributing to user retention and increasing potential social impact.

Monetary & Personal

Investors

Investors are given the opportunity to hold any projects stable coin, proportional to their initial investment amount. They experience financial benefits as tokens are publicly traded. on the marketplace and begin to appreciate in value.

Monetary & Personal

Users

Users financially benefit through token trading. Users with a high volume of trades are rewarded with access to voting rights in the next project circuit. This ensures selected projects reflect not just investors, but community interests as well.

Monetary & Reputation

Project Teams

Project teams benefit by recieving an initial grant to kick off their project. They also recieve further retroactive funding for proven social impact, which continues to provide returns as their token is traded.

UX Focus Areas

Now that we have an understanding of system architecture, here are a few more goals we can keep in mind through prototyping. These are drawn directly from user-insights, and intend to create a more beginner friendly interface which appeals to native and non native investors.

Improvement Area

Multiple Exploration Phases

Exploring and learning about projects needs to be made as easy as possible. Our platform should provide multiple windows for users to choose how much context they need about a project.

Improvement Area

Avoid Information Clustering

Oftentimes, investment portals and dashboard include unnecessary information that overwhelms the user. We should ensure that information is shown on a need-to-know basis

Wireframing the User Flow

When first logging on, users are presented with a variety of projects to view

Barriers Addressed: Presenting users with the most personalized recommendations, in order to retain user attention.

Eligible investors can explore project pages and choose up to 100 projects to assign voting points

Barriers Addressed: Increasing transparency and accountability of project metrics

Investors can allocate up to 100 points between their chosen projects.

Barriers Addressed: Combatting Information overload and decision fatigue

HMW create an investment platform that utilizes blockchain technology to promote social good?

Solution

Problem Space

Research

Synthesis

Ideation

Solution

Our grant system rewards initiatives that demonstrate a measurable impact, through retroactive public goods funding. This approach encourages sustainable development, fostering a culture of accountability & continuous progress