What is Cora

• A non-liquidation NFT collateral platform where NFT holders won't risk losing their NFTs
• Aims to build automated asset packaging and trading platform in the future
• Vision for a future where NFTs will evolve beyond digital art collections into uniquely tradeable packages of any whitelisted digital assets

Project Details

• Timeline: June - August 2022
• Team Structure: 5 members across UK, Mexico, and China
• Work Mode: Remote with agile iteration with bi-weekly real-time meetings and asynchronous communication

My Role & Responsibilities

Design Founder with full ownership of：

• Product planning
• Project management
• Interface design
• Design system establishment

Market Analysis

• Studied 13 NFT lending products
• Identified 8 core attraction features
• Benchmarked against BendDAO and Arcade
• Determined "non-liquidation" and "custom trading" as core features

User Persona

• Pilot Users: Sophisticated users & institutions
• User Segments:
  • Proficient with MetaMask and exchanges
  • Active FT/NFT traders
  • Regular Discord users
  • Advanced NFTfi traders, not beginners

• Core User Roles:
  • Borrowers: NFT holders seeking loans
  • Liquidity Providers: USDC investors earning yield

Functional Architecture:

• Common modules (wallet connection, notifications)
• Lending modules (NFT collection display, collateral evaluation)
• Liquidity provision (asset injection, withdrawal, risk alerts)

Layout Design&Low-fidelity prototypes

Created low-fidelity prototypes for 7 core functions：

High-fidelity UI

We want users to enter Cora's main page and immediately understand their current role.Users should be able to clearly perceive their status and switch smoothly between the roles of borrower and liquidity provider.

Using a Sidebar Activation Approach for Lending Operations in order to:

• Enable users to clearly perceive changes caused by their actions, allowing easy reversal or continuation.
• Minimize shifts in visual focus.
• Maintain consistency in the layout structure before and after interactions.

Brand System

Usability Tests

Recruited NFT enthusiasts as seed users through Discord, Telegram, and Twitter and testing high-fi products with via Google Meet with screen recording.

Key Learnings：Emphasizing Community Interaction to Create Products with a Sense of Belonging

Web 2 products are primarily tool-oriented, focusing on functionality first and attracting users afterward. In contrast, Web 3 products prioritize community, gathering users first, then building products around them. Traditional Web 2 products are developed by teams that address user pain points with specific features, while Web 3 products thrive on community involvement, where the community contributes to feature creation and promotion.

In the early stages of the Cora project, only tool development was prioritized, with little attention to community building. As a result, even when the product was complete, few users engaged with it, and growth was limited due to a low marketing budget. Moreover, Cora offered only a lending tool, which alone couldn’t sustain long-term user interest. In Web 3, differentiation stems from a unique foundational philosophy rather than functionality. Initially, users choose tools for utility, but as options multiply, users stay for emotional connection and a sense of belonging. Establishing a distinct product mindset creates a differentiated appeal, fostering a mental affinity that binds users to the product.