UPPFIRST
The Web3 Commerce Platform Defining the Future of Trade
UPPFIRST is a web3 commerce platform designed to help creators build stores, engage audiences, and manage sales in one place. The platform empowers brands, retailers, and influencers to pre-sell products directly to consumers through blockchain-powered digital contracts.
My Responsibilities
- UX strategy and user flows
- Journey mapping and information architecture
- Wireframing and prototyping
- Marketplace UX design
- Creator and buyer journey design
- Admin platform UX
- Responsive UI design
- Design system and interaction design
- Stakeholder and developer collaboration
Deliverables
Retail & Blockchain
Industry
2022
Year
Desktop Marketplace, Mobile, Creator Tools, Admin
Type of Work
UPPFIRST reversed the traditional supply-demand model by allowing creators to pre-sell products as digital contracts before fulfillment — buyers could then trade these reserved purchases on a secondary marketplace.
// Overview
UPPFIRST is a web3 commerce platform designed to help creators build stores, engage audiences, and manage sales in one place. The platform empowers brands, retailers, and influencers to pre-sell products directly to consumers through blockchain-powered digital contracts. Buyers can then trade these reserved purchases on a secondary marketplace, creating a more dynamic, circular, and community-driven commerce experience.
My role focused on designing the complete user experience across four areas: a desktop and mobile responsive marketplace for buyers, creator onboarding and profile experiences, NFT-based item creation and minting flows, and a dedicated admin platform for platform managers.
// The Challenge
Rethinking Commerce for Web3 Audiences
UPPFIRST aimed to rethink how products are bought and sold by reversing the traditional supply-demand model. Instead of producing products upfront and predicting demand, creators could pre-sell items as digital contracts before fulfillment. The main UX challenge was simplifying a complex web3 commerce model into an experience that felt familiar, trustworthy, and easy to use.
Primary & Secondary Market Journeys
Buyers needed seamless paths to purchase, trade, customise, claim, or resell digital contracts within the platform.
NFT Minting & Digital Ownership
Creators had to mint and manage NFT-backed products with complex commercial terms, royalties, and claim windows.
Wallet-Based Authentication
Web3 wallet connections had to feel secure and familiar, not intimidating for mainstream commerce users.
Creator & Buyer Onboarding
Two distinct user types — creators and buyers — each needed tailored onboarding flows with different mental models.
Offers, Listings, Resale & Claims
The marketplace supported multiple transaction states: offers, active listings, resale, and post-purchase claims.
Blockchain Without the Complexity
The experience needed to leverage blockchain technology without making the interface feel overly technical.
Marketplace Platform
The marketplace experience was designed for buyers exploring, purchasing, trading, and claiming UppNFTs. The UX focused on making web3 commerce feel closer to a familiar retail marketplace while still supporting advanced ownership and trading behaviours.
Key Features
Core Buyer Flows
- Connect wallet & sign up
- Complete buyer onboarding
- Discover and filter items
- View item details & commercial terms
- Buy item or make an offer
- Customise item and add shipping
- Sell, cancel, or reduce listing price
- Claim item and upload shipping details
Interface Principles
The interface used clear item cards with strong product imagery, status labels, consistent price and claim information, marketplace filters, grid and list views, and clear calls-to-action. Progressive disclosure was used for complex item details to keep the browsing experience light.
Every screen was designed to feel like a familiar e-commerce experience — clean product grids, straightforward navigation, and transparent pricing — while the blockchain layer operated invisibly beneath the surface.
Marketplace Homepage — Featured & Discover
UPPFIRSTCreator Experience
The creator experience was designed to help brands and creators launch products, manage items, and interact with buyers. The create new item flow was one of the most complex areas of the platform, supporting product details, pricing, royalties, claim windows, customisation, terms, shipping costs, and delivery options.
Key Features
Core Creator Flows
- Sign up as creator & verify account
- Connect wallet
- Create new item with product details
- Define commercial terms & add royalties
- Set claim and expiry dates
- Add customisation options
- Add shipping and delivery rules
- Preview item, mint and publish UppNFT
UX Approach
The UX focused on breaking the complexity of item creation into clear, digestible sections so creators could complete the process with confidence. Each step had contextual guidance, validation, and preview capabilities.
The minting preview allowed creators to see exactly how their item would appear to buyers before publishing — a critical trust signal in a platform where creators are directly selling to their community.
Creator Experience — Create New Item Flow
UPPFIRSTItem Detail & Claim Experience
Item detail pages supported different market states and user actions depending on whether an item was upcoming, claimable, expired, pre-owned, on sale, or not on sale. The experience needed to surface the right actions at the right time without overwhelming the buyer.
Item Detail Sections
Claim Flow Steps
- Enter personal details
- Add or confirm shipping address
- Review package and customisation
- Confirm claim terms
- Complete claim & receive confirmation
Design Goal
The item detail page was one of the most visited screens in the platform. It had to communicate complex ownership status, market state, and available actions in a way that felt intuitive to both crypto-native and mainstream users.
Progressive disclosure kept the initial view clean, while power users could expand sections to see full commercial terms, offer history, and activity logs. The claim flow was designed as a guided step-by-step wizard to reduce abandonment.
Item Detail — Primary Market with Customisation
UPPFIRST
Claim Item Flow — Shipping & Confirmation
UPPFIRSTSign Up & Onboarding
Onboarding was split into two distinct paths: buyer onboarding and creator onboarding. Each path was tailored to the user's intent, with wallet connection as the first step and progressive profile building thereafter.
Onboarding Elements
Design Principles
- Reduce friction in wallet connection
- Clear value proposition at each step
- Visual progress indicators
- Contextual help and tooltips
- Skip options for non-critical fields
- Mobile-optimised forms
UX Approach
The sign-up experience was designed to lower the barrier to entry for mainstream users who might be new to web3. Wallet connection was presented as a simple, one-click action with clear security messaging.
For creators, additional verification steps were introduced progressively — not all at once — to prevent drop-off. The onboarding flow also educated users about platform concepts (UppNFTs, primary vs secondary market) through bite-sized explanations at relevant moments.
Sign Up — Wallet Connection & Account Creation
UPPFIRSTAdmin Platform
The admin platform was designed for UPPFIRST managers responsible for maintaining trust, safety, and operational control across the marketplace.
Key Features
Core Admin Flows
- Approve or reject creators
- Manage creator status
- Ban wallets
- Support lost wallet cases
- Add, remove, or edit categories
- Publish platform-wide messages
- Place alerts on key pages
- Review reported items
- Restrict access to selected areas
UX Approach
The UX focused on giving administrators fast access to important governance actions while keeping sensitive platform controls organised and easy to manage.
Sensitive moderation actions were surfaced with clear confirmation steps to prevent accidental changes. Platform-wide messaging tools were designed for quick publishing with preview capabilities. Access controls and category management used familiar CRUD patterns so managers could operate efficiently without extensive training.
Admin Platform — Governance & Moderation Tools
UPPFIRST// Outcome
Platform Outcomes
The final product created a complete web3 commerce ecosystem across buyers, creators, and administrators.
A full
marketplace experience for primary and secondary trading
Simplified
NFT-based purchasing and resale journeys
Clear
creator onboarding and item creation flows
A structured
claim process for physical product fulfilment
Improved
visibility across item status, ownership, and activity
Admin tools
for moderation, governance, and platform operations
A scalable
design system across marketplace, creator, and admin experiences
// Reflection
This project showed how UX design can make emerging technologies more accessible by translating blockchain concepts into familiar commerce patterns.
By focusing on clarity, trust, and usability, UPPFIRST transformed a complex web3 trading model into an experience that supported creators, buyers, and platform managers across the full lifecycle of digital and physical product ownership.