Resham Khanna San Francisco, CA
A lime-green iPhone showing the Robinhood NFT marketplace item page, on a matching 3D pedestal against a dark navy background

Robinhood NFT marketplace

A concept NFT marketplace for Robinhood, designed in 2 weeks.

The brief we set ourselves: how might we help investors confidently and effortlessly invest in NFTs on Robinhood? The answer we landed on: make NFT investing user friendly and less intimidating. My role covered UX research and design, product thinking, visual identity, and market research.

Context

The NFT market hit $52 billion in 2021, but two problems kept surfacing: managing investments precisely on mobile was hard, and almost no platform served people who don’t speak crypto. A marketplace inside Robinhood would keep every investment asset in one app, and Robinhood’s brokerage expertise transfers directly to making NFTs less intimidating.

Market statistics: market cap $11.59B, 1,523,121 holders, 1,345 collections, over a gridded chart rising sharply

Research

Blockchain as it stood created barriers instead of meeting needs, so we set four design goals: discoverability, awareness, education, and security.

Illustration for discoverability: a message in a bottle underwater
Discoverability
Illustration for awareness: two chickens face off, one wearing a camera headset
Awareness
Illustration for education: a scattered desk of books, papers, and a binder
Education
Illustration for security: a gold shield on a periwinkle field
Security

We also mapped the competition: OpenSea led the market, and Coinbase had announced its own marketplace.

Bar chart and table comparing top NFT marketplaces by sale value, users, blockchain, trading fee, and token

Sentiment analysis on Twitter, Quora, and YouTube confirmed the fit: Robinhood is the default brokerage for young, new investors, the same demographic buying NFTs, and it is trusted for being straightforward and friendly. 5 interviews, ages 21 to 25, from beginner to expert, became three personas: a newbie who found NFTs discouraging to learn, an artist who had found real success, and an expert left skeptical after a scam.

Affinity mapping turned up four themes that became the principles for everything after:

  • Customization: a feed you shape yourself, a lane for new artists, and real search and filters.
  • Trust and security: verified profiles, verification before money moves, and control over what’s public.
  • Simplicity: show only what helps right now, and explain it plainly.
  • Education: meet jargon with Robinhood Learn so new users are never lost.

Features

Those insights became the marketplace’s core features.

Education: inspire informed action, simplify intimidating topics, and abstract but still teach, beside the Latest News feed and an NFT item page with wallet details
Customization: improve the exploration process, help creators get traction, and granular search options, beside the customizable Your Feed and Discover Items screens
Security: multi-factor authentication, report suspicious listings, and manage personal details, beside the Verify Your Identity screen and an item page with a report flag

Flows

Onboarding keeps Robinhood’s existing patterns: connect or create a wallet, verify your email, pick a username, everything else optional.

Six onboarding screens: splash with connect wallet, wallet selection, connection successful, email, username, and name entry

Discovering runs on a feed you can shape, a creators directory, and full creator profiles with live auctions, so both collectors and emerging artists have a home.

Three phone screens: Your Feed, the creators directory, and a creator profile

Exploring and saving means filters everywhere, plain-language explainers along the way, and moodboards you can save to from any item page.

Four phone screens: collections, Discover Items with filters, an NFT item page, and Add to Moodboards

Bidding safely takes a verification code before you bid, then a clear breakdown of bid, gas fees, and total before you commit.

Six phone screens of the bidding flow: item listing, identity verification, entering a bid with gas fees, and bid submitted

Staying informed brings news with tickers, sale and bid notifications, Robinhood Learn for terminology, and the token details always a tap away.

Four phone screens: latest news, notifications, the Learn hub, and an item page with a details callout

Design system

We used the Robinhood design system and illustration set.