Sacred
During this fixed-term contract, I solo designed an end-to-and forum where like-minded people create unstoppable communities.
From initial research to high-fidelity prototypes and a design system, I owned the entire design process while collaborating closely with founders, engineers and the head of De-fi & Strategy.
Project Overview
Client: Sacred Protocol (Web3 Startup)
Duration: Nov 2023 – Nov 2024 | Fixed Term Contract | Remote (Toronto, Canada)
Role: as a UX/UI Designer & CX Strategist, I led and executed the end-to-end design of two market-ready products. From initial chaos to shippable solutions!
The Challenge
My Process
Results
Sacred Protocol, like many early-stage startups, was building with passion but lacked user-centered focus. Without a Product Designer, the team prioritized features based on assumptions rather than research—leading to misaligned solutions that created more problems than they solved. Anonymity tools, for example, clashed with the community's need for reputation-based interactions, resulting in wasted development cycles and unclear product direction.
Introduced the HCD process to bring clarity and to build solutions for real problems: competitive benchmarking to identify gaps, personas to clarify user needs, and MoSCoW | Prioritisation Matrix to align stakeholders, as well as Mid | Hi-fi Figma prototypes to test core flows, and a scalable design system.
Delivered two ready-to-market products: a Web3 native forum and a cross-channel tipping system.
Eliminated 8 months of rework and 100% of smart contract production costs.
Competitive Benchmark
To identify market gaps and differentiate Sacred Protocol's offerings, I analyzed 7 leading Web3 discussion platforms (including Discourse, Commonwealth, and Metaforo) across 170+ criteria like decentralisation, governance features, and user experience.
Key Insights:
Market Gap: Most platforms lacked even basic features like a text editor with embedded polling options despite user demands.
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Now the team had a clear vision of how we could beat our competitors - providing basic features our competitors were failing to give our users and with room to research for unique solutions with big potential to set us apart in the competitive market.
User Research
To understand real user struggles, we surveyed and interviewed Web3 community members and uncovered a glaring gap: while everyone needed to draft proposals, discuss topics, and vote, they were forced to use 4-5 different platforms for these basic tasks—none offering essential features like built-in polling or reputation tracking.
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Key Insight:
Our competitors were missing even fundamental tools users expected, like a proper text editor with voting options.
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This gave us a clear mission: deliver the basics others failed to provide while leaving room to innovate with unique features (like tipping) that would truly set us apart.
Personas
To ensure our product decisions were rooted in real needs, I developed five core personas based on insights from user interviews, surveys, and secondary research—all structured using the 5 Ws Framework (Who, What, Where, Why, When). This method helped us systematically track each persona's goals, pain points, and behaviours.​
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Key Insights:
While competitors treated DAO members as a single group, our research revealed a critical gap: these communities consist of distinct roles—Creators, Active Participants, Experts, and Moderators—each with unique workflows and unmet needs.
Vision Realised:
​With a solid foundation of core features now in place—and a clear framework for testing innovative solutions—our team gained full conviction in our mission: to redefine Web3 forums by first perfecting the essentials, then pioneering what others hadn't imagined.
This dual-phase approach let us:
Ship reliable basics (discussions, voting, reputation) that competitors had neglected
Experiment boldly with features like cross-platform tipping—validating what truly moved the needle
The focus was building a platform that didn't just meet current needs, but actively shaped the future of decentralized communities.
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Picture is blurred due to NDA agreement.
MoSCoW Prioritisation Method
To align Sacred Protocol’s team on MVP scope, I implemented the MOSCOW framework (Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, Won’t-have). This eliminated debates over feature priority by grounding decisions in user needs and technical feasibility.
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Outcome:
Cut months of wasted development by focusing resources on high-impact features.
Achieved stakeholder consensus through transparent, data-backed prioritisation.
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Picture is blurred due to NDA agreement.
User Flows
To visualise and optimise Sacred Protocol’s core interactions, I mapped user flows for all main tasks. ​
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Outcome:
Mapping these flows exposed critical friction points early. A prime example is the wallet connection - an industry-wide pain point that typically forced users through 7+ frustrating steps (network switches, multiple pop-ups, endless confirmations). Our tech team embraced the challenge to rethink this flow, ultimately distilling it down to just two seamless steps: (1) one-click initiation and (2) single confirmation. The result? An 82% reduction in connection friction that solved one of users' most common complaints.
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Video is blurred due to NDA agreement.
Information Architecture -
Site Map
To help the tech team build more efficiently, I created a clear site map. This showed how all features connected and where they should go. By organising everything logically, we:
- Made it easier to plan the backend structure
- Reduced confusion about how features should work together
- Saved time during development
The simple visual guide helped everyone stay aligned and work faster.
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Picture is blurred due to NDA agreement.
Mid-fi Wireframes and rapid prototype
To rapidly test Sacred Protocol’s key interactions and flows before committing to high-fidelity designs, mid-fi wireframes were key to focus on functionality and user logic.
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Each flow was presented to the CTO to ensure alignment of each page, functionality and interaction.
Hi-Fi Prototypes - Bridging Design & Development
The hi-fi prototypes transformed our wireframes into a polished, interactive vision using Figma, featuring real UI elements of our design system (like the one-click wallet widget and reputation badges), micro-interactions (tooltip animations, tipping confirmations), and responsive behaviours.
This close design-tech collaboration ensured engineers had pixel-perfect specs—reducing UI-related queries by 70%, while creating a crucial tool for future user testing and iterative refinement of the product.
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Picture is blurred due to NDA agreement.
Our VIP List Subscription
This VIP List flow was designed to offer early access to our products and cultivate a community of earlyvangelists. Their feedback will directly shape our iterations, ensuring we build a product that truly meets their needs.
Intention in every design detail
From copy to a simple chevron icon. Every single detail of our components matters. I document my rationale: micro-interactions like these bridge user psychology and business goals, turning passive interest into active collaboration with our early adopters.
More about this project coming soon!
