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WAGMeet
Commissioned by one of the earliest web3 communities in India, Crypto Capable, WAGMeet was to be the official event technology partner for global NEAR meets community and also serve as a prototype for future industry-specific event ticketing platforms that can be built on the NEAR blockchain.
The Future of Ticketing
The product was commissioned by one of the earliest web3 communities in India, Crypto Capable, and was intended to help promote discovery and collaboration of like-minded members in local web3 communities. The application was to be a platform to create, manage and participate in events like meetups, workshops, seminars and conferences that facilitate face-to-face interactions between users.
As a native web3 app hosted on the NEAR chain, Wagmeet can make use of blockchain-based features like NFTs and smart contracts to introduce new incentive systems that promote event attendance and networking. We were solving some of the ticketing industry’s biggest problems using NFT tickets. By minting tickets on a blockchain, we eliminate the possibility of scalping and also enable the creation of regulated secondary marketplaces. Combining the NFT collectible boom with event experiences, the platform can incentivize and engage event audience by creating unique NFTs that can be airdropped to ticket holders during or after every event.
“On-chain activity will power the next major improvement in the world of event management technology.”
— Gautam Padiyar
Co-founder & CEO, Crypto Capable
Instead of using traditional web2 event ticketing services, web3 communities can potentially pioneer web3 versions of these platforms, tapping into a massive potential for unique in-event engagement methods. Wagmeet was envisioned to be the global NEAR community’s official event technology partner and serve as a model for future industry-focused platforms to be built on. The product will also act as a port for entry for non-native web3 users, giving them a chance to trial utilities like NFTs and community tokens.
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Web3 event ticketing analysis
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Feature analysis of web3 apps
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UI References
Building an Event Platform with Reward Systems
The standard user experience and best practices for event ticketing platforms were already out there to model Wagmeet after. The challenge was to integrate elements of web3 into the platform in a way that keeps them accessible to users of the traditional web.
The first step in designing the product structure was to define our user personas — event hosts and attendees. From basic research, we learned about the needs and goals of the two groups to model the product around. One key difference between the user groups was that the attendees were expected to be mostly web3 newbies for whom Wagmeet would be the first native web3 experience. The event hosts on the other hand were web3 natives looking to use Wagmeet to build and engage the web3 community, while also possibly profiting from the process.
We detailed out a product schema defining different kinds of entities in the product (like event, user profile, host profile, ticket, etc.), their attributes and interactions. This helped ensure all features and functionalities were covered, and also served as a blueprint to design user flows based on.
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Product elements and attributes
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Hierarchy and interactions among elements
We identified interactions that are key for the users engagement with the app and created user flows that made these interactions easily accessible to the user and achievable in the least number of steps.
Embedding incentive systems into event ticketing was key for the platform’s competitive advantage. Using the concept of physical airdrops, we incorporated event attendance motives like refunds, variable reward pots, and NFT collectibles. The product was primarily targeted at budding web3 communities with enthusiasts from fields like software development, finance, business and design. In order to promote networking among community members, we introduced an add-friend feature that allowed users to “mint a meeting” with other users.
Ticket Refunds
All you got to do is show up
The simplest form of incentivizing attendance is to simply return the money paid by a ticket holder when their attendance is marked.
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Shared Reward Pots
Variable incentives for small events
Organizers can set a reward pot of $X which gets distributed equally to ticket holders who attend the event physically.
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NFT Collectibles
Gifts for attending and participating
Digital artifacts like autographs, 2D/3D images, videos, sound bytes, exclusive access tokens, etc. can be airdropped to attendees.
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Wagmeet Handshake
Minting a meeting
Attendees can register meeting a person IRL in a blockchain with time and scenario details by adding them on the platform.
While integrating the web3 aspects to the platform, we designed them to have the least possible disruption to the regular event ticketing experience. We placed the features in relevant and intuitive spots in the user flows so the platform remains simple to use and integration is seamless.
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User flows
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App navigation
UI Design, Prototyping
Usability is a major hurdle to overcome in the web3 space. With the modified tech stack bringing in certain novel requirements, we worked with developers to best understand them and design interfaces to work for them while remaining intuitive for the user. We started with wireframing low fidelity screens defining the hierarchy and layout of elements, and the information architecture of the platform.
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Low fidelity wireframing screens in user flows, with IA information and design notes
Equipped with a basic design system, we began creating high fidelity designs of the screens, adding more elements to the UI kit as we go. We designed the platform in a section-by-section basis, prototyping, testing and iterating within each section before pushing screens for development.
We designed the platform to be open for anyone to explore events, and requiring registration only when the user buys a ticket or tries to use a feature that needs an account. To buy an NFT ticket, the user had to have a NEAR wallet to receive it in and a Wagmeet profile linked to that wallet. For the user with an existing wallet, both sign-up and sign-in processes became simpler. They only had to link their wallet in a simple OAuth-like user flow and they are good to go. But if the user didn’t have one, the sign-up process became considerably different from the traditional web. Creating a NEAR wallet needed some human-or-not verification, deciding the kind of wallet and its recovery method, and understanding what a seed phrase is. To remove these cumbersome steps from the event ticketing app experience, we decided to hold off the wallet creation till the user is at the event, marking their attendance. That way, they can be assisted by existing NEAR community members at the event, making the learning process way more interactive and thereby, effective.
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Platform exploration before sign in
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User flows for users with and without a wallet
We used the brighter colours from the palette to design UI elements that contained information or actions regarding incentives. This helped visually demarcate and draw attention to the UI cards and badges about an event’s rewards.
Collectibles got a designated space next to Tickets. Together they formed the Assets section of the app, which listed all the Wagmeet related NFTs stored in the user’s wallet. Collectibles were designed to contain audio/visual media, text and a link, allowing for all kinds of promotional campaigns. We also considered a collectible trading marketplace but decided to shelve the idea for a later phase of the product.
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Event rewards
Collectibles
We created the Wagmeet handshake action as a way for attendees to connect with each other on the platform, like an add-friend feature. This allows users to share their profile details and social links with other users they “wagmeet” at different events. To encourage networking, every time two attendees connect through the wagmeet handshake, the interaction is recorded as an NFT on the blockchain, along with the time and location details.
We designed the wagmeet handshake to be simple and easy to use. Attendees can connect by scanning a QR code, an interaction made so natural for today’s urbanites by means of the ubiquitous mobile payment apps. We also added an add-note feature that allowed users to note down what they want to remember about they person they just added. With both appeal and utility, the feature was designed to be a great way for attendees to connect and network at events.
Wagmeet handshake with fellow attendee
We played around with the colour palette to visualize the different states of a ticket for a user. While tickets for past events and tickets that were transferred to other were designed to have neutral backdrops, upcoming and live tickets flashed with colour and energy.
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Different states of a ticket
Through an iterative design process, we made high fidelity designs, prototyped and reviewed them with the business team, development team and other stakeholders.
The project was paused before the team could hire illustrators and make graphics for the application. So please excuse the random floating circles you see in these designs, they are meant to be placeholders for the illustrators to work on.
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While the application was mainly tailored to offer the best experience for the event attendee, we made sure the event host’s requirements are also adequately met. Users will have to create a separate Host profile through which they can create and manage events. The host interface also included live event features like marking attendance, broadcasting messages and releasing rewards. We tried to offer a slightly modified visual experience for the host by reserving purple as the accent colour for attendees and using the blue shades for hosts.
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