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Wildpaws NFT
Making Web3 accessible through digital cats, NFT payments, and community education.
Roles
Project Lead, Product Design, Web, UX/UI, Brand, Creative Direction
Timeline
Jan - Jun 2022
Tools
Adobe Creative Suite
Miro

Figma
Blender

Overview

At the height of the NFT trend, Wildcats, a company dedicated to community impact, sought innovative ways to leverage NFTs to educate its internal team about Web3. Following an extensive company-wide brainstorming competition, Wildcats made the strategic decision to partner with cat shelters to not only give them sustainable support, but to financially support the company too.

Objective

Harness blockchain technology and NFTs to develop a sustainable fundraising platform for shelters and to raise funds for the company.

Project Goals
Support shelters financially 🤲🏼
Benefit animal shelters financially and community-wise
Learn to navigate
new tech 🎓
Grasp new skillsets revolving around new tech as a team
Teach NFT/Web3 to new users 📚
Educate new users of blockchain in the easiest way possible
​Diversify revenue streams 💵
Fund the company through commission from sales
Part 1: Research
WTH R NFTs?

NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are like special digital certificates that say you own something unique, like a rare toy, a song, or a special picture, in the online world. (Think of them as artwork that people value)

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Justin Bieber's Bored Ape. Valued at $1.5 Million

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Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days. Valued at $69,346,250

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Joining the hype train 🚂

Substantial growth of NFTs is observed over the end of 2021-2022. In 2021, more and more NFTs (especially animal-based ones) are popping into the market with different mechanics and unique selling points.

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Shiba Shelter - 30% of profit goes to animal shelters

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What does the market think?

Survey from our partner network in Thailand (84 respondents)

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There was a mix of responses regarding NFT knowledge. While almost 30% don't know about NFTs, there is still a significant percentage of people who have dipped their toes in the NFT space through learning and buying.

Most likely* to jump on helping out cat shelters

72%
43%

Very interested* to learn about NFTs

Average annual donation to cat charities per person

500- 1000THB
Part 2: Problem
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Getting to know our selected shelters all over SEA and their everyday struggles, alongside partners willing to help with the project

Problem Statements (hover for tl;dr)

"<User> aspires <goal>. However, <problem> due to <reason>. This occurs when <situation>"

Animal Shelters

Animal shelters aspire to expand their financial resources to ensure the longevity of their operations and to feel confident about their future. However, they struggle to achieve this due to unsustainable fundraising methods, stemming from the operational challenges. This occurs when shelters heavily depend on intermittent donations from the community, leading to financial insecurity.

TL;DR
🙀 Shelters need money + resources to survive
Individual

The public desires a deeper understanding of web3 and blockchain to navigate our rapidly evolving technological landscape. However, this goal is hindered by the complexities of web3, including technical jargon and intricate mechanics, which only serve to alienate them further when explanations are unclear or inaccessible.

TL;DR
🙋🏻‍♀️ People want to keep up with new trends and tech
Company

Wildcats aims to embrace new technologies like Web3 and foster collective learning and growth. However, this ambition remains farfetched without a clear purpose, leading to fragmented efforts and demotivation.

TL;DR
Wildcats needs to learn Web3 and earn from it
Hypothesis

Given the increasing popularity and investment in NFTs, there is an opportunity to utilize this trend to support animal shelters.

 

By simplifying explanations of Web3 and NFTs and illustrating how purchasing NFTs can directly benefit animals, it is hypothesized that more individuals will be inclined to contribute financially. This hypothesis suggests that tapping into the broader audience interested in participating in the digital economy for philanthropic purposes could significantly enhance fundraising efforts for animal welfare causes.

Part 3: Ideation
Simplifying the payment process

After drawing out the lofi process, we highlighted the key things we need to dive into.

Some key insights:

  1. First-time user won't have any ethereum (ETH) nor have a digital wallet.

  2. However, they do have credit cards that they use for online shopping.

  3. A digital wallet is needed to buy NFTs, cryptocurrency is not.

💡

Priorities:

• Creating a Digital Wallet

• Paying by Credit Card

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Tutorials

For buying the NFTs + creating a wallet

prefer video over text when learning how a product or service works. (Wyzowl, 2020)

72%
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💡

Priority:

• Making Tutorial videos short and delightful

Full Transparency

From our shelter partners to financial breakdowns, our site will feature enough info to gain trust from our audience.

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💡

Priority:

• Transparent but still professional and trustworthy

Competitive Analysis:
How can we be different from the market?
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💡

Priority:

• Leverage on storytelling about our cats

Young team, fresh ideas, ideating was so fun!
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💡

Priority:

• Visual Storytelling

The NFT in discussion

Survey from our partner network in Thailand (84 respondents)

Most likely would buy this NFT

72%

Willing to pay 1000THB for a digital cat that is customisable

64%

"its very cute i wanna buy it so bad."

"If NFT is similar to my own cat, I will be interested to buy it."

"I am very interested this NFT if it design look like my cat but not prefer more than 1"

"I am very interested in studying nft data."

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Sample common cat

Design Strategy

Prioritization among 3 key points:

Pleasurable

Usable

Reliable

Functional

Easy to understand NFT buying from end to end

Get an NFT in less than 5 mins!

Financial transparency for shelters and users

This creates a trusted and purposeful connection between the users and the shelters.

Purposeful Storytelling

Lure in potential users that are willing to dip their toes in blockchain.

3
1
2

Aarron Walter's Hierarchy of User Needs (UX)

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Part 4: Solution
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Wildpaws NFT is a collection of
uniquely designed 3D cats, serving both as an engaging educational tool for blockchain technology and a means to support animal shelters across the Southeast Asia (SEA) region.

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2 KINDS OF WILDPAWS NFT

$405/cat

Digital Twin Cats

50 digital interpretations of real-life cats.

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🐈‍⬛ Choose from 10 cats per shelter

📜 Digital certificates of adoption

💰 70% of profit share

💕 Benefits include:

• Owning the artwork

• Certificate of real adoption

• Live updates of cat regularly

• Access to physical/online events 

• Discounts on services and products

Made for passionate cat lovers who want to digitally adopt a cat and support shelters directly.
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$85-305/cat

Meowtaverse Cats

5,555 cats of different rarity - Neighbourhood, Rare, Legendary

*Breakdown of profit sharing:

1st quarter sold = 25% of profit
2nd quarter sold = 35% of profit
3rd quarter sold = 50% of profit
4th quarter sold = 100% of profit
+ Discounts on vet services

🐈‍⬛ Choose from 5,555 cats

• Neighbourhood cats (85 usd)

• Rare cats (205 usd)

• Legendary cats (305 usd)​​

💰 25-100% of profit share*

💕 Benefits include:

• Owning the artwork

• Access to physical and online events 

• Discounts on services and products

Made for NFT collectors who invest while still giving back to the cat community. Great for those who want to dip their toes into NFTs.
Easy selection of Wildpaws cats
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Easy to understand NFT buying from end to end: Payment Flow
1
See an NFT you like
2
Buy the NFT
(Card or crypto)
3
Create a digital wallet
4
Find the NFT in your wallet

*Wallet information can be updated through an email link

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Easy to understand NFT buying from end to end: Tutorials
1
See an NFT you like
2
Buy the NFT
(Card or crypto)
3
Create a digital wallet
4
Find the NFT in your wallet
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Create Wallet - 2 weeks before!!_edited.
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Brand Storytelling

To really hit it out of the park with our message, we infused elements of storybook wonder, blending fantasy with our real-life work.

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Transparency

Our users were able to get live updates through our social media channels.

Our content was centred around our real-life adoptable cats and their stories, as well as our partners.

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Part 5: Outcomes
How we stood out from the market:
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Overall great feedback* on flow and storytelling…

*20 respondents in a facilitated feedback session

92%

approval rating for overall user experience

approval rating for storytelling

4/5⭐️

11/20

had little to no issues in creating a wallet

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...But there are things to improve on...

Had trouble understanding the term "adopt"

 

*"Adopting" the NFT doesn't mean the user will physically adopt the real-life cat.

15/20

...Lots more things.

269,329

16,018

Impressions on the first month vs second month significantly dropped

56s

37s

Ave. total time on website dropped

The Ultimate Roadblock:
Launched at the wrong time
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We raised a good amount on our first 2 months.

Majority of our Digital Twin sales came from our roadshow events that our colleagues at Thailand and Singapore/Malaysia organised. Our adopters got to meet the cats they were adopting!

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..But it was not sustainable for our business.

Because of circumstances, we realised it was too much effort for campaigning in a volatile market.

Our resources were spread out and had to tap into other teams to help us with the outreach.

We also received backlash from some communities due to the environment of NFTs.

Twitter (now X) blocked ads on all accounts that were using blockchain lingo (Connect Wallet, crypto, etc)

Twitter Regulations

The notion of NFTs = Scam strengthened after the boom of "nonsense" NFTs

Influencer
…Yet our goals were met (somehow)
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Our visit to our partner shelter, Odd Cat Bali

We were able to provide resources to our partners.

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Shannon adopted Madu from Odd Cat Bali!

We had NFT adoptions despite the circumstances.

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Our outreach at Penang, Malaysia with Cat Beach Sanctuary

Our team exceeded expectations in launching the project.

What we could've improved on (Product-wise)
Deload info on the homepage
Focus on Digital Twin Cats = More efficient use of time and resource
Language needs to be clearer, more down to earth

There was information overload on the first page of the website, making it hard for first time visitors to get to purchasing the NFTs.

Profit ratio for DigiTwins were far greater than Meowtaverse cats. By focusing on putting resource into DigiTwins, we'll have a more effective work flow.

Less storytelling, more straight to the point will work on a future iteration, as customers will have less questions from point of sale to checkout. Also noting that our first users are not native english speakers!

Key takeaways for this project
KEY TAKEAWAY 1
Timing is everything. Producing a great product in the worst timing will have its consequences.
KEY TAKEAWAY 2
Hitting too many problems at once not only creates confusion short term, but also affects long term vision.
KEY TAKEAWAY 3
While exploring innovative opportunities such as NFTs can be beneficial, it's essential not to lose sight of the core business.
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