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Business Operations Insights Process Design

NFTs, Today and to the Future

The move from physical to digital was rapid in these few years. If you’re not part of the virtual world yet, then you’re definitely missing out. The virtual world has been the space for industries and markets of all types and gone were the days when cold hard cash and traditional memorabilia were everyone’s main assets. Digital assets have been dominating like crazy these past years and you have to keep up.

Sure you’ve heard of Bitcoin and other bigger cryptocurrencies in the crypto world. Well there is one digital asset that has been quietly gaining popularity for its effect not only to specific tech specific industries but for covering the gaming industry, the art industry, and even the real estate industry. These are NFTs which have caught significant attention after several artists sold digital artworks for millions of dollars (we’re talking about the sale of Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ at $69 million, being the third-biggest payday for a living artist in history).

NFTs which stands for Non-Fungible Tokens are blockchain-enabled smart contracts otherwise known as tokens. It follows the same decentralized digital ledger technology that underlies cryptocurrencies like bitcoin but is fairly different because of its non-fungibility. Fungibility means the ability of a good or asset to be interchanged with other individual goods or assets of the same type of fungible tokens, like Bitcoin cannot be identified from each other. Fungible assets simplify the exchange and trade processes, as fungibility implies equal value between the assets. Therefore, NFTs are the opposite. They are basically a unique kind of token that are not interchangeable and definitely different from one another. The unique attributes of the token makes it impossible for them to be replaced or even exchanged. This doesn’t mean that the subject of the NFT cannot be reproduced or replaced. Rather, it means that the NFT itself cannot be replicated. In some ways this is like a certificate of authenticity for a certain item, say digital art, or a virtual estate, a digital asset now ascribed with value. And although everyone can technically access it due to the immutable and open source nature of blockchain, everyone knows who the owner is because of the NFT code attached to it.

According to this Forbes article, the trade has become the new method for digitally buying and selling art and other media. These crypto assets represent the latest blockchain-based boom: Three years ago, the entire NFT market was worth no more than $42 million. By the end of 2020, it had grown 705% to $338 million in value, according to the latest estimate from Nonfungible.com, which monitors the NFT marketplace. NFTs have become the trend to gain ownership for the internet and its elements. Trading assets have proven to be what made almost all industry run fluid for years now. 

NFTs are generally used in different markets involving art of most forms (videos, music, digital art), collectibles like CryptoKitties, gaming, virtual assets (selling virtual plots of land), and identity. And in trading virtual assets, same as the traditional ones, exists the rising worries of regulators, hackers, and other safety concerns. Cryptocurrencies have long dominated the virtual currency space, but not quite for long. 

There is a relatively new movement where crypto entrepreneurs can recreate traditional financial instruments in a decentralized architecture, outside of companies’ and governments’ control.DeFi or Decentralized Finance is an umbrella term referring to a host of new tools and services in the blockchain space, which aim to recreate traditional financial instruments in a decentralized manner. DeFi comprises tools that allow users to lend/borrow, exchange and swap crypto assets securely, without having to trust other parties that would normally be involved.

Like all assets and investments, every entrepreneur has safety and privacy concerns. The virtual word, the internet as a whole, is full of loopholes and a blackhole of security concern. And by NFTs, we are talking about real currency and investment here. Thus, the need for insurance for the trade and bids NFT buyer and sellers get into. There are several DeFi insurance offered by tech companies to ensure the safety of the NFT trade industry, and all markets using DeFi. Many smart contracts in existence today, especially DeFi-based contracts, are valuing storing contracts that could be vulnerable to manipulation

While insurance is not commonly mentioned throughout the DeFi community, it is one sector that has a massive potential to provide investor protection and confidence. One of the biggest instances of a hacked value storing contract was the DAO hack in 2016. Countless instances of crypto investors mishandling their private keys and numerous exchange hacks, ultimately resulting in the loss of billions in investor capital. There are several Defi insurance in the market today like Etherisc, CDx, and Nexus Mutual

While NFTs are selling for millions of dollars everyday, tech hunters are surely finding ways to get through the loopholes and crack the code. Security with investments, especially those floating in the virtual space shall be insured. Looking at the trend, as NFTs, DeFi, and cryptocurrencies perpetuate to dominate most markets, so shall security and insurance be a necessity.

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Design & Messaging Featured Process Design

How UI/UX Investments Turn Into ROI

For most businesses, having the right answer to the client’s problems is the key to success. The most successful companies in the world today are using design to lead clients into finding their firm as, not just the right, but the easy answer to their concerns—we’ll get to this in a second. Despite the success of these companies, a lot of executives are still reluctant to invest in good UI/UX design to improve their performance and rev-up profitability, and their reluctance is understandable.

At the surface, investing in improved user experience may seem unnecessary. You may think that you can put that amount into other aspects of your business, like marketing or research. While those departments still deserve your attention, a fair amount of understanding and evidence may convince you and your stockholders to invest in improving the overall experience of your customers whenever they interact with your product or brand digitally.

The End-Goals of UI/UX Design

Whether it’s about building up your brand’s user experience from scratch or redesigning your platform, UI/UX design primarily has four end-goals.

  1. Usability or ease of navigation and the platform’s discoverability
  2. Consistency within interactions and design
  3. Workflow or the efficiency of user flow and interaction design
  4. Brand Perception or the amount of confidence, trust, and the perception of quality users have with your brand.

Whenever your clients are interacting with your brand online through your company website or your app, improving Usability means organizing your information architecture in a way that makes sense to users.

Improvements in usability results in fewer customer support costs. Your company’s ROI will come in the form of the amount of money saved over time. Good UI/UX designers could conduct A/B tests to determine how your customers think whenever they’re interacting with your brand.

A good example would be the Bank of America’s redesign project. They decided to improve their online enrollment application for online banking. The end-goal of their UI/UX team is to use yield (or the number of customers completing the online enrollment process) as the primary metric.

They tested various design solutions and eventually ended up with a successful strategy. When they launched the new registration form, the yield nearly doubled. It became easier for customers to sign-up, and the company ended up with more clients.

Consistency across company divisions helped General Electric Co. save an estimated $30 million after investing in a common software platform for the company. They built processes and tools that helped support the company’s UX practices.

They made sure that their software user experience matched their reputation for hardware engineering. Today, GE is quietly the 14th largest software developer by revenue.

Efficient design helped increase Workflow productivity for Cathay Pacific when they worked with a design consultancy to create Travel Desk, a one-stop online portal for staff travel.

Travel Desk helped reduce the call-center volume and made employee services more efficient. Plus, it helped increase productivity for the ground staff, reducing the time it requires to process listings and employee travel benefits.

Continental Office, a furniture company, increased its website traffic by 103% and its new contacts by 645% when they decided to refresh Brand Perception through engaging user experience.

Their UI/UX team integrated buyer personas with relevant content marketing to provide a more immersive user experience. This project started as a simple need to update their 6-year-old website. It ended up spiking their numbers in a positive way year-over-year.

You can cause the same trend for your company when you decide to invest in good user experiences. The ROI may come in the form of savings, renewed brand recognition, productivity increase, and so much more.

UI/UX is not just about creating designs that work. Inevitably, the result of investing in user experiences is to build your company’s credibility with your customers. When a brand cares about its users, it builds customer loyalty, which then drives word-of-mouth referrals.

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