Company
InfoBeans
Timeline
8 months
My Role
Design Lead
Responsibilities
User & Market Research
Design Direction
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Prototyping
Overview
In 2022, aShareX, a startup in fine art investment, sought to disrupt the auction market by offering blue-chip fine art investments to a broader audience. As the Lead Product Designer, I led the design of a user-centered, seamless platform. The challenge was simplifying the complex auction process while maintaining credibility and ensuring top performance during live auctions.
Since its launch, the platform has expanded to include bidding on fine art, cars, collectibles, and more. It gained recognition, being featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, and Business Wire, and named Fast Company‘s one of the next big things in fintech and crypto.
Main Goals
Simplify the Auction Process: Design an intuitive platform that demystifies fine art investments and streamlines the auction process.
Build Credibility and Trust: Establish confidence through security, transparency, and accessibility—crucial in a high-stakes, niche market.
Initial Challenge
& Approach
When I joined the project, I faced the task of simplifying fine art investment, fractionalized ownership, and live auctions—concepts unfamiliar to most users. Establishing trust with the stakeholders was crucial designing the platform, that needed to appeal to both seasoned investors and first-time buyers,
Daily Communication
Regular meetings with stakeholders to ensure continuous feedback and alignment throughout the design process.
Real Time Iteration
Presenting high-fidelity prototypes early, which allowed us to iterate quickly and demonstrate design solutions.
Empathy & Understanding
Listening closely to client concerns, helping them understand how each design choice aligned with user needs.
Team Collaboration
Fostering a collaborative, “same team” mentality, navigating challenges together, allowing us to refine the project when learning.
These challenges required a balanced approach, ensuring the platform was both accessible and credible in a highly specialized market.
Research, Discovery
& Direction
To guide our design decisions, we conducted thorough research into the fine art auction market, live commerce, investor behavior, and user needs. This research, alongside competitor analysis, highlighted gaps in the market and informed the platform’s direction.
We also gathered ongoing feedback through user surveys, interviews, and testing, ensuring the platform met and exceeded user expectations. These insights directly influenced key design elements, including onboarding flows and bidding interactions.
Creating the Brand Spectrum
Aligning with the client’s values, we crafted a brand spectrum that communicated trust, exclusivity, and transparency, guiding the platform’s visual identity and language
Crafting the Digital Presence
After presenting three moodboards, we facilitated a collaborative voting session with stakeholders. We then designed a landing page to secure consensus on the visual direction.
User Testing & Interviews
Ongoing user testing ensured that the platform’s key features worked effectively and provided valuable feedback, allowing us to refine the design to better meet user needs.
Stakeholder Feedback & Workshop Sessions
Immersion workshops and continuous feedback from stakeholders helped us align the product vision with both business goals and user needs, ensuring the platform was positioned for success.
Branding Choices
& Visual Identity
The platform’s visual design was carefully crafted to convey sophistication and trust. We selected an elegant color palette, refined typography, and a pattern library based on atomic design principles to ensure consistency across the platform.
A comprehensive style guide documented these choices to maintain visual cohesion across all user touchpoints.
aShareX
Platform
Designed to provide a seamless, user-friendly experience for both seasoned investors and first-time buyers, allowing users to engage with high-value art in an accessible, credible way.
Main Website, Pre Bid
& Auctions List
The main website acted as the gateway to the platform, offering users quick access to auction schedules, artworks information, and bidding registration. We included a feature that allowed users to familiarize themselves with the auction process before bidding.
Auction events with in-depth lot listings information
Educational content for new bidders and investors
Interactive mock auctions to practice bidding functionality
Onboarding Flow
The onboarding process was streamlined to build trust and ease users into the platform.
Easy-to-follow onboarding steps, to encourage adoption
Simple registration and KYC compliance
Setting spending limits for safe investments
Live Auction
The live auction interface was designed for efficiency and real-time engagement.
Real-time bid updates, with clear status indicators
Auto-updating auction details for seamless participation
Auctioneer, Clerk and Participant Views (online and TV)
The Outcome
The platform experienced significant user adoption, with increased sign-ups, particularly from first-time bidders, thanks to its intuitive design. Users praised the clarity of the bidding process, which led to improved retention. The platform performed smoothly during live auctions, ensuring real-time bid tracking without disruptions. Its consistent visual identity played a crucial role in boosting brand recognition and enhancing the platform’s credibility in the competitive auction market.
Additionally, the platform expanded to allow bidding on fine art, cars, collectibles, and more. This growth, coupled with media recognition, led to coverage in major outlets like Forbes, Wall Street Journal, and Businesswire, while Fast Company named it one of the next big things in fintech and crypto.
Key Learnings
Clear Communication Improves Workflow
Explaining design decisions with clarity helped align stakeholders and facilitated a stronger design process.
Iteration is Critical
Rapid iterations, especially with high-fidelity prototypes, led to faster validation and a refined final product.
Simplicity in Complexity
Simplifying complex workflows, like fractionalized ownership, was key to creating an intuitive user experience.
Building Trust with High-Fidelity Design
Early high-fidelity designs fostered trust with stakeholders and led to smoother iterations.
NEXT PROJECT
Transforming Luxury
Real Estate Experience
Dubai Properties