Case study 2 of 4 · Protokol
White Label NFT Marketplace
A reusable, themeable NFT marketplace framework that teams can launch fast under their own brand — built on Tailwind UI and Thirdweb smart contracts.
Design complete — build shelved
Context & problem
An internal product built to scale: a white-label NFT marketplace framework powered by Tailwind UI and Thirdweb smart contracts. The goal was more than another marketplace — a flexible base any team could launch quickly and customize easily:
- solid enough to reuse across future client deployments;
- developer-friendly, with clean, modular components for handoff and maintenance;
- custom branding out of the box, from logotypes to theme variants;
- simpler listing, bidding and offers for creators, collectors and buyers.
The challenge: custom builds are slow and expensive; design consistency across white-labeled platforms is hard to maintain; and users face poor UX in most crypto marketplaces.
My role
- I did: UX wireframes and full-page flows; mapped UX to smart-contract interactions (e.g.
createAuction,makeOffer); wrote user scenarios for creators, collectors and buyers; co-designed UI screens in light and dark modes. - Others: Marinka Krel (Lead Designer) and Bruno Carvalho (Senior UI/UX Designer) co-designed the UI.
Process
1. Use-case scenarios
I wrote a use-case document in Confluence covering 20+ detailed scenarios, each built around real user goals, roles, priorities and outcomes. For every core action — connecting a wallet, creating a listing, making an offer — I documented the expected journey plus alternative and failure paths: What if a user forgets their wallet password? What if they bid with insufficient funds? Each case was broken into step-by-step sequences so design and development shared the same interaction logic.
2. User flows
Detailed journeys for exploring, creating and trading, with fallbacks for failed transactions and disconnected wallets — so the product holds up when things don’t go perfectly.
3. Wireframes → final UI
Wireframes validated navigation, page structure and flows before visual design, exposed gaps, simplified steps, and set consistent patterns for listings, auctions and profiles. Scroll to watch the listings wireframe turn into the final Explore page.
4. Component system on Tailwind UI
A component-based UI system on Tailwind UI: buttons, toggles, inputs, badges, plus reusable templates for cards, filters, profile sections and listing flows. Components were easy to restyle per brand, which is the point of a white-label product.
Solution
The visual direction: funky and modern, appealing to both the artists minting work and the buyers.
- Light and dark as first-class modes — designed intentionally for both, not inverted.
- Theme tokens structured with Tailwind classes, so future brands can swap colors efficiently; accessibility and contrast checked in both modes.
- Onboarding with clear steps for creating, managing and exploring digital assets.
- Soft gradients, defined elevation styles and consistent spacing.
Outcome
The marketplace was not launched. We completed the design side — scenarios, flows, wireframes, the component system and the full light/dark UI — but the build was paused while the team moved to more important projects. By the time it could resume, the NFT market was close to collapsing, and we decided it wasn’t the right time to build it.
What it still shows: a reusable, themeable system designed for white-label use, with failure paths (insufficient funds, disconnected wallets, failed transactions) worked out before any code was written.