OVERVIEW
ROLES
Market Research, UX Design, Product Design
TIME
February 2024 - March 2024
Defining the Problem
This project began with a problem statement: how can we build user trust in blockchain technology? However, there is a gap between trusting a technology and trusting a platform. As an early-stage startup, RetroVRs was still shaping its business strategy around how blockchain would be used. The real challenge, then, wasn’t about blockchain itself but about how to establish platform trust in the presence of an unfamiliar technology that doesn’t traditionally associate with luxury resale.
We identified four key components of trust in luxury resale marketplace:
Buyer Trust: Helping buyers verify authenticity, quality, and secure payment processes.
Seller Trust: Ensuring sellers feel confident in listing their items and receiving fair transactions.
Platform Trust: Establishing credibility and reliability as a new marketplace.
Pre-owned Luxury Trust: Addressing existing concerns about pre-owned luxury goods, such as item condition and authenticity.
Understanding these trust factors was essential before determining where blockchain fits into the equation.
Research Methods
Breaking down the problem of “trust in blockchain” to buyer trust, seller trust, platform trust and secondhand luxury market trust led us back to our users. Without existing users and user data, we approach the research phase with competitor analysis, surveys, interviews and a feature prioritization framework.
Competitor Analysis
Although there are no blockchain-powered luxury resale platforms, the market has several competitors. We conducted an in-depth analysis of Rebag, The RealReal, and LuxeDH, while separately reviewing Arianee for blockchain features (which we’ll revisit later).
Key learnings
Authentication-first narrative in luxury resale
Sellers particularly value concierge services and reward programs
Platform reputations often decline over time due to inconsistency in item condition, possibly caused by growing user volumes and high return rates in luxury resale
Opportunities
Blockchain tracks damage and returns, improving resale reliability amid high return rates
Blockchain certificate as an opportunity for concierge service and reward programs
Blockchain could be a good way to simplify authentication once items are authenticated once. Customers are willing to pay more for simplified buying and selling process.
Survey and Interviews
I conducted a survey on 36 potential users to better understand attitudes toward luxury resale and blockchain technology. Our goal was to identify key trust factors in luxury resale and blockchain separately since the combination is unfamiliar to the public. I kept the survey concise and unbiased, avoiding leading responses:
Do you buy or sell pre-owned luxury items online? (defining buyer/seller potential)
What factors would you consider before purchasing a pre-owned luxury item online? (buyer insecurities and trust factors)
How likely are you to resell a secondhand item?(product potential - how meaningful is blockchain recording transactions of item necessary)
If you were to sell, what information do you NOT feel comfortable disclosing to the buyer? (seller insecurities)
When I hear "blockchain", I think of . . . (users’ current understanding about blockchain, are they scared? curious?)
Survey Takeaways
We found that buyers prioritize:
High-quality item photos
Return policy
Seller ratings from other buyers (not all platforms provide this)
Price history (a unique feature blockchain enables)
Sellers were hesitant to disclose:
Name & location
Item price history (conflict: buyers want this info, but sellers don’t want to reveal it)
Item origin & original purchase date (often forgotten or intentionally excluded to focus on the product itself)
Interview Takeaways
I interviewed a few survey participants and revealed some problems in our survey:
Features buyers always check before purchasing and information sellers unwilling to disclose doesn’t always have to do with trust.
Sellers prefer to limit personal exposure. Blockchain can provide verifiable price history & ownership records, but some sellers may resist full transparency.
People’s trust system differ from each other, certain factor combinations are more popular than others on their own
Feature Prioritization
Since new questions emerged during the interviews, I conducted a feature prioritization exercise to better deconstruct user trust. I expanded the feature list beyond what was included in the survey and asked eight potential users to categorize each feature into five ranked levels, each assigned a point value: “Wouldn’t buy without knowing” (+3), “I care about these” (+2), “Sounds interesting” (+1), “Doesn’t hurt to know” (0), and “Don’t care” (–1). A general rank was calculated by summing the total points each feature received. Keeping the vote results, we can also look at controversial features separately.
Feature Prioritization Chart
Feature prioritization results are shown above. The top-ranked features align with earlier research: a simplified process and clear reassurance of item condition, return policy and seller ratings are key to building trust in luxury resale. Some blockchain-related features, like price history, received lower overall scores but showed polarized responses. This suggests that they’re not essential for trust, but offer potential for experience enhancement. Another surprising insight was that website visual design ranked as highly important, highlighting its role in shaping user confidence.
How is this Related to Blockchain?
In our survey earlier, I also asked “when I hear ‘blockchain’, I think of...” and the results show us many potential users do not understand blockchain. It is up to us how we explain or present blockchain features to them while avoiding further confusion. Since our research also show that blockchain-related features are not inherently linked to trust in luxury resale, we believe the best way to address blockchain-related trust concerns is to frame it as a value-add rather than something users must understand.
Blockchain Survey Results
Looking back at the competitor analysis and feature prioritization, we listed blockchain benefits below:
Blockchain tracks past ownership, damage and returns, improving reliability in features ranked highly in feature prioritization amid high return rates in luxury resale (Potential risk: Some sellers prefer limited transparency—offering optional disclosure could balance this.)
Blockchain certificate as an opportunity for concierge service and reward programs
Blockchain could be a good way to simplify authentication once items are authenticated and entered blockchain. Customers are willing to pay more for simplified buying and selling process.
Solution
Building on our approach to framing blockchain as an value-add rather than something users must “trust”, we designed wireframes for the home page, product page, seller profile, and checkout page. These designs incorporate our research findings by highlighting prioritized features, simplifying buyer and seller interactions, and using a clean, appealing UI with a trustworthy brand tone.
Home Page
At the time, RetroVRs had a black-purple, tech-driven design with content heavily focused on blockchain. To create a more user-friendly experience, we updated the color scheme to a clean, trendy palette and moved blockchain explanations that were originally on the front page and the company statement to separate links under 'See How We Did It', keeping the home page focused on luxury resale. Another highlight is placing Shop, Sell and Authenticate at the top of the website, allowing different users to navigate the website based on their intention.
Product Page
The product page structure was designed based on feature prioritization results, ensuring key information is easily accessible. Blockchain benefits are subtly framed under the investment value of the item, reinforcing its added value rather than requiring user buy-in. Seller information is available via their avatar, but only their rating is prominently displayed on the product page to provide simple visual indicator for trust.
Considerations that were explored but not implemented as further research would be helpful:
Blockchain passport – A luxury certificate, but there are controversial opinions about disclosing seller information and requires further research.
Resale benefits – While blockchain simplifies resale, our research showed that only 45% of users consider reselling their items, making it a lower priority feature.
Merging Buyer & Seller Profiles - Two profiles could complicate user's experience. If items have blockchain passports they could serve as substitute for seller profiles, shift trust of seller to trust of the product itself, aligning with seller's preference of less involvement in the resale process.
Structuring Blockchain-Related Information - Right now blockchain benefits are under investment value as overall less related to trust, but using blockchain to track top concerns like item condition could be beneficial to building trust. A/B testing would be helpful.
Takeaways
Clarifying the problem
Problem statements can be built on assumptions and subjective perspectives. I've learned that breaking them down into specific, user-centered dimensions—like the four trust factors and user roles in our case—not only sharpens the focus of research but also helps align the design process with business vision.
Designing for Perception, Not Just Technology
Users don’t need to understand blockchain. They need to feel confident. Instead of making blockchain the centerpiece, we framed it as a value-add with visual trust signals. The goal was to build platform trust, not explain technology. Trust is a balance of valuing benefits over concerns.
Let Research guide your questions
We began with the assumption that authentication would be the key trust factor. But user research showed that features like item condition and return policies mattered more. Their focus is “getting the exact item I wanted, and making sure there is a way to return it if not”. Research didn’t just validate ideas, but gave us new questions to think about and led our way through the evolving research and design cycle.