NEAR has always been about the Open Web. With this rebrand, we will be shouting it from the rooftops. “Open the web. Empower the world!” The whole world? Yes, the open web is for everyone. NEAR is for everyone. But, how do you design an experience for everyone?
Our answer: start simple, and expand from there.
When I joined NEAR back in 2018, we started with a focus on developers. We built the brand, identity, messaging, and visual aesthetic to engage developers.
As NEAR has grown, the audience has grown. NEAR’s foundation will always be built by developers, but the open web is a world where everyone has a role to play. With this re-brand, we are expanding our focus in hopes to create a smoother onboarding experience for founders, creators, and community members as well as developers.
We began with a process to better understand the needs, FUD, and natural progression of these different user groups. We pulled together various leaders from the community, ecosystem, and core team with first-hand knowledge to create a working group. We white-boarded empathy maps, user workflows, and more to design a smooth onboarding process.
From there, we developed a content and experience flow that would give everyone a clear overview of NEAR while allowing them the opportunity to choose a path that fits their unique use case.
Of course, it gets much easier on the eyes…
Along with uniquely relevant information, each path features a unique view of the NEARverse.
The founder path includes:
- The unique value of NEAR for creators and founders
- Featured stories of founders
- Relevant case studies
- and links to explore more relevant info
A founder/creator sees much of the NEARverse as a vision of what could be. They can visualize what they might create as they plug into this infrastructure.
The developer path includes:
- The unique value of NEAR for developers
- Case studies of other developers building on NEAR
- The ability to build an app in 5 min as well as explore code examples
- And links to explore more relevant info
A developer will see the NEARverse as a work in progress. They will see scaffolding where they can collaborate with others to finish a project. They will also see the opportunities to build things from scratch by plugging into an active infrastructure.
The community path includes:
- A summary of community stats
- Value propositions
- An intro to Guilds and how to join or start one
- And links to explore more decentralized information
Choosing the community path will show you an active and vibrant ecosystem where you can immediately plugin and start participating.
The world of crypto can be confusing, especially for those new to the space. We hope this introduction to the world of NEAR is less daunting and will serve those joining us on this open web adventure.
Please leave your feedback in the comments below. Don’t forget to check the open brand page for guidance on providing actionable feedback.
Other posts in this series:
01 - Visualizing the NEARverse