I linked up with my favorite developer, Caleb Nance, to lead the creative and help strategize his idea of creating a digital trading platform for physical Pokémon cards. There was a big void in the marketplace so we set out to try our hand in the app world.
Your Pokémon card collection's new home.
Overview
Opportunity
Become the primary destination for Pokémon card collectors to organize, track, and trade their physical cards with others.
Research & Discovery
The most common way for collectors to trade today are by posting on Instagram and Reddit. Common pain points include:
- getting people to see my cards
- trading with strangers
- getting scammed
As we dug deep into how the community trades today, we uncovered another need from the collectors perspective, tracking and organization. Most collectors use binders with plastic sleeves to store their cards while expensive cards are kept in protective cases. There are a few apps where you can organize and track your collection yet they all have similar pitfalls:
- low quality Graphical User Interfaces
- missing access to cards previously released
- high manual level of effort
- lack of community and sharing your hobby
Guiding Principles
Throughout the design process. explorations need to meet these basic principles as they are refined:
Minimal level of effort
Use technology to automate actions the user would have to otherwise perform
Transparency
Show information that will help users feel comfortable trading with others
Build a community
Provide a sense of belonging and assistance to further the goals of our users
Value
Ensure deep value is created with every feature
It's difficult to understand the value you're providing no matter how well intentioned your solutions may be if not grounded in research and understanding.
Fill the Void
Now that we were armed with the foundational information to help guide our solutions it was time to roll up our sleeves and explore solutions that would achieve our goals. We refined our brainstorming sessions and came away with 5 top level sections that answered the opportunities identified during our discovery.
Collection
Add and track the cards you own
Explore
Provide useful and entertaining Pokémon content
Marketplace
Available cards people are willing to trade
Trades
Manage your trades
Settings
Customize the app to meet your needs
Magic Moment
Auto-matching is a key feature that helps facilitate trades within our platform and provides our users their Magic Moment. Once we know your collection in and out, you can sit back and let CardUp do all the work. We'll send you auto-matches based on availabity, market value, and a little secret sauce tossed in. You can simply approve right away, or edit the cards within the match to suit your personal preference.