Mechanism Design meets UX

THEFLIGHTPLAN.IO@THE_FLIGHTPLAN
UXMECHANISM
DESIGN
ALICE
CRYPTO-CURIOUS GRAPHIC
DESIGNER
“I want to earn money using
my skills for blockchain
projects”

A technology with power to
redesign how people organise.
We hope to see our vision and
values come to life.
What we implement now will
create a future that will be our
legacy.
BUT HOW
WILL THIS
GAME PLAY
OUT?

Our focus is on creating utility and adoption. We work
with the UX/Product/Design community.
Our platform creates full stack Dapp instances without
coding, integrating web3 UX patterns.
DESIGN-LED USE CASES

User Experience

UX
Understanding the user’s experience when they interact with
your product.
Afocus on the emotional and functional details.
From abstractions and assumptions, into how things work out
in real life.

UX DESIGN APPROACH
RESEARCH
User interview
Competitor analysis
Value prop testing
INSIGHT
User journeys
Personas
User flows
PROTOTYPE
Wireframes
Mockups
Designs
VALIDATION
User testing
Multivariant testing
Simulation
D
iverge
D
iverge
Converge
Converge

Personas
Help bring to life different users, customers or other actors
who participate in our ecosystem. See the world through
their perspective
ALICE
CRYPTO-CURIOUS GRAPHIC DESIGNER
“I want to earn money using my skills
for blockchain projects”
Currently a no-coiner but wants to learn more about
crypto and blockchain

Mockups and prototypes
Rapidly implement your concept in low-fidelity. Allows you to
start testing and validating your design directly with users
Role play
Paper prototype

Simulation & user testing
Get into the specific details of potential user behaviour and
system outcomes by stepping through user’s action and
watching how people use your product
Different people simulating behaviours of different
actors in the ecosystem
Finding insights in the high and lows
Patterns and extremes

Mechanism Design

Mechanism Design
An approach to designing ecosystems and people
interactions towards a desired outcome
Aims to create compatibility between the goals of
individual actors and the system

ACTOR TYPES
Actors and their
preferences for different
outcomes
OUTCOMES
Potential end results
according to actor
preferences
GAME MECHANISM
Strategies available to actors
and how final outcome is
determined
MECHANISM DESIGN DISCIPLINE
Stanley Reiter diagram illustrates a game of mechanism design

SYSTEM MECHANISM INCENTIVES TOKENS
Alice, Bob and friends
Goal of the System
Game mechanics
Outcomes
Rewards
Incentives
Penalties
MECHANISM DESIGN IN PRACTICE
Privileges

SYSTEM MECHANISM INCENTIVES TOKENS
Alice, Bob and friends
Goal of the System
Game mechanics
Outcomes
Rewards
Incentives
Penalties
Privileges
GAME THEORY

Helps us understand the strategy
model of actors in the system based
on the expected payoffs for different
actions, allowing us to identify
potentially dominant or equilibrium
strategies
GAME THEORY
A B C
A (x, y) (x, y) (x, y)
B (x, y) (x, y) (x, y)
C (x, y) (x, y) (x, y)
Player 2
Player 1
Example of a Payoff Matrix

Strength in approaching
complex human behaviour
UXMECHANISM
DESIGN
Strength in economic discipline
around system design

Mechanism Design
Apiece of cake?

The
“Actors”
We have 3 actors. We bring the actors to life by giving them personas. A role, and a quote describing their goal in the system

About the System
The system describes the goal of the
ecosystem and the item at the center. In
this case the system aims to fairly
distribute the cake
SYSTEM GOAL
Equal distribution of cake between Alice
and Bob

1

Mechanism
Design Options
The Dad decides.
Dad cuts the cake and allocates the slices.
One child decides. Alice cuts the cake and chooses
her slice.
P2P Cake sharing. Alice cuts the cake, Bob choose
the slice.
These are the rules of the game.
In this cake game we explore 3
mechanism designs based on the 2
actions: cutting the cake and allocating
the slices

ACTIVITY
FORM YOUR GROUP
3 people
Organise into groups of 3

Instructions,
worksheet,
facilitating

2
Dad cuts the
cake &
allocates the
slices

ACTIVITY
2 3 SIMULATION
The Dad Decides
Play out the first mechanism design,
each person acts out one of the roles:
Alice, Bob or Trent
Capture insights on the experience
and whether the system goals were
met

One child
decides & P2P
Cake sharing

ACTIVITY
2 3 SIMULATION
One child decides & P2P Cake sharing
Play out these mechanism designs,
each person acts out one of the roles:
Alice, Bob or Trent
Capture insights on the experience
and whether the system goals were
met

FUNGIBLE OR NON FUNGIBLE?

Penalties
After doing
something bad,
penalised
Rewards
After doing
something good,
get a reward
Privileges
Special powers
or authority
granted
Incentives
Declared upfront
in exchange for
some action or
outcome.
4 INCENTIVE DESIGN

Adding the use of
TOKENS
Earned as rewards
Taken away as a penalty
Staked to access special privileges
Secured for future transfer to incentivise
Exchangeable for utility today/in the future

ACTIVITY
4 DESIGN
Incentive design & tokens
Based on the insights, apply
incentives/rewards/privileges/
penalties. Optionally add tokens

ACTIVITY
5 SUMMARISE
Your cake mechanism design
Describe your mechanism design
succinctly. If you have used a token,
come up with a memorable name

YOUR CONCEPT

ACTIVITY
YOUR CONCEPT
In your groups, think of a concept
ecosystem to simulate.

The System
and Actors

ACTIVITY
1 THE SYSTEM
Identify the:
- Actors and fill out the persona
details: role and quote for Alice, Bob
and friends
- The centrepiece (e.g. cake)
- The system goals
- The actions that various actors take
in the system

Start with the
current design

ACTIVITY
2 MECHANISM
3 SIMULATION INSIGHTS
Identify the:
- Basic starting rules for the initial
mechanism design
- Which actors perform which actions
Play it out and capture insights
CURRENT DESIGN

ACTIVITY
2 MECHANISM
3 SIMULATION INSIGHTS
Create 2 possible variations to the
mechanism design
Play them out and capture insights
FUTURE DESIGNS

Incentives and
tokens

ACTIVITY
4 INCENTIVE DESIGN &
TOKENS
Based on the insights, apply
incentives/rewards/privileges/
penalties. Optionally add tokens

Summarise

ACTIVITY
5 SUMMARISE
Your new mechanism design
Describe your mechanism design
succinctly. If you have used a token,
come up with a clever name

CAKE DESIGN
CONSIDERATIONS
Ease of cutting
Ease of eating
Flavour popularity
Fractionalisation
Fungibility
Low ﬁdelity to encourage
experimentation
Thank you
Patisserie Saint Tropez!

IMPLEMENTING

REQUEST FOR
COMMENT
1. What did you find useful
2. How might we improve it
3. Want to get involved? Leave your
details so we can get in touch

Gendry Morales & Nas Munawar
Twitter @the_flightplan
theflightplan.io
mail@theflightplan.io
Thanks

Mechanism Design meets UX

Mechanism Design meets UX

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