Setting Up the Foundations

Thrust had a strong product idea — a meme coin launchpad with gamified mechanics to bring energy and repeat engagement into Web3 trading. But the execution was nowhere close to what it needed to be.

They’d been burned by their previous design team, who handed over generic wireframes that had: 

• No cohesive brand identity

• A clunky, linear user journey that didn’t match the dopamine-inducing experience they were envisioning 

• Zero visual storytelling or game-inspired feedback loops 

…. And most critically: a product that felt like a crypto dashboard, not a game. 

That’s what we were brought in to solve.

Setting Up Workstreams

The project was broken down into two fast-moving tracks: 

• Brand & visual identity 

• MVP product design (including UI/UX) 

The idea was to build and optimize for speed – because Thrust had no time to waste. 

Brand & Visual Identity 

We kicked things off with a rapid mood-boarding sprint. The goal here was to align towards a common visual direction & understand the brand’s vibe to guide further action. 

Based on client feedback, we came up with multiple iterations of the core screen, which helped us create the “brand book” for Thrust & zero-in on the final branding. 

Building the UI Library

Next, we decided to build out a full UI kit before jumping to the screens. This included: 

• All primary and secondary buttons 

• Input fields and tool tips

• Gamified cards, badges & progress ring CTAs

• Reward animations and other similar elements 

The UI library was crucial to us moving faster to building the screens later on, without having to redesign components every single time. 

The client’s dev team loved this too, since every module came with ready-to-code elements from Day one.

Creating the Modules

Once the visual identity & UI library were finalized, we got down to creating modules that would make the product sticky, habit-forming and conversion-focused. 

We broke down the module creation process into a few simple steps: 

Gamified Onboarding Experience 

A smooth, gamified onboarding experience can lead to 41% hike in user activation rates — a crucial metric, especially in Web3, where first impressions often matter most.

Thrust’s onboarding flow was gamified strategically, with a goal to educate new users while ensuring the least drop-off. 

We designed the onboarding experience as a simple, step-by-step checklist, with each step designed to give users a sense of progress. 

Small touches like progress indicators and visual cues also gave users clarity on where they were, and what was next.

Home Screen

The ‘Home’ screen is the first thing a user sees when they land on the platform. We customized this experience to serve both key segments: 

• Existing users

• First-time users 

We designed the ‘Home’ screen in a way that personalized the user experience, avoided overwhelm & helped retain users for longer. 

Spin the Wheel

The “Spin the Wheel” feature came in after the core flow screens like onboarding and home were completed. 

Acting as a key engagement lever, we made the users stick around by giving them something fun to come back to; using spin-based rewards that were tied to the user performing specific actions.

Token & Token Details 

We created a GPT-first token experience that allowed users to create their own coins manually or by simply feeding the required information to AI. 

In addition to this, we also created a separate ‘Token Details’ component that pulled in relevant info for meme coin traders in a visual-first manner. 

Insights pulled included: 

• Current performance of the meme coin 

• Bonding curve showcasing the growth (or decline) in the meme coin’s value 

• Past history and other related information about the meme coin. 

We also added elements like ‘Holder distribution’ that helped signal user trust. 

Leaderboards 

The goal with the leaderboard was simple: make discovery fun and data-rich without overwhelming people.

We started by figuring out what actually matters to traders—stuff like market cap, volume, recent buys, holders, and price movement. Then we asked, “How do we show all this without it feeling like a spreadsheet?”

So we designed the leaderboard like a ‘live pulse’ of the platform, with real-time information on various meme coins. 

Users could track their meme coins, discover new ones and toggle between list or card views depending on their browsing habits. 

The idea was to show enough for users to act on – without needing a deep dive. 

Collections

Users didn’t just want to create or trade new coins, they also wanted to organize or collect tokens they cared about. We designed the ‘Collections’ module so users could create custom collections, group them by themes and track them in a single place. 

We optimized for both list & grid views, while also adding bulk selection and intuitive sorting functions. 

Designing for Edge Cases

Most design teams only design for a ‘set, well-defined’ path, while not accounting for real-world usage patterns. 

Every screen in Thrust was built considering edge cases in mind, including: 

• Clear, empty states with context and guidance

• Hover and disabled states for every button

• Visual feedback for loading, errors, and rewards, and

• Screens that still worked even when data was missing or incomplete

This not only reduced friction, but also saved the dev team from guessing how each element behaves when things go sideways. 

Feedback & Final Handoff

The final step after creating the MVP involved a scalable handoff back to the client’s dev team. 

We ensured a seamless delivery by: 

• Creating reusable components at the start (tokens, badges, tooltips, etc.), 

• Delivering Figma files with all states and edge cases, 

• While also keeping dev needs in mind from the beginning

This helped avoid unnecessary back-and-forth & ensured that the client’s dev team could ship the final product faster. 

Conclusion 

We worked with the Thrust team in tight feedback loops, with all modules (including edge cases, empty states & interactions) accounted for, to avoid any further delays and confusion. 

We shipped out the MVP in just 2 weeks, with our speed & async feedback model ensuring the client also handed over their mobile app project to us.