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Case study DQN.red / Web3 collectibles & community / Avalanche

Building the DQN ecosystem

DQN had a homepage and a loyal NFT community, but no product behind it. As Design Lead, I designed the platform holders actually use: the BLOOD loyalty system, profiles, quests, a multi-token shop and a limited merch claim, all on one state-driven design system.

Role
Design Lead
Product, UI/UX, front-end collaboration
Timeline
Feb – Jun 2025
Five months, launch to drops
Platform
Web, desktop and mobile
Avalanche blockchain
Team
Small founding team
Next.js + TypeScript engineers
DQN profile page: an NFT avatar card for user ATHARVA_XO showing a BLOOD balance of 16,00,000, ERROR token, DQN holding and boost stats, a Sentinel role badge, and a collection row of four NFTs below.
Profile, desktop. The surface that turns a wallet into an identity.Figma, 1440 × 1025
Organic presale$300K+raised at launch without paid promotion
Active community6,000active users across the ecosystem
Audience on X41K+followers across DQN's official X accounts

Presale and active users from DQN's launch period, Feb – Jun 2025. Followers combine @DQNorg (20.5K), @dqn404 (20.7K) and @dqn_anime (586), checked Oct 2026.

00 Context

A cyberpunk IP with a community to serve

DQN is a cyberpunk story world that started as an NFT collection on Avalanche. Holders collect characters, earn an in-world token called BLOOD, solve quests and buy physical and digital goods. The brand is dark, red and tactical: play, record and pause glyphs make up its logo.

Inside the world, AI-404 is DQN's in-world AI agent, the voice of the $ERROR token, and it announces every launch to the community on X.

The IP is now becoming an anime. DQN Anime premieres in 2026, created by Kushagra Kushwaha (@dqn4861), an Indian anime artist in Tokyo whose credits include JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, and produced by Morphic, the studio founded by Polygon co-founder Jaynti Kanani. Its trailers have passed 300K YouTube and 600K Instagram views. Read the announcement.

The DQN wordmark constructed from play, record and pause glyphs on a red construction grid, labelled Play, Record and Pause.
PlayDynamic
actions
RecordStrategic
planning
PauseTactical
deliberation
Brand primitives. Every icon and card in the product reuses this geometry.
01 The problem

The homepage existed. The product didn't.

When I joined in February 2025, holders could look at DQN but not use it. There was nowhere to see what you owned, nothing to do, and no way to spend the BLOOD token. Five problems stood between the community and a real product.

  1. P1

    No shared product language

    Each surface felt like a different site. In a product that holds people's money and identity, inconsistency reads as untrustworthy.

  2. P2

    Ownership was invisible

    Holders owned NFTs, but nothing in the experience showed or celebrated that.

  3. P3

    Blockchain state was hard to read

    Wallet status, token balances and slow on-chain confirmations all needed to be understood at a glance.

  4. P4

    Two currencies at checkout

    People could pay in AVAX, in BLOOD, or a mix of both, which is a lot to hold in your head while spending.

  5. P5

    Limited drops left no room for error

    Timed claims had to move people through wallet, eligibility, claim, signature and confirmation without a single confusing step.

What I owned
  • Product direction and information architecture
  • Design system architecture, from tokens to states
  • The BLOOD system, DQN's loyalty currency
  • Profile, the identity and ownership surface
  • Quest flows, including failure and rate-limit states
  • Shop checkout and the limited hoodie claim
  • Engineering handoff with the Next.js and TypeScript team; I also built some limited-time event front ends myself
Constraints
  • On-chain actions are slow and can partly fail
  • Wallet providers behave inconsistently
  • Tight launch dates and a small team, so high individual ownership
  • The brand had to feel premium cyberpunk, never flashy or gimmicky
  • Everything had to scale to future quests, drops and game mechanics
02 North star
Digital identity + game progression + financial wallet
Not just a marketplace just a dashboard just a game UI
Foundation

A design system built on states

In Web3, people rarely fail because a screen is ugly. They fail because they can't tell what state they're in. So before designing pages, I defined the states every component had to express, then built tokens and components around them.

Loading

Reading the wallet or chain. Never a blank screen.

Connected

Wallet linked, balances shown, actions unlocked.

Pending

Signed and waiting for the chain. Progress stays visible.

Success

Confirmed, with what changed and what to do next.

Error

What went wrong in plain words, and how to recover.

Decision

Tokenised colour and type, state-driven components, transaction-aware patterns and reusable NFT display components, all in Figma.

Why

Every new Web3 feature adds new states. Without a system, each one gets designed from scratch and the product fragments within weeks.

Result

New quests and drops reused existing parts, the product kept one identity, and handoff to engineering became predictable.

Loyalty economy

The BLOOD system

BLOOD is DQN's loyalty currency, and I designed the system behind it. It turns everything you hold into one number: every DQN NFT earns 3 BLOOD, and every 290,000 $ERROR held earns 1. It launched on 24 March 2025 through AI-404 as the first way into the DQN network.

The BLOOD system screen at launch: a DQN NFT silhouette earning 3 BLOOD per DQN, with a community total of 4,011 (1,377 × 3); the $ERROR token earning 1 BLOOD per 290,000 $ERROR held, with a total of 1.45B / 5,000; both feeding a BLOOD balance, with a connect wallet button.
The BLOOD screen as it launched, 24 Mar 2025.View the launch post
3 BLOODper DQN NFT held. Each character in your wallet adds to your standing.
1 BLOODper 290,000 $ERROR held, so token holders earn too.
= Your BLOODOne balance that sets your standing, unlocks access and pays in the shop.
Decision

One currency fed by two kinds of holding, with the earning rule printed right beside each source, so anyone can work out their own balance.

Multi-wallet

Holders split assets across wallets. Two weeks after launch, multi-wallet linking merged BLOOD from every wallet into one profile under your X username.

Real utility

BLOOD started gating real things: a partner reserved presale spots for BLOOD holders, and shop items were priced in BLOOD.

Profile

Making ownership visible

The profile took the most iterations because it had to do two jobs at once: show who you are and show what you own. I designed it around four questions a holder asks: what's my status, what do I hold, who am I here, and how am I progressing?

Annotated DQN profile page with six numbered markers. 1 2 3 4 5 6
  1. NFT identity cardYour character is your avatar, framed like a collectible.
  2. BLOOD balanceThe in-world currency, the largest number on the page.
  3. Role badgeStatus such as Sentinel, shown like rank insignia.
  4. Token holdingsERROR token, DQN held and boost in one scannable row.
  5. Merged accountsSeveral wallets combined into one identity, synced to your X username.
  6. Collection previewOwned NFTs one tap away from the profile.
Principle

Ownership should feel emotional, not just numerical.

Quests

Time pressure without panic

Quests are timed puzzles and cryptographic riddles tied to the story, with BLOOD rewards and a leaderboard. The hard part was the wrong answer: keeping people motivated while stopping brute-force guessing.

DQN quest page for the episode 'You Get What You Sow' with an anime still, a quest rewards tag for top three and others, description and leaderboard tabs, an answer field with a submit button, a countdown timer, and a congratulations banner announcing a First One badge.
Quest detail with the reward banner, live timer and leaderboard tab.
Quest flow, redrawn from my Figma flow chartScroll sideways on small screens
Quest flow From the quest page a user picks a featured or other quest, begins it, and opens its page with description and leaderboard tabs. A correct answer gives rewards, locks the input and marks the quest complete with a link to the leaderboard. A wrong answer shows a subtle warning and counts attempts; too many wrong answers rate-limit the user. Enter Attempt Outcome Quest page Featured quest Other quests Begin quest Leaderboard tab Description +answer input Correct? Give BLOOD reward Lock input, mark complete Show "already submitted" Link to leaderboard Manywrong? Subtle warning, count tries Rate-limit the user Yes No No Yes
Signature vs transaction

Signing to prove a wallet and paying to spend tokens looked identical in most dApps. I gave them different visual treatments so nobody thought a riddle answer cost money.

Time pressure

The countdown stays in view beside the answer field, so urgency comes from the clock, not from alarming colours or copy.

Failure states

A wrong answer gets a quiet warning and the attempt is counted. Repeated guessing triggers a rate limit that explains when you can try again.

Shop checkout

One summary, many currencies

This was the hardest UX problem in the product. Most people don't intuitively understand paying with more than one token at once, and confusion at checkout means drop-off and support tickets. In the live DQN Print drop, each unit could be paid in BLOOD, in $ERROR or in a mix, with shipping in AVAX.

1,500 BLOOD 500 BLOOD + 250K $ERROR 500K $ERROR + AVAX shipping
DQN shop checkout: a shipping info form on the left and a Your Order panel on the right showing a Metal Hat with size and variant, an item total in BLOOD, shipping in AVAX, a free framed NFT, a subtotal and a Place Order button.
Checkout: items priced in BLOOD, shipping in AVAX, one subtotal.

A single order summary

Every line shows its own token, then one subtotal brings them together, so the total is never a mental sum.

Token colour and icon, everywhere

BLOOD always appears as the red drop and AVAX always as its mark, in the summary, buttons and balances.

Pay the fee first, then order

The AVAX shipping fee is a clear separate step before Place Order unlocks, so nothing is charged by surprise.

Visible transaction state

Confirmation, insufficient balance and post-payment states each have their own screen or toast, built from the system's states.

A reason to come back

Holders can frame one of their own NFTs free with an order, which ties the shop back to the collection.

Limited drop

The hoodie claim

A free merch drop for holders at drop.dqn.red, designed mobile-first and launched on 1 February 2025. The key decision: the final wallet signature represents claiming, not paying, so "I'm authorising" never feels like "I'm spending."

  1. Claim your exclusive DQN hoodie screen with a Claim button and a hooded character.
    01Claim

    One clear call to action on the drop page.

  2. Searching for DQN NFTs screen with a scanning animation and the connected wallet address.
    02Eligibility scan

    The wallet is checked for DQN NFTs while the address stays on screen.

  3. Just one more step screen showing 4 available DQN and three phases: Phase 1 for 10+ DQN active with a timer, Phase 2 for 3+ DQN and Phase 3 first come first served, with start times.
    03Phased allocation

    10+ DQN got 2 free, 3+ got 1 free, then first come, first served, each phase on its own timer.

  4. Select your size screen with the hoodie, total and available selections, size steppers for M, L and XXL, and XL marked out of stock.
    04Size selection

    Steppers cap picks at your allocation, and sold-out sizes say so.

  5. Order summary screen listing a medium and two extra large hoodies at 0 AVAX, a fixed delivery fee of 0.5 AVAX and a total of 0.5 AVAX.
    05Summary, then sign

    Hoodies show as free; only the fixed delivery fee is charged.

03 Shipped in public

Every flow, launched to the community

  1. Hoodie claim goes live

    Phased by holdings at drop.dqn.red: 10+ DQN get 2 free, 3+ get 1 free, then first come, first served.

    View on X

  2. BLOOD system activated

    First access to the DQN network: connect your wallet and your holdings become BLOOD.

    View on X

  3. Multi-wallet profiles

    Link several wallets to one DQN profile, with BLOOD unified under your X username.

    View on X

  4. BLOOD unlocks a partner presale

    AIVA reserved presale spots for BLOOD holders, the currency's first outside utility.

    View on X

  5. DQN Print drop in the shop

    300 framed prints of holders' own NFTs, max 3 per person, paid in BLOOD, $ERROR or a mix, with AVAX shipping.

    View on X
04 Outcomes

Shipped, used in real drops, loved by holders

Product
  • Profiles, quests, leaderboard, events and the shop shipped to production
  • Checkout and claim flows ran in real drops
Community
  • $300K+ organic presale and 6,000 active users at launch
  • 41K+ followers across DQN's X accounts; strong praise in Discord, high engagement during events
Engineering
  • Fewer UI rebuild cycles
  • Faster component reuse for each new quest and drop

The ecosystem design far exceeded our expectation

Tanuj "Spyderweb" / CTO, DQN.red / Founder, Bango.fun

After DQN, I went on to lead design at Bango.fun, the prediction market Tanuj founded next.

05 Reflection

What I'd keep, change and do next

Tradeoffs I chose
  • Ship core flows first, polish later
  • Deferred: a deep animation system
  • Deferred: a formal accessibility audit
  • Deferred: an onboarding education layer
What I'd do next
  • Usability-test claim vs payment clarity with real holders
  • Grow profiles into a social identity layer
  • More real-time transaction feedback
What I learned
  • Blockchain UX is state-first design
  • Ecosystem products need a system from day one
  • Ownership psychology matters as much as usability
  • Signing and paying must look different