CLIENT
PRODUCT
OVERVIEW
kAIros empowers emerging and professional artists to generate AI-enhanced digital art and mint it seamlessly on the Symbol and other blockchains. My mission: unite creative expression and blockchain utility in a user-first, scalable platform.
MY ROLE
As Head of Product Design, I defined the product vision, strategy, and execution, leading UX research, product flows, visual systems, and stakeholder alignment across creative, engineering, and business teams.
CHALLENGE
Create a digital art platform that attracts creators and collectors without relying on celebrity talent or mass content, while fitting a tight timeframe and budget.
PROTOTYPE
VIEW THE PROTOTYPE IN NEW TAB
(or click below to explore the embedded prototype)
DISCOVERY
I interviewed artists from the NYC and LA creative scenes (e.g., glitch artist Patrick Amadon, Matt Conboy of Death By Audio). Their feedback was clear:
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Budget prevents hiring big-name talent
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Noise from low-quality art hurts credibility
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Creators want tools that enhance and monetize their work
STRATEGIC INSIGHT
We pivoted to focus on talented but underserved artists, offering them creative control and financial opportunity, backed by a compelling design strategy shared in an internal deck.
SOLUTION
Position the platform as a one-stop creative studio and minting engine for digital artists:
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AI-driven generation tools to remix existing art catalogs
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Seamless workflows for minting and publishing to multiple chains (NFT-compatible)
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Lightweight creative tools to balance ease-of-use with control
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Modular design system adaptable to different creative workflows and devices
OUTCOME
Delivered a polished prototype and strategic deck in under a month. Although development paused, the work secured executive alignment and laid the foundation for future scaling in digital art and blockchain-integrated platforms.
PROCESS OVERVIEW
We began by defining clear user personas based on real creative behaviors—from casual explorers to seasoned digital artists—and mapped their needs against gaps in existing tools. This informed a product strategy focused on AI-enhanced creativity, ultra-simplified minting, and differentiated value at every experience level.
USER PROFILES
User 1: Casual Creators
Profile
Amateur photographers or artists looking for simple, fun ways to generate AI-based digital art and mint it quickly—ideally in just a few taps.
Needs
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Intuitive, lightweight UX
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Guided choices that lead to satisfying results
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Fast gratification
Goal
Deliver a frictionless, mobile-friendly experience with creative AI output and seamless minting—going beyond what’s possible in typical filter/photo apps.
User 2: Creative Professionals
Profile
Graphic designers, illustrators, and visual artists are intrigued by AI as a creative partner, but demanding enough to require flexibility, depth, and value-add beyond Photoshop or Procreate.
Needs
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AI that surprises, delights, and inspires
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Post-generation editing tools
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Output that feels like a true collaboration, not a gimmick
Goal
Offer rich creative control and workflows that spark new directions without overwhelming the user.
User 3: Established Digital Artists
Profile
Well-known creators in the digital art (NFT) space who bring influence, expectations, and a need for speed, utility, and high-quality output.
Needs
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Everything Users 1 and 2 require
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Streamlined tools that support volume output
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A system that inspires and fits into their creative pipeline
Goal
Deliver a professional-grade creation tool and minting platform under one roof—something fast, inspiring, and worth evangelizing.
MARKET LANSCAPE
🧩 ADJACENT CATEGORIES
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Free Mobile Apps – Great at filters and effects, but lack depth or creative ownership.
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Pro Tools – Photoshop, Figma, Procreate dominate workflows but aren’t optimized for blockchain-native distribution.
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NFT Platforms – Prioritize minting, not creation. The creative tools are an afterthought (if they exist at all).
🎯 DIRECT & INDIRECT COMPETITORS
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Existing AI art generators (e.g., Midjourney, NightCafe)
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NFT minting platforms (e.g., OpenSea, Rarible)
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Hybrid no-code creation tools
None offer the full creator journey—from generation to minting—in one cohesive, artist-focused experience.
DIRECT COMPETITORS
INDIRECT COMPETITORS
AI SERVICES
🔹 Our Differentiators
⚡
Frictionless Minting
Minting is faster, clearer, and easier than anywhere else. Our UI is designed so well that your mom could use it.
🎨
Creative AI That Surprises and Delivers
The AI consistently produces visually compelling and unique outputs, supporting both novice inspiration and pro workflows.
🤖
Tokenized AI Assistants
Users can customize their own AI “assistant” (look + behavior) and mint or trade it as a collectible asset, adding a new dimension to the creative economy.
🛠️
Delightfully Simple Design Tools
Not a full design suite, but powerful enough to let artists control composition, layers, and refinement in ways that go beyond filters, but remain approachable.
EXAMPLES OF AI GENERATIVE ART
REFERENCE SITES
ART BLOCKS
DEEP DREAM
Voila
BORED HUMANS
PLAYFORM
AUTOGLYPHS
DEEP ART
GO ART
NVIDIA CANVAS
NIGHT CAFE
NOARTIST
RUNWAY
ART CREATOR
REFERENCE
DEFINITIONS
AttnGAN (Attentional Generative Adversarial Networks)
It turns descriptive text into synthesized images.
GAN (Generative Adversarial Network)
GANs are the main tools of AI artists today. GAN consists — and this is Ian’s ingenious idea — of two neural networks — a generator and a discriminator, which in the generator’s case generates an image, and in the discriminator’s case, decides whether the image is close to or distant from the expected effect, and then decides on the generated output, which the end user sees as the GAN’s final result.
YOLO (You Only Look Once)
An algorithm that recognizes objects in an image in real-time.