Problem
Curation in crypto isn't being done effectively.
There is a plethora of great content online (i.e. articles, videos, podcasts, tweets) that attempts to explain crypto/web3 concepts. However, curation around this content is almost always superficial — usually an aggregation of links on a page or people to follow in a Twitter thread. Most attempts at curation don't consider a reader's prior exposure to a topic, include no key takeaways or excerpts that provide a preview of the content, and have no knowledge mapping between different pieces of content.
Solution
It's time to show what effective curation looks like.
The Lexicon is a curated Web3 learning resource for individuals of all proficiency levels. Initiated by the Crypto, Culture, & Society DAO, it aims to raise the standard of curation in the space as a public good that's evergreen and open-sourced for new contributions.
We wanted to make this resource useful for the following personas:
- Brand New: people who have never consumed anything related to crypto, but may be aware of the space through news headlines or through friends. They might lean towards skepticism.
- Explorer: People who have some exposure from consuming educational content, participating in the space by joining a DAO and/or investing in a crypto asset. They’re eager to learn more.
- Builder: People who are core contributors on crypto projects and/or create new content about the space. They want tactical, specific advice or nuanced deep dives.
Hero Section
As soon as they opened the website, I wanted people to already feel like they were being welcomed into a digital garden. This was done through cozy visuals and delightful copy (thanks Sandy!)
Chapters Overview
Building on the library theme, I decided to present each chapter as its very own book. The chapters' visuals were inspired by retro book covers, such as Penguin and Pelican classics.
Chapter Design
I wanted the chapter experience to feel like reading a page of an actual book; I tried to embody this in its design, as seen in the paper background and the delicate typography.
Helpful narration would be interwoven with each chapter's curated resources, which were then organized by subtopic.
Clicking on a resource card would provides a detailed summary of its content. If someone liked what they read, they were free to go to the full resource or share insights on their Twitter.
Leave Your Signature
At the end of the whole experience, people can sign a library card. This was inspired by projects like A Declaration of the Interdependence of Cyberspace and Legacy.xyz, which both showed how digital signatures could be done through crypto wallets. By connecting a wallet + posting a verification tweet, one can create a signature that truly belongs to them.
The digital signature process
This process also worked as a form of marketing; seeing verification tweets on their timelines made others curious about these projects. We hoped to do the same for the Lexicon.
Process
How did the Lexicon come together?
Creation starts from coordination.
We started off with workshops. First, I facilitated a persona workshop that would help us further profile our target audiences. This was guided by the following questions:
- How are they learning now?
- What's most challenging about this (the process of learning)?
- How do they learn best? The descriptors we gathered helped me visualize how The Lexicon's design would be personalized for each of our personas.
Then, we decided to create a mindmap of our first topic: DAOs. This would allow us to understand and define our scope (i.e. how much are we going to cover?). Members were encouraged to make their own mindmaps first before adding to the master mindmap; this way, people wouldn't be afraid to start contributing.
Soon after, many more contributors started to get involved with this project. We were all split into the following teams:
- Design: responsible for overseeing the Lexicon's brand, product, and content design (I'm here!)
- Instructional design: responsible for creating the Lexicon's overall curation framework (i.e. criteria for assessing the quality of a resource, the information that makes up a content preview, rules for writing a good summary, guidelines for shortlisting featured DAOs)
- Content curation: responsible for aggregating high-quality links and resources on DAOs based on our curation framework
- Development: responsible for building the whole Lexicon, both front-end and back-end
So much thought was put into how we'd present ourselves.
I worked with a lovely brand strategist (shoutout to oddstout.eth! to figure out the identity of The Lexicon.
I started by collecting inspirations for the project's look and feel. He then organized these all into a spectrum, which helped me be more intentional with my design approach.
He also came up with an insightful creative brief. This started with diving deep into people's increased interest in Web3. An immense structural and psychological shift factored in this (e.g. The Great Resignation); beneath this shift is the desire to be equal with everyone else.
To best respond to this desire, The Lexicon would take the form of a digital garden. I see digital gardens not just as personal, free-form, & work-in-progress wikis, but also as pluralistic & interdependent ecosystems. The Lexicon isn't the product of someone who collected links and then called it a day; instead, it was intended to be a collaborative project that was continuously tended to. Learning complex topics on your own like Web3 can be difficult, but coming across collaborative curation efforts helps with this burden.
Overall, the Lexicon's branding was grounded on the following core values:
- Discovery: speaks to our insight about participating on an equal footing with everybody else.
- Transformation: speaks to our strategic premise of this constant cycle of growth, decay and renewal.
- Community: speaks to our insight about learning and feeling alone in the journey and dropping off.
I was inspired by other knowledge hubs too.
Since we were starting out with beginners, I wanted to design the Lexicon's MVP as a guided learning experience. I took inspiration from various knowledge hubs across Web2 and Web3.
Next Steps
How could the Lexicon have developed from here?
Unfortunately, the development of the MVP has stalled due to several factors — namely the impact of the bear market and contributors dropping off due to lack of capacity. If the team was able to continue working on the project, here's what else we would've done:
- After building out the Lexicon for other personas, we wanted to open source the Lexicon process to maintain quality, dive deeper, and scale to any topic, including ones outside of crypto.
- We also wanted to add a social layer, so that people who are interested in meeting with others learning the same topic can form study groups or learn directly from educators. To build this out, we could partner with value-aligned organizations (e.g. Gitcoin/Kernel).
Acknowledgements
Thank you!
Again, creation can't be done without collaboration. I wouldn't have been able to accomplish this much if it weren't for CCS. I'd like to thank specifically:
- Phil and Sandy from The Lexicon's design team. Thank you for your beautiful strategy and copy!
- Scott, Alli, and Maxwell from The Lexicon's instructional design team. Thank you for creating such an intentional framework!
- Clavis, Naan, and Cadena from The Lexicon's content curation team. Thank you for collecting such high-quality resources!
- Wilson and Armaan from The Lexicon's development team. Thank you for trying to bring my vision to life!
- Wenda and Issac, The Lexicon's product managers. Thank you for always keeping me accountable!
- Scott, one of Gitcoin's leads. Thank you for believing in this project + offering your support!
- And finally, Bhaumik, who brought me into CCS. Thank you for being one of the first to believe in me and my potential :')