Portalverse
Ditching expected design patterns for a Web3 gaming service
2022-2024
Overview
As design lead at Portalverse, my role was to transform their technical demo of a peer-to-peer cloud gaming network into a viable product and train the team in zero-to-one product design practices. To realise this vision, we designed two applications: a consumer app for cloud gamers (mobile and desktop) and a web-based monitoring platform for cloud streaming providers.
I worked on every screen and flow, and defined the design system used to create both.
What was Portalverse?
Portalverse was a decentralised rendering protocol, or put simply: a better way to stream games from the cloud. Cloud gaming is like Netflix for video games; available on any device with an internet connection; better than having to own an expensive gaming PC. However, significant downsides of cloud gaming are lag issues for users and cost issues for service providers. Portalverse attempted to resolve this tension with novel use of decentralised technology (DePIN Web3).
In simple terms, similar to how Uber uses privately owned vehicles to offer ridesharing, the Portalverse network drew on existing hardware in the crypto-mining ecosystem to offer cloud gaming services.
Context and challenges
Cloud gaming had a few major players with killer features. Each group's needs varied greatly, gamers wanted ease of access.
Cloud gamers
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Cloud gaming is about flexibility
Gamers want to play the latest games whenever and wherever, including on old computers or non-gaming devices. The consumer app needed to be available on all platforms.
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Immediate access to gameplay
Gamers expect to start gaming almost immediately with seamless service that matches media streaming standards, with minimal friction in the onboarding process.
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Maintain access to game libraries
All gamers had invested hours in their game libraries and communities, highlighting the need to access existing game saves and launchers.
Cloud providers (Cryptocurrency miners)
In 2022, there was a major change in the hardware demands of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Ethereum (the second largest cryptocurrency) changed how it worked, no longer needing powerful mining infrastructure to operate. Medium-sized mining operators were rushing to find new ways to make money on their expensive hardware.
Portalverse presented miners with an opportunity: to repurpose their hardware away from proof-of-work mining and become cloud gaming providers.
Medium-sized mining operations generally used gaming GPUs, which were the most expensive hardware cost for cloud gaming providers. With a modest investment, their hardware could be repurposed to run virtual machines that streamed video games. We connected with a broad group of miners to discuss their concerns, current workflows and hardware capabilities.
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Hardware transition
Crypto mining requires powerful GPUs, but other aspects of their systems were underpowered. Our users needed guidance on the upgrades required for their facilities to make it cloud gaming-ready.
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Unfamiliar processes
Game streaming services had different operating metrics from a mining operation. Unlike mining, which can be more hands-off, game streaming requires constant monitoring and maintenance to ensure service quality and timely payments.
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Business case for switching
These vendors operate rationally and need a business case to switch from crypto mining to cloud streaming. The alternative stream of income also needed to be clear, particularly when cryptocurrency prices were uncertain.
Removing crypto from the UX
Portalverse used cryptocurrency tokens to reward service providers for consistent service, enabling incremental payments during streams and global payments from day one. The crypto-native miners we served were already deeply embedded in Web3; their preference was handling token payments. However, after testing Web3 authentication and payments with gamers, it became clear that both gamers and the business would benefit from removing decentralised concepts from the client user experience. These insights informed our redesign of the technical demo into a product.
Design system
The design system had to work across desktop and mobile, so we applied it across both. I applied Tailwind styles and tokens across both projects to bridge the gap between design and development.
Designing for a global audience presented unique challenges. Our MVP required internationalisation with English and Simplified Chinese at launch.
Consumer designs
For gamers to adopt us, we removed core Web3 elements and added commonly requested features:
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Conventional Authentication
Email-based authentication over Web3
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Link game launchers
Access cloud saves and keep your progress
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Free tier trial
Generous free tier to test the service
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Local currency billing
No need to buy altcoins from third parties
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Auto-select provider
Best choice made automatically based on preferences
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Skippable friction points
Payment and launcher linking steps are optional
Vendor designs
In response to the challenges faced by our target users, we set out a few must-have features.
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Onboarding audit for vendors
Diagnose the gaps in the current hardware setup. It provides a clear benchmark to aim for.
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Overview of VM performance
A tool to simplify the process of troubleshooting performance problems with vendor hardware setups.
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Earnings breakdowns
Helps vendors understand which sessions yielded profit, and when they were most active.
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Incidents log
The incident log shows how poor streaming service correlated with earnings being penalised.
Final thoughts
There was early pressure to spread Web3 patterns (wallets, tokens, auth) across the whole product because we settled with providers in cryptocurrency. That would have pushed players through flows that did nothing for validating our peer-to-peer cloud gaming network.
I kept those patterns where they earned their place: the vendor experience. Providers already thought in wallets, balances, and settlement. The consumer app gained nothing from the same surface area, so we omitted it and kept the player path familiar. That let us focus on validating the business model instead of onboarding people to infrastructure they did not need to see.
A two-sided marketplace needs a different approach for each side: simplicity for players, technical detail and business insight for vendors.
The aim should always be provide the best service we can ship, whether the stack is cloud, distributed networks, cryptocurrency, or other deep tech.