Tokenized Community Design: The Future of User-Centered Innovation
Tapestry’s Design Lead Elira Duro defines how token-based ecosystems are reshaping the future of user-centered design.
The very notion of design is evolving through crypto and blockchain technologies. When a user is also an investor, how does that reshape user-centered design, participatory design, and human-centric design? These buzzwords we love now have a new tool to take advantage of — utility tokens.
With utility tokens, we can finally practice an ideal version of design, one where applications truly listen to users, and products exist in direct proximity to the people who use them. In utility token-driven projects, users are not just participants; they are one with the product itself. They control its value, both in market terms and in shaping its success through collective responsibility. In this world, we may have inadvertently created the perfect conditions for a future where those who believe in a project can benefit in multiple ways: monetarily, but also through direct influence over what gets built.
Yet, with great power comes great responsibility.
How do we move forward? Do we listen to every opinion and risk paralysis, or do we develop structured ways to filter, prioritize, and act? Can we build true consensus? And more importantly, do we have the courage to implement it? These are the questions that will define the next era of design.
As a designer who believes that "everyone designs", and as someone who champions user interviews, surveys, and co-designing, I find this moment very important. We have reached a stage where "everyone designs" isn’t just an aspirational concept, it’s a structured, repeatable, and financially-backed system.
The Birth of Tokenized Community Design
Seeing user engagement with Solana Social Explorer made me realize that we’ve just given designers a new method—Tokenized Community Design. This is a process where those who believe in a vision can actively support and co-build it. Users aren’t just participants in the product lifecycle, they are stakeholders with a vested interest in improving it.
Why is this better than traditional user interviews or surveys? Because real engagement comes when users have skin in the game. In the case of Solana Social Explorer, the community didn’t just launch a meme token, they launched a pumpfun token that organically evolved into a utility token, as more and more people believed in the project, turning what was once seen as a "memecoin" into something with tangible value.
What made this different? It was a fair launch, everyone had equal access at the same time, democratizing distribution. This marks the emergence of a new model for community-driven projects, paving the way for future innovation leaders.
The Next Challenge: Expanding the User Pool
However, there’s one critical gap in the process: expanding the user base. If only one type of user invests and contributes, we risk designing a product that is optimized for a narrow audience. How do we break past this limitation?
The answer is simple but essential: we need to let everyone design. We need to invite new groups within the crypto community and outside of it to interact, invest, learn, and contribute to improvement. As long as we continue expanding the Tokenized Community Design process by expanding the audience, we grow.
This methodology is in its infancy, it has no rulebook to follow. So, let’s nurture it, experiment with it, and discover all the ways it can transform design, innovation, and community-building.