Turn a reach problem into a product loop
Rather than treating limited marketing reach as a media-spend problem, I proposed $GLOB as a social token: participation would compound through quests, progression, visible status, and reasons to return.
BRAND · PRODUCT · Feb 2024 – Oct 2024
Shaga
Founding product designer across UX/UI, brand, creative direction, and the $GLOB engagement concept
- Timeline
- Feb 2024 – Oct 2024
- Role
- Founding Product Designer (Full-time)
- product designer
- Founding
- $GLOB concept
- Originated
Process & contextStrategy, decisions, outcomes, chronology, and sources
Process & contextStrategy, decisions, outcomes, chronology, and sources
Context
Shaga had a cloud-gaming product across desktop and mobile, but limited marketing reach and no coherent system connecting participation, progression, community status, and repeat engagement.
Product decision
I independently conceived, designed, and branded $GLOB as a social-token approach to that reach problem, presented it to the marketing and executive teams, and found Frankie Labs to help make the idea executable. In parallel, I gave the core streaming, reservation, onboarding, and mobile flows one product language.
Outcome & evolution
The initial proposal challenged a more traditional marketing model. Product and marketing iterated it into a points program before launch, preserving the core loop of quests, progression, status, and brand participation. Shaga continued promoting $GLOB through engagement quests after my tenure; the launched implementation evolved cross-functionally from the original concept shown here.
- Founding
- product designer
- Originated
- $GLOB concept
- Launched
- points program
UX/UI, branding, and creative direction across the company.
Independent strategy, product framing, identity, and internal pitch.
Iterated cross-functionally and used across quests and brand engagement.
ScopeProduct Strategy, UX/UI, Brand Identity, Creative Direction, Campaign Systems
Sources & prototypes
Key decisions
Design the idea as a brand and a system
I created the name, identity, interaction model, and campaign world together so $GLOB could live inside the product, travel through social channels, and remain recognizable as it evolved.
Find a path from concept to execution
After presenting the proposal to marketing and leadership, I identified Frankie Labs as an execution partner. The product and marketing teams then adapted the social-token thesis into the points program that shipped.
Keep the core product coherent
Alongside $GLOB, I owned the web and mobile UX for streaming, reservations, onboarding, profiles, parties, and social presence so the engagement layer strengthened one product instead of becoming a separate destination.
Project chronology
Nine months across the product and its participation layer
The role moved between the cloud-gaming foundation, the mobile social system, and a new engagement model. The sequence keeps those workstreams connected without collapsing them into one launch claim.
Feb 202401 · Foundation Map the cloud-gaming product
Joined as founding product designer and connected node setup, game selection, streaming state, reservations, onboarding, and social presence into one product model.Spring 202402 · Desktop Resolve the Node experience
Moved the desktop client from UX architecture into lobby, gameplay, social-sidebar, and system-feedback states that kept the game visually central.Mid 202403 · Mobile Carry play into a social client
Developed mobile IA and interface work for games, parties, reservations, player levels, profiles, presence, and active sessions across iOS and Android directions.Parallel workstream04 · Growth thesis Originate $GLOB as a participation loop
Reframed limited reach as a product problem and proposed quests, progression, visible status, and social participation instead of a conventional media-only response.By Oct 202405 · Evolution Create a path from concept to launch
Presented the system to leadership, identified Frankie Labs as an execution partner, and helped carry the thesis into the cross-functional points program used after my tenure.
01
The original $GLOB thesis
I originated $GLOB as a social-token approach to a marketing-reach problem: make brand participation cumulative, visible, and worth returning to. The identity and product model were conceived together before the proposal evolved cross-functionally into the launched points program.
02
$GLOB as a launch world
The launch film introduced the system as a living network of players, status objects, and collective momentum rather than a conventional points announcement. Motion made the participation model understandable before the interface had to explain it.
03
A campaign that looked like a network
The identity made participation feel larger than an isolated points balance. A repeated $GLOB field established the campaign world; the global map showed individual player objects accumulating into shared momentum.
04
Progression people could see and keep
$GLOB gave participation a legible arc. Quests created repeatable actions; levels and collections made progress and status visible across desktop and mobile.
05
One engagement platform across breakpoints
The system was designed as a responsive product, not a desktop campaign with a reduced mobile version. Quests, claims, balances, collection progress, and the shared Glob retained the same hierarchy while adapting to the intent and space of each device.
06
Rank turned points into identity
I translated accumulated $GLOB points into a player rank system inspired by the immediate status clarity of Halo 2. Numbered tiers made early progress easy to read; rarer icon ranks gave long-term participation a more distinctive destination. The rank then became part of the Shagatag instead of living as a detached balance.
07
One quest, designed across states
A repeatable quest needed to explain availability, reward, completion, and the next return without leaving the campaign world. I designed the mobile lifecycle and desktop card as one interaction system rather than separate promotional surfaces.
08
A daily action with a complete return loop
Spin the Glob turned one lightweight action into a clear daily cadence: available, in progress, rewarded, complete, and ready to return. The interaction made participation visible on the shared Glob while resolving the player’s reward immediately.
09
Spin the Glob
The daily quest was designed as a compact motion loop: an available state, a spin that reveals the reward, and a cooldown state that gives the player a reason to return. The three-frame storyboard shows how the interaction carried progression, anticipation, and repeat behavior in one object.
10
From abstract points to a playable object
I tested the progression system as a tactile arcade counter before resolving it into the raffle power-up experience. The exploration was useful because it made accumulated points feel physically playable rather than leaving them as an abstract balance.
11
The Glob Machine became a web interaction
I translated the raffle mechanic into a browser-based arcade machine. Wallet state, entry quantity, and the transaction action stayed legible, but the experience felt like operating an object rather than completing a form. The interaction extended the campaign world without introducing a second product model.
12
Give the raffle a collectible form
Rather than let entry read like another points transaction, I explored a ticket system that made the raffle feel tangible and collectible. Serial codes, Glob geometry, and reward states carried the participation language into a physical artifact. This was a design direction, not evidence of production or distribution.
13
Clan growth loop
An exploratory growth concept turned referrals into a shared clan journey: invite friends, complete onboarding quests, and make progress visible as a group. The system gave each new player a reason to bring the next person in instead of treating acquisition as a one-time link.
14
A physical reward object
The same clan idea extended beyond the interface into collectible packaging. These box concepts explored how a reward could feel like a status object players wanted to receive, photograph, and pass through the community.
15
$GLOB in product
After product and marketing iteration, the launched points program carried the core idea through quest dashboards, progression states, claim actions, and seasonal launches.
16
A result designed to be shared
Marking the Glob ended in a compact, location-specific completion card. Rank, place, and status made the result legible at a glance, turning a completed daily action into public proof of participation without adding a separate social product.
17
Players carried the artifact outward
Players began sharing the state of the live Glob outside the product. The response turned participation into visible social proof and briefly pushed the experience beyond its performance limits.
18
A tactical language for cloud play
The intro framed Shaga as an active gaming network rather than another utility client. Tactical pacing, system signals, and a live-state aesthetic established the product world before the interface made the underlying infrastructure legible.
19
The core streaming product
As founding product designer, I also owned the platform beneath the engagement layer: node setup, streaming state, reservation, onboarding, and the paths connecting desktop play to mobile coordination.
20
UX architecture behind the interface
The complete Node model connected game selection, lobby state, social presence, streaming controls, and system feedback before the visual layer was applied.
21
Designing the native Node lifecycle
A second desktop journey resolved the Node itself: launch, sign-in, network profiling, game discovery, lobby configuration, node activation, social drop-in, game selection, streaming overlay, switching games, and ending a session. Mapping the host and player states together made the invisible infrastructure legible without turning the experience into a server dashboard.
22
Node UX revisions with the Ukraine team
I oversaw a Ukraine-based agency as they iterated the Node experience, directing the visual and UX improvements across the hosting state, game list, social rail, and overall system atmosphere. The revision moved the interface toward a clearer Glob Network direction while keeping the game and player state legible.
23
The complete Node UX
The full Node map shows how those states connect across setup, game discovery, lobby creation, network and hardware checks, gameplay, social presence, streaming controls, and session exit. It made the infrastructure legible as one continuous experience rather than a collection of disconnected screens.
24
A journey ready for engineering
I translated the mobile streaming concept into a complete path from launch and account creation through game discovery, connection quality, lobby matching, controller setup, rotation, and play.
25
The hackathon MVP
The earliest sprint collapsed identity, nearby-player discovery, connection state, and joinable play parties into one pitchable mobile concept. It was a hackathon artifact, not the product system that followed, but it helped test whether one Shagatag could anchor discovery and coordination across cloud gaming.
26
Social discovery before visual polish
I compared list, map, selected-player, and live-lobby models before committing to a visual direction. Location only earned its place when it advanced coordination: see who is nearby, understand their state, then act. The next pass added network quality because proximity alone did not make a cloud-gaming session joinable.
27
Converging one language across identity and play
The May studies tested how Shagatag identity could survive across onboarding, the activity feed, the marketing surface, and an in-game social rail. I narrowed the work toward a calmer system where player identity and session state stayed legible over changing game worlds.
28
The mobile UX system, mapped end to end
The MVP board connected feed, onboarding, profiles, game discovery, parties, reservations, and return states into one mobile product model before the visual system was applied.
29
Information architecture, revision two
This IA pass connected the mobile feed, lobby, friend discovery, profile editing, blocking, party states, controller connection, and gameplay handoff into one product journey.
30
Critical flows beyond the happy path
The broad journey boards hide essential product work. I also mapped account entry and friend search as explicit state systems — validation, username selection, avatar setup, empty states, and progressive results — so identity could survive the handoff into social play.
31
Profiles as social state
Editing a profile was part of the presence system, not a detached settings form. The flow covers naming, avatar selection, confirmation, cancel behavior, and the return to the live feed.
32
The lobby, reworked for mobile
The newer Figma direction brought lobby discovery, reservations, social presence, and profile controls into the same product language as the desktop experience.
33
A later concept turned refresh into a network scan
Building on the earlier discovery work, I explored pull-to-refresh as a scan for nearby players and active sessions. Distance, party capacity, join intent, and identity were layered onto the network-quality model so the feed helped coordinate play rather than becoming another generic social timeline. This direction remained exploratory, not shipped.
34
Building the Glob world
The visual direction connected the product's global participation model to arcade hardware, planetary forms, status objects, and a more physical gaming culture.
35
Identity as a system
36
Identity carried player state
The Shagatag combined level, avatar, presence, and balance into one compact object that could travel across maps, profiles, parties, and campaigns.
37
The hardware world
The same identity expanded into a handheld controller concept and a campaign world built around access, discovery, and reward.
38
A brand world that supported the product
Packaging and campaign work gave cloud gaming a physical, culturally legible presence. It follows the product work here because it amplified the system; it was not the system itself.
39
Solana Breakpoint collateral
Conference collateral translated the controller world into partner-specific poster moments: a clear pre-order offer, QR-led conversion, and a shared Shaga story that could travel across gaming communities.
40
Solana Breakpoint sticker system
The sticker set turned the Breakpoint language into portable objects: the Shaga.xyz mark, DePIN and globe symbols, level and identity badges, and a playful Glob warning label.
41
Believe in Something
Rather than explain the handheld through specifications, the campaign led with a simple cultural position. The film connected product, place, and brand into one repeatable invitation, then extended that system across outdoor placements.
42
A campaign built to travel
The handheld became a recognizable cultural object across landscapes and cities, while the campaign retained one consistent invitation: believe in something.
43
Raffle launch in motion
The Molecule power-up became a complete launch sequence: a physical reward object, an arcade-like purchase moment, and a branded loop that connected the raffle back to Shaga's participation system.
44
Reservation as a live product state
The reservation flow connected nearby discovery, a reserved slot, an expiry window, and the handoff into a live lobby. I treated the timer and change-reservation path as part of the social play experience rather than a utility screen detached from it.
45
One launch system, two surfaces
Desktop held the full arcade spectacle and campaign context; mobile compressed the same world into a focused collectible reveal and entry point. The visual language stayed continuous while the interaction density changed.