Phased Approach to Card Values

One of the primary goals of the application, was to help users understand the value of the cards in their collection. But during initial launch, we didn’t have all the data, so I designed a flexible system that could show the data we had while accounting for information we lacked.

2022

Product Designer

Ludex

Challenge

Enable a user to find alternate value options for their cards while showcasing the reliability of value data.

Solution

A phased approach to account for limited data in the short term and expanded functionality in the long term.

Determining Card Value

The value of a collectible card is influenced by a number of factors including the print variation (some cards have versions printed in different colors, with different backgrounds, or even holographic effects) and the graded quality of the card. Quality grading is a whole industry to itself but it is generally safe to assume that a card graded at a high quality is worth more than a low grade or ungraded card. Knowing how the grade impacts the value of a card is useful even to collectors who haven’t had their own card graded as it can help estimate if it is worth sending your card to be graded. 

We first added the ability to view the different values associated with the different variations of the card and to enable the user to set their own value. It was important in the early phases to ensure the user could set their own value since we were still building our database of estimated values and it was fairly likely a user would encounter a card whose value estimate was pending. 

My first shippable designs for this screen included both tappable options (if we had the data) and alternative states in case we didn’t.

Growing with Data

Then, as we started to gain confidence in our value data, it was time to layer grades on top.We first added the ability to view the different values associated with the different variations of the card and to enable the user to set their own value. It was important in the early phases to ensure the user could set their own value since we were still building our database of estimated values and it was fairly likely a user would encounter a card whose value estimate was pending. 

As I designed this feature, I considered:

  • Seasoned collectors vs newbies – what might be helpful for them to see and what might they come into this feature looking for?

  • How much value data would we have when this feature first launched?

  • How much data did we think we’d realistically have in 3 to 6 months?

  • The strategic approach to value estimates differentiated us from the competitors who were simply showing online listings that often have wildly varying values, so it was also important to showcase that our data was thoughtfully curated/accurate.

Near Term Designs

For the near term, as we built our value database and refined our algorithm, it was important to show relevant data while accounting for what we didn’t have yet. We likely wouldn’t have data for each combination of variant and grade, so in this iteration I designed it to show whatever data we did have.

As the database grew, we could show more specific information and I evolved the tappable options to include the variant label and the grade label.

Future Designs

The goal for value estimation was to improve the value coverage and refine a value algorithm so that even if we didn't have an exact reference for a recently sold card, we could extrapolate based on industry patterns. Once we had that extrapolated data, I envisioned the UI shifting to be able to be more specific about the value estimates. I designed a future state for this screen to show values for any grade of the possible variants to enable even a novice collector to understand how grading might impact the value of their card.

For the next iteration, I planned to enable the user to control whether or not they see the graded values for the card. Because getting a card graded is a time and sometimes cost intensive process, I made sure the user wasn’t present automatically with all the grade controls since it was more likely they would have an ungraded card.