Elevated the market position of a blockchain infrastructure provider.

When I joined Ankr, it was an early-stage node provider that had just launched its Web3 API (RPC) and Ankr Staking products. The brand and design system had evolved organically and weren’t built to scale, while the interfaces still had clear UX limitations.

At the same time, the company was preparing for rapid growth, expanding its infrastructure and software products across multiple areas of the Web3 ecosystem. To support this, Ankr assembled a design team of highly talented product, graphic, and motion designers. I joined the team in 2021, early in this phase, as a Senior Product Designer.

Our goal was to build a scalable visual platform that would create a consistent, recognizable presence across product interfaces, web, and brand touchpoints, while conveying the reliability expected by enterprise clients.

I focused on Ankr’s web experience and parts of the product interfaces across both legacy and new web applications, for desktop and mobile. I also contributed to the evolution of the brand and design system, helping define the visual direction for 3D graphics and product storytelling across new pages and launches.

The visual language combines a signature blue palette, refined grotesque typography, and geometric primitives to express the precision and reliability of the infrastructure. Glass surfaces and refracted light introduce depth and motion, evoking network speed, adoption, and the continuous flow of transactions.

Once the visual language was established, I built the core UI foundations of the design system along with the scalable structure of the website: the main showcase homepage and the primary navigation.

Clear, semantically structured navigation provides access to services, solutions, developer documentation, case studies, the blog, and other resources. A global navigation button connects all company products, services, and applications, enabling quick access and launch from anywhere on the site.

I also introduced a scrolling announcement banner to highlight new services, case studies, and releases. These features improved new product acquisition and feature adoption rate by increasing cross-product visibility.

The redesigned homepage and navigation increased Ankr’s average page depth from 1.3 to 2.4, significantly improving product discoverability and enabling the platform to scale with new products without compromising clarity.

The new design was rolled out across all product and service pages: from existing offerings like Web3 API and Staking to new launches including Rollup-as-a-Service, Enterprise Solutions, and Bitcoin-Secured Infrastructure.

Beyond unifying the visual language, these pages were designed as high-converting landing pages, with CTAs placed throughout key sections to guide users toward the next step at the moment of highest intent. Many pages also feature blocks linking to our social channels and blog to strengthen ecosystem engagement, while SEO optimization helps attract qualified organic traffic and lower customer acquisition costs.

The pages also became a practical asset for the Sales team, who could share them directly with prospects during outreach and negotiations.

Validating product hypotheses and design decisions was an important part of our process. New features and design directions were driven by market research and emerging industry trends: from the rise of NFTs and the metaverse to AI. Another key source of insights came from user feedback and behavioral data captured through Hotjar.

We tracked metrics such as CTR, engagement, and retention, while qualitative feedback was collected through Hotjar widgets and interviews conducted by our product and sales teams. These insights helped guide design decisions that ultimately impacted user loyalty and business outcomes.

Due to the fast pace of design development, deep metric analysis was primarily handled by product managers. However, I regularly reviewed user session recordings, behavioral data, and user feedback in Hotjar and consulted with PMs on performance metrics, which allowed me to incorporate these insights into design iterations and this case study.

I designed the core content platform of the website, including the blog, design asset library, press pages, and the case studies hub with individual case pages.

Each section was structured to maximize task success rate, enabling users to quickly understand the story, download relevant assets, or reach the right contact. The UX patterns were informed by best practices from leading media platforms, news publishers, and industry competitors.

As part of Ankr’s product design efforts, I collaborated with the teams behind Web3 API and Staking, advising on UI/UX flows and contributing directly to several key interfaces. Among other contributions, I redesigned the pricing and plan comparison blocks for the API platform, as well as Learn More pages for Liquid Staking tokens.

For a deeper look at the final results of the redesign and our collaboration, see the case studies by Kirill Surguchyov — Web3 API and Nick Illarionov — Staking, who led these products.

When time and resources allow, I like adding small interaction details that most users might overlook. But those who notice tend to remember.

For example, users sometimes right-click a logo to download it. On the Ankr website, doing so opens a popup offering the logo in multiple formats and color variants, with a shortcut to the Design Assets section.

I also proposed adding a subtle blockchain-themed animation for the 404 page, which the team executed beautifully. The header and footer remain visible, allowing users to quickly navigate to any other page instead of reaching a dead end.

Alongside core product work, I also contributed to client and side projects built on Ankr’s infrastructure. With the same level of care and attention, I helped design and launch over ten websites, web applications, brands, and design systems for Web3 products, including DeFi interfaces, wallets, and developer tools.

Several of these projects went on to achieve meaningful traction and remain active today. Three notable examples include:

PrimeBlock — a provider of hash infrastructure and digital asset mining solutions. I designed the company’s website and contributed to its brand direction. In 2022, the company reached an estimated valuation of ~$1.25B during its planned SPAC merger, positioning it as a private unicorn.

Swirl — a liquid staking protocol within the IOTA ecosystem. I designed the product landing page and contributed to the visual positioning of the project. According to the team, around 50% of all IOTA tokens have been staked through Swirl, making it one of the key DeFi protocols in the ecosystem.

TurboScale — a high-performance computing and AI infrastructure company. I designed the website and contributed to the product’s visual positioning. The company builds GPU clusters and modular data centers for training and running AI models. In 2024, TurboScale announced a $150M acquisition deal with the public company ShiftPixy.

My time on the project coincided with the rapid rise of AI in design, which led me to actively explore ways to integrate it into my workflow. I began using AI for copywriting, concept development, and research, and later expanded into generating visual assets for mockups and experimenting with AI-driven video production.

Below is a result of that exploration: a promotional video for Ankr created during the AI Movies course. I developed the concept, generated scenes, and edited the final piece using models such as Seedance Pro, Nano Banana, ChatGTP, and Krea AI.