Laurier St-Aubin← All work

Case study · SEDA · 2024–25

SEDA Explorer

An engineer-built tool turned into a real product. I rebuilt SEDA's blockchain explorer on a new design system, with a navigation model that could hold every page the chain needed.

Role
Design Lead, then Product Designer
Timeline
Aug 2024 – Apr 2025
Built by
SEDA's front-end developer
Shipped
April 2025
SEDA Explorer home: price, market cap, data request programs, validators, supply, latest block, latest transactions and blocks

What it is

Like Etherscan, but for the SEDA chain. Alongside the usual blocks, transactions and accounts, it tracks what makes SEDA different: the oracle programs developers deploy, and the data requests that run them.

Where it started

Engineering had built the first explorer out of necessity. It covered the basics, but there was no dashboard, no accounts, no oracle programs and no data requests, and with no design system behind it, every page looked a little different.

Before

  • Built by engineers, page by page
  • A handful of core pages
  • Top navigation
  • No shared visual language

After

  • Designed as one product
  • A dashboard plus every SEDA-specific view
  • Collapsible side navigation
  • Built on a design system

Key decisions

A system before screens

Instead of redesigning page by page, I proposed building a design system first. It gave the explorer one consistent identity, and it gave the team a foundation to design and ship every future product faster.

Side nav over top nav

The explorer was growing from a few pages to more than a dozen. A top bar would have buried most of them in menus. A collapsible side navigation keeps every section one click away, and leaves room to grow.

The pages

I redesigned the whole explorer and added the views it was missing.

Home New
Trends New
Accounts New
Oracle Programs New
Data Requests New
Batches New
Transactions Redesigned
Blocks Redesigned
Validators Redesigned
Data Proxies Redesigned
Overlays Redesigned
Faucet Redesigned
Account page: total balance, available, delegated, unbonding and reward breakdown, and a filterable transactions table
Accounts. A new page: an account's full balance breakdown, with its transactions, data requests and oracle programs in tabs.

Working with engineering

The team knew what they needed. My job was to shape it into a product, then keep it buildable.

RequirementsThe team defined what each view had to show. I turned that into flows and layouts.
FeedbackI leaned on the team for feedback at every step, and iterated with them.
One systemEvery screen used the system's components, so our front-end developer built from parts, not one-offs.

Where it landed

The revamped explorer launched in April 2025, and the team adopted the design system widely. A later change in SEDA's business model reduced the explorer's role, but the system lived on: it became the base I revamped for the SEDA Fast dashboard.

Looking back

The team came in knowing what they wanted, so I relied on them for feedback. Looking back, I'd have worked more closely with our community manager to hear from the people using the explorer directly.