Dapper Labs
2018-2019 · Founding designer

NBA Top Shot

What could we offer basketball fans beyond another game? We explored a new place for digital ownership in the NBA's multimedia strategy, drawing on Dapper's expertise. Early research pointed toward collectibles as an approachable way in.

As a founding designer, I translated that direction into discovery, collecting, and marketplace journeys, including wallet handoffs. I handed the work to the team before leaving for Google in 2019, ahead of launch.

Early NBA collectible discovery designs on desktop and mobile, branded NBA Dream Team — Early product exploration, before the final Top Shot identity: discovery organized around basketball and its fans

Moment

Make the play itself collectible

The opportunity was not just to put a physical card on a screen. We wanted a collectible designed for the digital space, with the moving highlight and its reveal part of what made it worth exploring.

Working with the NBA's team helped ground that idea in the league and its fans. The team-produced motion studies below show how a collectible could open up to reveal the play itself.

Early team concept: a collectible opens to reveal the play inside

The moving highlight brought the collectible to life. These team-produced motion studies show the experience we were shaping.

Early Crypto Ballers collectible pack concepts with NBA team patterns — Pack concepts explored the anticipation and identity of collecting, under an early working name

Desktop and mobile collectible detail designs featuring Shaquille O'Neal, ownership details, and a purchase action — The collectible detail page brings together the player, ownership, edition, and purchase

Early product direction

Find a new way in, not another game to learn

Established games already served basketball fans. Within the broader multimedia strategy, the question was what Dapper's expertise in digital ownership could add. Research began to point toward distinctive digital collectibles as a lower-barrier way to engage, without first learning a game's rules.

The choice changed the first experience we needed to design. Instead of forming teams and comparing gameplay attributes, fans could start with a player or highlight, explore the collectible, and understand how to own it. I worked with product and research partners on ownership and onboarding, translating that direction into discovery, detail pages, collections, and wallet handoffs.

Early basketball game exploration with player cards, team scores, and attack and defense attributes — The game alternative: player cards carried attack and defense attributes and formed competing teams. The marketplace concepts instead foreground the collectible, its edition, and ownership.

Early search concept with player suggestions, team names, and collectible previews — The discovery concept puts recognizable players and teams into search, connecting a fan's interest to a collectible.

Early NBA Top Shot mobile concept confirming a bid and linking to notifications — **A bid is not a purchase.** This pre-launch concept acknowledges submission and points to notifications for progress, rather than implying that the collectible is already owned.

NBA Top Shot flow connecting discovery, search, filtering, and purchase decisions — The detailed journey connects browsing and purchase decisions to the structure of the product

Interaction decisions

Make the transaction state explicit

I mapped discovery, search, onboarding, and purchase into a single marketplace structure. The wallet handoff had to fit that journey: finding a collectible and being ready to pay for it are different states.

The concepts above show two smaller decisions: search starts with players and teams a fan recognizes; bid confirmation says a bid is on its way and links to notifications, rather than presenting it as a completed purchase.

NBA Top Shot information architecture connecting entry points and product journeys — Mapping entry points and the paths through the collecting experience · View full size

NBA Top Shot page inventory covering discovery, profiles, collections, onboarding, and error states — A page inventory connects discovery, ownership, onboarding, and the states around them · View full size

Outcome & handoff

A marketplace foundation the team could build on

The framework, structure, and core flows helped secure approval and budget for the build. I handed the design foundation to the internal team for visual execution and delivery in 2019; the public beta followed in 2020.

After my departure, the team developed and launched a product that later reached 1.6M+ collectors and $1.2B+ in lifetime collectible sales (Dapper Labs, checked October 2026). Those are later product results; my contribution was the early collecting and marketplace foundation.

The later product, recorded in 2025: a Moment combines the play, its story, and ownership details.

Announcements and coverage

How the product reached the world

NBA · July 31, 2019 · Official announcementNBA, NBPA, and Dapper Labs announce Top ShotThe original announcement describes digital collecting alongside a planned complementary game Dapper Labs · October 1, 2020 · Launch releaseTop Shot opens to all fansThe public beta followed the early design work and the internal team's continued development

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