Developing Blockchain-enabled Marketplace Interfaces: A Design Science Research Study

Authors: Tobias Koelbel, Ahmed Zekri, Christof Weinhardt
Venue: ICIS 2023 Proceedings
Link: https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2023/blockchain/blockchain/1 (opens in a new tab)

Summary

Grounded in representation theory, the paper derives ten meta-requirements and six design principles for blockchain-enabled marketplace interfaces that balance simplicity and trustworthiness, foster learning, provide interoperable identity/reputation, support domain-specific visualizations, add plausibility checks, and enable privacy-preserving external storage.

Artifact

A blockchain-enabled marketplace interface (BEMI); the Open3D marketplace instantiation.

Methodology

Design science research; kernel theory (representation); expert interviews yielding meta-requirements; instantiation and evaluation.

Design features

Concrete, technology-specific realizations of the design principles in this artifact:

• Design feature DF1: Landing page - A landing page that serves as the artifact's central point of contact, presenting system values, terms of use and a help center.
• Design feature DF2: Clickable icons for interface customization - Clickable icons that allow interface customization such as language selection and settings.
• Design feature DF3: Technical documentation and whitepapers - Access to technical documentation and whitepapers to promote transparency and support user learning.
• Design feature DF4: Community engagement (DAO / SDK) - Community-engagement mechanisms letting users participate in governance via a DAO, build their own marketplace via an SDK, or join a Discord community.
• Design feature DF5: Connect Wallet / SSI identity - A 'Connect Wallet' function integrating interoperable identity management through Self-Sovereign Identity wallets.
• Design feature DF6: Reputation mechanisms - Reputation mechanisms integrated to build trust between participants in the decentralized marketplace.
• Design feature DF7: Role-specific dashboards - Customizable supplier and demand dashboards connecting the marketplace backend and blockchain ecosystem to provide customized information.
• Design feature DF8: Interactive dashboard features - Interactive dashboard features such as drilldown and filters.
• Design feature DF9: Visual dashboard features - Visual dashboard features such as diagrams and images.
• Design feature DF10: Error notification - An error-notification feature that informs users of possible errors in their interactions (e.g., null filter entities or invalid input values).
• Design feature DF11: Process execution validation - A process-execution validation/confirmation feature (pop-up) ensuring users confirm actions, given the irreversibility of blockchain transactions.
• Design feature DF12: Peer-to-peer database linking (IPFS) - Peer-to-peer database linking (e.g., IPFS) to integrate large data externally without compromising the security and scalability of the system.
• Design feature DF13: Customized and trusted view - A customized and trusted dashboard view giving users a tailored, trustworthy overview of the marketplace.
• Design feature DF14: Transaction history - Transaction-history information within dashboards (e.g., saved searches, recent transactions and reviews, and order-progress indicators).
• Design feature DF15: Direct communication ('Contact') - A direct-communication feature (the 'Contact' button) enabling an off-chain communication channel between transaction partners.
• Design feature DF16: Reserve capacity - A 'Reserve' button letting users reserve available capacity in the marketplace.

Citations

[1] Tobias Koelbel, Ahmed Zekri, Christof Weinhardt. Developing Blockchain-enabled Marketplace Interfaces: A Design Science Research Study. ICIS 2023 Proceedings. https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2023/blockchain/blockchain/1 (opens in a new tab) [2] Source document: Developing Blockchain-enabled Marketplace Interfaces - A Design Science Research Study.pdf