As a designer embedded in web3 communities, I noticed a recurring need: projects and DAOs wanted custom Telegram emoji packs for branding and community identity, but the process was slow, expensive, and unreliable.

Freelance designers would take hours or days, charge premium rates, and quality varied wildly. I had been offering this service manually myself. That's when I realized: this could be a product. So I built it under Degen Builds, my product studio for creative tools.

The manual process was broken:

The emoji lives in Telegram. The experience should too.

Building outside the platform would mean pulling users away from where they already are. That's friction. The solution was clear: a bot that handles everything from style selection to payment to delivery, all without leaving the chat.

Since Telegram is primarily a mobile app, the entire experience was designed mobile-first. Every interaction, button size, and visual element optimized for thumb navigation and small screens.

The flow in 7 steps

No accounts, no redirects, no waiting for a designer.

I built a carousel of video previews. Each model spins in a looping video so users can see exactly what their emoji will look like. Dark and light theme toggles let them check contrast before committing. The workflow was Figma for UX and layout, then After Effects for the animated previews.

The carousel became the core of the selection experience. Instead of guessing, users browse visually and pick with confidence.

Native but branded

I designed the interface to feel like part of Telegram itself. Clean, familiar patterns, zero friction. But without losing BuyEmojiBot's identity. The navigation buttons are intuitive: arrows to browse models, theme toggle to check contrast, and direct selection buttons. Users understand it instantly.

Every touchpoint was designed to feel native to Telegram while adding polish that builds trust.

PreviewOrder Tickets

Before paying, users receive a video preview of their emoji spinning. The watermark says "preview" but isn't intrusive. It's shareable, letting users show off their creation before it's even finalized.

During beta testing, a user gave direct feedback: "I want to see my emoji before I pay." Simple insight, but it changed everything about how I approached the payment flow.

I redesigned the flow to generate a watermarked preview before payment. Users could see exactly what they'd get, share it with their community for feedback, and purchase with confidence.

Impact

Refund requests basically dropped to zero. Purchase confidence increased significantly. The preview became the product's strongest trust signal, users knew exactly what they were paying for.

This reinforced something I've learned across projects: good feedback is invaluable. Staying open to user input and iterating quickly is what turns a working product into a great one.

Rather than building a distinct brand that feels "external," I designed BuyEmojiBot to feel like a natural extension of Telegram itself. Native patterns, familiar interactions, zero learning curve.

Motion graphics bring the product to life, emoji previews spin in 3D, transitions feel responsive, and every animation reinforces the playful nature of the product while maintaining the polish users expect from a payment flow.

The bot handles transactions, but the web platform extends the product's reach. Every emoji created gets listed publicly, serving as a gallery of what's possible and social proof for new users.

It's also a discovery tool. Users can browse styles, see recent creations, and understand the product before ever opening Telegram.

Design-led execution from start to finish. All UX decisions, visual design, and product strategy were mine. Technical implementation followed the design vision.

Telegram's constraints became the product's advantage. No external links, no web forms, no account creation. Just a conversation that ends with a delivered emoji pack. The platform's mobile-first nature meant every user got the same optimized experience.

Building end-to-end from product strategy to visual design to implementation, gave me full control over the user experience. Every decision, from the carousel interface to the preview system, was driven by understanding how users actually behave in chat environments.