User expectations will vary depending on the interface they interact with. As digitalization becomes the bedrock of the future, blockchain has become a marketplace for buying digital assets. Features like peer-to-peer and decentralization have raised the need for these platforms to be user-centered. As UX designers, it is important that we design experiences for users in an unfamiliar place with familiar features to improve the use of those products.

The big question remains, how can we design a platform that offers users the information they need to satisfy their needs?

Blockchain is at a point where it needs the trust points of users, increased accessibility, and encourages wider adoption. The constant chatter of Blockchain and its relevant keywords is bound to make one feel intimidated and overwhelmed. The sense of not being a part of the know-how of it makes one feel distanced from the concept at hand and this intimidation leads to a reduced end-user acceptance and a very dissatisfied end user.

Since blockchain is still a relatively new concept, there are bound to be plenty of inexperienced, cautious users. As interest increases, users with varying levels of technical and blockchain knowledge will take a leap into this space.

HOW UX CAN HELP BLOCKCHAIN

“Blockchain would do to banks, what the internet did to media” by Harvard Business Review.

Even years into the deployment of the internet, many believed that it was still a fad. Of course, the internet has since become a major influence on our lives, from how we buy goods and services, to the ways we socialize with friends. We would soon be seeing a similar impact from cryptocurrencies and blockchains. The Bitcoin blockchain, like the internet, this technology is designed to be decentralized and built on untraceable blocks.

Due to their untraceable form, these platforms need to be built and designed in a secured and transparent manner. As UX designers it is our job to consider a user-first approach while designing blockchain platforms.

As a designer, you should consider the following:

• Not all users coming to the platform is familiar with digital assets or cryptocurrency and should design as follows.
• Arrangement of information in a way that users can easily navigate the interface. Remove unnecessary information, and only include the ones relevant to user tasks.
• Rely on familiar methods to improve the experience. Use icons and non-technical terms for easy understanding. e.g logos are usually left at the top left and signup at the top right.
• Research on your target users and what sought of products they use and are familiar with. As a designer, your job is to reduce complexity, not design more.
• Because transactions on blockchain platforms, take much longer to load than other traditional digital platforms, users need to know the progress of their activities or transactions. so designing a platform that is intuitive and communicative.
• A sense of security and protection needs to prevail around the end-user to make the user comfortable and at ease at executing the process at hand.
• Create an experience, that helps a novice to be on board with ease and helps him understand what’s happening and what will happen to go ahead in the flow.
• The only language everyone across the globe seems to understand is the “Visual Language” and this plays a vital role in the UX design of a product for Blockchain, that is expected to be global and not localized to a particular region/location. Usage of color schema, typography, iconography, and information hierarchy does ensure the product makes a consistent appeal to varied audiences across the globe.
• All the transactions on Blockhain are irreversible in nature and cannot be rolled back once they are processed and validated on the network. The creation of various visual cues before triggering an action plays a vital role in ensuring the user does not hit upon a major blocker and ends at the point of no return, where the intended action is not performed.

The user should always know what is happening, what just happened, and what will happen next. — Sarah Baker Mills, Design Director at ConsenSys

UX AND DECENTRALIZATION.

The transfer of control for an activity or organization to several authorities rather than one single one is known as Decentralization. UX on the other hand is short for user experience it is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system, or service. I call it the backend of design. It is the part of the design that cannot be seen but felt.

With the increasing interest and babble about decentralized systems and blockchain technology, there has also been an incline in the demand for User Experience (UX) experts.

User-centered experiences can be considered without the need to implement them within decentralized systems, however, decentralized systems should not exist without considering user-centered experiences.

Everybody in this space talks about how the Blockchain is “trustless” and “transparent”. It is (almost) certainly true at a Developmental level, but those two assumptions fall apart when you confront them with the actual end-user experience. Sometimes, the blockchain itself was not designed with user experience in mind. There is the need to emphasize the design and development of both fields to function together to pursue user-centered experiences in order to lower the entry-level of blockchain use.

Designing for user experience includes designing user interfaces that meet user-centered needs. Even though you often see the words UI and UX next to each other, it’s not always that they are both considered at the same time when dealing with blockchain. When we have good UX in place, UI can come in the way of accessing that desired UX. UI and UX design should technically be working together to achieve the ultimate user experience.

The most successful platforms on the web are intuitive to use, easy to understand, and just convenient, and while all technical details around blockchain and smart contracts sound extremely complicated, it is possible to will find ways to offer pleasing and simple experiences to the users, If user experience research and design are implemented from the ideation phase down to development.

Applications built on blockchain often face mainstream problems like inaccessibility, oftentimes, the process to even signup or understand how to interact with decentralized apps is technically complicated and confusing. I believe in a bid to make it a more secured platform, designers tend to “overthink” design solutions rather than simplify them, they make the process more complicated.

Applications are moving towards a one-click signup method using Facebook and Google, but most blockchain platforms need OTPs, and several linking to wallets and other applications.

CONCLUSION

As part of the growing decentralized economy, it is comforting to know that blockchain in itself pursues positive user-centered experiences and has it all under control. Whether you are looking at blockchain from a cryptocurrency point of view or using blockchain as a business/systems strategy, the user experience will always be at the forefront in the blockchain world. However, without awareness of this phenomenon, poor design will interrupt the beautifully crafted UX embedded in the blockchain, backfiring the mission of increasing the adoption of blockchain technology.

As demand for creating well-constructed, pleasurable tools and applications that rely on blockchain increases, the input of designers will begin to show in blockchain digital products.

RESOURCES

Sharon Shea — The link between decentralization and user experience

Nikhil Desai — Role of UX in Emerging Decentralized Applications on Blockchain