# Designing the Future: Empowering Web3 Adoption Through Intuitive UX - Sundaram Jha | Eden Protocol

- Channel: [ETH Belgrade Community](https://streameth.org/eth-belgrade-community)
- Date: 2024-10-07
- Duration: 13:57
- Topics: People & Blogs
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-gRZpwYdN_wg
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRZpwYdN_wg

## Transcript

[Applause] awesome check awesome uh I hope everyone's had a great lunch today and uh is all set for the next 20 minutes we'll be delving into uh ux of the space so uh this talk is not for any specific role in the space but rather if you are a Builder building tools that uh the end users enjoy this talks for you uh little bit bit of uh background on me I've been uh designing the space for uh more than 3 years and have uh worked with some really cool and interesting projects uh across the domain so as for the agenda of this talk uh we'll start with the state of ux in web 3 what it is like right now and next up I'll go through uh three of my case studies super quick we'll uh see what the problems were what Solutions we came up with and also the impact it had on the product so uh next up we'll discuss what the problems are with the current workflow and how it is not designed to yield good results and discourages iteration and also some uh solutions to that we'll end with some Action level steps and uh some web3 ux principles uh everyone here can take as a takeaway from this stock sort of so yeah let's get uh started the promise and challenge so web3 as we all know holds very decentralized approach to the product right and its own complexity is a barrier to its own mainstream adoption so there's always new uh developments happening there's always new technologies coming up but uh its own complexity dets many potential users and uh that's been like the sort of tee for the last three years in the space I've been and uh this is something I've noticed across the projects is uh distilling it down into three main big points is there's always onboarding processes that are complex the interfaces which are con confusing and the feedback mechanisms are poor and even though the potential of impact with ux is huge there's only so much uxing we can do on the technical blockchain level so stuff like seat phrase transactions and gas fees there's uh not a lot of Designing that can really help improve the experience but when it comes to a product level the impact the potential of impact is massive because the core idea of uh the product level decisions remain the same as web 2 is are you making the product useful are you making making it uh according to what the user wants are you making it intuitive so quick case studies based on uh something we discussed last uh in the last slides first one was a Anonymous D5 protocol I was working with and it was uh uh causing 60% drop off rate some issues we identified were uh the kyc process they were doing was very very complex and the instructions to go through those process were uh very very unclear as well and the interface was termed intimidating more than one times so the solutions uh we did to overcome these were we broke down the kic process into much smaller much more manageable steps so instead of dumping all of the information to the user all at once to uh go through it we broke it down into multiple smaller manageable steps and we also progressively disclosed all these steps to the user uh to guide them through the task also uh a big thing that helped was uh we added tool tips or educational resources throughout the product to uh better guide the users because the product was uh kind of big and deep so there had to be a certain educational tool tips that had to be throughout the product to really help them uh navigate and the outcome was that uh uh we reduce the drop of rate by a really decent 40% just by doing these for very simple U exchanges next up was a charity nft Marketplace uh we were working on a couple of years ago and uh uh it was found that users often abandon the transactions Midway so the purchase flow was really really uh complex for some reason even though it's sort of figured out already but they made it uh uh very complex for some reason so the issues were the navigation was complex there was a lack of transaction and uh transaction transparency in the purchase flow and the error handling was very very poor so the solutions we came up with were uh again uh same as the d51 we broke down uh the big process into smaller manageable steps so uh we also included realtime updates and confirmations throughout the steps uh they went through we overhauled the error messaging system to uh not include a lot of technical jargons but use user friendly and conze uh conze uh messaging and used indicators throughout the product to like actually tell them what's going wrong and how to actually overcome that and we also did user testing sessions which is really really important uh after you publish anything to kind of see the impacts you've had are actually working or not and outcome was uh really good as well we improved the purchase completion rate by about 30% and the later on when we did the surveys it showed a really significant increase in uh user satisfaction and confidence in uh getting the NFD third was uh Wallet app we were working with the issues we identified were uh their security settings were very very overwhelming so users often felt uh very confused and uh often didn't even know what to like really do with uh the app and also lack of user education because they were targeting lot of web to users as well but didn't really do something that uhu helped bridge the gap and also absence of interactive and accessible educational resources they didn't want a static help section they wanted something that uh really helps them to know uh the app better as uh they continued using it Solutions where we again used plain language and visual cues in security settings we went we did away with all the technical jargons and uh the big uh uh big words we gave them a guided walk through and with educational prompts throughout the app and it seemed to uh do a lot of wonders because uh now users knew what to really expect from the app and U just do well with it and also uh we integrated a security dashboard with a clear indicators of what their security status is and if something's going wrong or uh something uh they need to do about it and some steps to do it right then and there in their security dashboard and outcome was that uh it increased engagement with those specific security features by 50% and also they started getting less and less of those uh help support queries so yeah it upset off really well now even with these uh uh things we still need better collaboration because a good design isn't really just uh responsibility of designers the dev the users and designers need to come together in order to create something that uh the end users enjoy and make sure that all the perspectives are heard when uh it's still in the development phase and this is the thing I noticed with a lot of projects even now is the current workflow it's it's a very linear thing that the development happens smart contracts done audits happen then uh there's a focus on design which poses a problem because uh changing the smart contract is like a very uh costly and timec consuming thing so iteration isn't really possible when you when you know uh the user feedback later on so Implement implementation of research finding is very very difficult because uh since it's a very sequential nature of workflow because uh the development predes design so it depends on the completion of the previous phase which uh in turn keeps uh making the product build time uh longer and iteration isn't really uh possible there the ideal workflow uh is that ux research really here is a big superpow and the key is to get designed in the room early not as an afterthought because when it's there before devs can uh get involved with the design as well and get to know the design design rationale and uh collaborate well with uh with on the whole product level of things right and U also they can flag out any technical limit limitations very early on and uh still at this stage uh design is pretty cheap as compared to like doing 6 months of solidity and then finding out this is not something really what the user wants so yeah involving depth in the design process is a really key thing that uh helped a lot of projects I worked with early on now this is what I call the pillars of iteration it's uh basically measure is getting deep insights into what your user wants what uh their pain points are what can really help them overcome these pain points next up is to usually directly communicate with the user and uh knowing these issues firsthand and third is when we have all these data and insights is to know uh is to start uh iterating over the design on the product level of things so quick actionable steps uh from here is to uh prioritize ux from the start get uh design in the room early on not as an afterthought and uh Implement a really good feedback mechanism because uh this is the whole basis of iteration is you is you uh get feedback from uh your users and iterate it uh early on and uh third is to uh Foster collaboration a better collaboration with everyone involved so isn't really just a priority of a designer to get everything from get-go but uh once everyone's involved the lives become much more easier some uh web three ux principles uh I'd like to U end with as a takeaways is always prioritize the needs and preferences of user is that users are at the mid of should be at the middle of every design decision that's taken don't reinvent the wheel is that uh of course the space always is always changing and uh there's like this need of creating new paradigms and interfaces for everything but there's a lot of big companies now out there with a lot of resources and a lot of money doing things uh and like um yeah managing things uh coming up with things and testing it so make sure to keep an eye out on that and uh see what's working what's not and kind of use their resources and money and of course uh designing for trust and authenticity is at the base of the space because uh we are basically managing uh users assets uh data and uh everything so it should be kept in mind that uh the trust and authenticity should be uh displayed through ux design in the products we do and of course uh security and transparency because web 3 should be uh focused as well all right so I think we at the end of this talk uh soon enough I'd like to end with uh this code by Ben schwap Stein uh which really is a very central part of this whole ecosystem when it comes to ux is amazing ux does not really make your product valuable but uh that ux can make any product useless then thank you if there are any questions or uh if you want to come talk to me just uh yeah find me around walking around in the conference and hit me up yes so if there's any questions feel free to raise your hand yes thank you for the talk um you mentioned on one of the slides that one of the challenges is the fact that smart contracts are immutable right yeah so I was just wondering like uh why is this such a huge issue because like in my mental model smart contract design is like a few levels of abstraction below uh compared to what the user actually wants so if I want to implement a DEX for example there's only so many design choices that I have to make on the smart contract level and how to present this to the user is kind of a separate problem at least in my mind I'm just wondering what's what's your no that that's really a good question actually because uh the whole basis of this was uh this was that uh user research is really a super power because a lot of times what happens is when you are uh done with everything that is when the design is uh thought of by the people usually because the space still is largely develop a lead and design is just an aesthetic thing right now so just doing your uh research and just thinking as much as possible of what the user might want and coming up with prototypes early on because it's still then pretty cheap as compared to doing it later on is the key I hope that answers uh the question thank you we have more questions to the audience feel free to raise your hand don't be shy oh no questions I guess we can wrap it up thank you sunam give it up for sunam once again