Blockchain’s User Experience

Blockchain is almost everywhere now, the buzz is making the world take notice of this powerful tech. But Blockchain isn’t just about the tech, it’s also about how design and a user’s experience makes this tech what it is.

Blockchain is the new ‘in’ thing that is beginning to take the tech world by a storm. In the years to come, Blockchain will play a central part of most of the transactions that happen in this world. For someone who is just stepping into this amazing and powerful space of technology it is important to understand what Blockchain means, the extent of its power and reach, its capabilities and also influences.

Few resources that helped me understand Blockchain:

• What makes Blockchain beneficial over other technologies?
• WTF is The Blockchain?
• How to know if your business needs blockchain?
• Blockchain Project Ecosystem
• Banking as we know it, will be long gone before year 2037

Now that we have understood what blockchain is and its working (to an extent at-least), its just obvious that the way a user interacts with the platform built on blockchain should be taken care of and enhanced for better experience. Blockchain itself, to me, seems like a backend effort to make the user’s experience better.

Designing for complexity doesn’t mean make things simple. Make the tasks easier but don’t take away their control.  — Dante Guintu, UI Designer

As designers we can use design to show the user every step involved thereby making the platform feel more transparent, which would in-turn increase the users trust on the platform and help get users do more transactions without second thoughts. Few things that designers can do to help support blockchain :

• Expose content and process All the data and its processes should be on display to the users. This increases transparency by letting the users know how the platform works and how blockchain benefits their actions. One important aspect to be kept in mind is to display only the data and processes that are relevant to the users. This relevancy will differ based on user roles.

• Provide Feedback Blockchain is usually used in platforms that require high security and efficiency. Providing frequent feedback will let the platform connect with the users and have conversations. The platform will be less alien and more inviting.

• Design consistency Maintaining visual consistency gives the user the perception of trustworthiness. Users create visual associations with design to retain information. This allows for faster adoption.

• Guide the users through the platform By doing this the user is guided to carry out steps that will help them get started with the platform and be early adopters. This will contribute to the user never left feeling lost. As designers we should anticipate every hurdle the users will face and design to communicate a safe and productive route to the next steps. Make the communication between the platform and the users illustrative thereby reducing cognitive overload.

The capabilities, extent of its reach and impact of Blockchain is always growing and so should the design, to accommodate better user experience. Usually our design process encompasses doing extensive user research, but while working with such disruptive technologies we should also have extensive discussions with the developers. This will help us, the designers, understand the points at which effort were put to make the user’s life easier. Use design to show the users that this is not any other application but a blockchain based platform and it has its own benefits. Let’s make Blockchain’s user experience better than never before.

Give us a ring if you want to build something neat and efficient based on the Blockchain technology. We love working with this new and exciting technology.

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