Unlocking Web3 Mass Adoption: The UX Revolution You Can't Ignore
Exploring the intersection of UX, communities, and education in shaping the future of web3
User experience affects every waking moment of our lives, from the food we eat to our internet connection to the comfort of a soothing bath. The quality of UX leaves a lasting impact, and we either embrace or reject it accordingly. Poor UX in emerging technology causes adoption friction. This concept is especially true in crypto, where a subpar user experience reduces a product's appeal. If crypto is a vast, intricate, and borderline intimidating experience, how might we create a more inviting ecosystem to attract the average person walking down the street? The answer lies in a future where interacting with digital assets is as seamless as making a phone call or sending mail.
Let us uncover the exciting possibilities of simplifying crypto onboarding for mass adoption, how user-centric approaches are the key to unlocking mass adoption, and which communities are leading the charge.
The Danger of Hyper-focusing on Adoption
While we have made significant strides since Bitcoin, the hyper-focus on increasing the number of crypto users has been misguided. Why, you may ask? Because in focusing on adoption, builders often overlook a crucial element – user experience – while touting their product(s) as the tipping point to mass adoption.
Today, the estimated global crypto ownership rate is 4.2% of the worldwide population with approximately 420 million crypto users. Ethereum, the second-largest chain, accounts for over 230 million users. These numbers indicate we are still far from achieving mass adoption as we’re still in the early stages of making the real-world use cases work.
The numbers highlight the significance of user experience in a sector. For instance, in e-commerce, poor design, and a complicated checkout process can lead to many abandoned orders. According to a study by the Baymard Institute, 17% – nearly 1 out of 5 US online shoppers – abandoned their orders in the last quarter of 2022 solely due to a "too long/complicated checkout process."
Based on this observation in a well-established industry, we must consider the impact of poor UX and complicated user flows on crypto adoption. Yes, we are still early, but this is a wake-up call for builders. If we truly want to create a better, more inclusive ecosystem, it is by smoothing out the rough edges and striking a balance between adoption and positive user experiences. Therefore, instead of hyper-focusing on increasing adoption, we should place ourselves in newcomers' shoes to address their pain points and make crypto more user-friendly.
The User’s POV and Pain Points
It's important to remember that not everyone is as familiar with blockchain technology as crypto natives. Many don't have the interest or knowledge to understand the inner workings of these systems. When designing products, it's crucial to consider the perspectives that less tech-savvy users have, especially given the amount of confusing jargon and unintuitive interfaces. Some users may be hesitant to use crypto due to security concerns, which is completely valid if they are not educated with best practices. One way to address this is by conducting thorough audience research and understanding your product’s key user personas.
You are building dapps FOR your user. By understanding their behaviors, mental models, and expectations, you can create personalized experiences that resonate with your target audiences. So invest in research, gather those insights, and build products that cater to your users and their goals!
Web2 to Web3: Design Principles to Keep
Where will the biggest gains in crypto UX lie in the coming years? Will we solve wallet UX and improve crypto onramp or leverage AI to make blockchain transactions human-readable? We must answer these questions to achieve the web3 future we all envision. That said, we can achieve fundamental gains in crypto UX by employing existing web2 design principles and prioritizing simplified architectures. Here are some key considerations:
Clear information hierarchy: Organize information logically so users know where to get what they need. Use visual cues like color, typography, and spacing to guide users' attention and highlight important details.
Minimalism: Though web3 has brought back the joy of using the browser for creative expression, many crypto platforms and use cases require users to understand complex data. For that, we should embrace minimalism for an uncluttered and focused interface: ample white space, intuitive iconography, and UI that highlights the core functionalities of the platform
Responsive design: Today, where screens are everywhere, users expect optimization for cross-platform support like desktops, tablets, and mobile devices and their respective screen sizes So, build with responsiveness at the forefront to accommodate multiple screen sizes for a consistent user experience.
Intuitive navigation: Can users seamlessly move through different pages and sections of your tool? Can they find what they need quickly? Guide them by creating patterns and using friendly language instead of crypto jargon.
Words matter: Words are essential to user-centric solutions and require as much thought and finesse as design and programming. This is especially true when introducing new technology, concepts, and structures, something we face every day as web3 builders Research your users to understand in what contexts they are using your product, then implement a tone and voice in your product copy that matches their expectations and understanding.
Education: Learning a new technology infra is a challenge in overall UX, requiring a more fundamental understanding of your product's work. Help your users learn by providing unintrusive onboarding flows, educational marketing content, product templates, and detailed documentation instead of expecting them to "figure it out."
Onboarding Catalysts: Communities and DAOs
As our ecosystem grows, we must recognize communities' role as powerful onboarding catalysts. In this context, we highlighted communities like Bankless, Gitcoin Grants, and Hacken and explored their approaches and initiatives that ensure their onboarding success, making crypto more accessible.
Bankless and BanklessDAO:
The American poet Robert Frost once said, 'A bank is where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back again when it begins to rain.'
Ain’t that the truth!
Bankless’ mission is to help people discover decentralized finance alternatives to gated traditional financial services. The bankless mission is evident in what it has accomplished since 2020. Today, Bankless is one of crypto’s top sources of alpha news and intellectual dialogue, boasting a podcast, newsletters, a Youtube channel (followed by hundreds of thousands), a wallet, a DAO with ~ 29k members, and ~ 7k active contributors, and finally their $BANK governance token.
Bankless is leading crypto education and onboarding through its content, community-driven initiatives, and intuitive UI. For instance, you can easily access Bankless’ core offerings in the Bankless platform: podcasts in real-time, tailored articles, and crypto tools. But that’s not all! Bankless Academy, a major stakeholder in the DAO mission, provides beginner-friendly, bite-sized lessons on wallet and blockchain basics, web3 concepts, intro to DeFi, DEXes, aggregators, and more. After completing these lessons, users can earn learner badges on-chain, motivating them to continue learning.
Bankless also designed a structured onboarding process for their DAO. They have ten guilds, four departments, various projects, and a grant committee. Before talent joins a guild/project, they must attend a new joiner session where they are introduced to the DAO mission, meet guild leaders, and learn about the DAO’s suite of tools and governance process, all while already contributing to the ecosystem.
Overall, Bankless has a multi-pronged but structured approach to crypto onboarding, providing newcomers with a smooth UX delivered through education and resources, community building, and new products.
Gitcoin
The internet unlocked unlimited opportunities for builders to create and get funded, but Gitcoin took it one step further. Gitcoin is a funding organization and platform for software developers that has sponsored and sustained digital public goods and projects like WalletConnect, Uniswap, Optimism, Tornado Cash, and the 1inch network, all while helping grant over $70m to the overall ecosystem using quadratic funding.
Quadratic funding powers the Gitcoin Grants protocol which launched in 2019. Since then, Gitcoin has received 3.8m unique donations, raised 105 quadratic funding pools, funded ~ 3715 projects with 270k supporters, and prevented $3M+ grant fraud with a $28.2B grantee market cap.
Apart from grants, Gitcoin has built and released other projects like:
Grants Stack for creating and managing your own grants program
Gitcoin passport for decentralized identities (DID) and protocols to defend against Sybil attacks
Allo Protocol, a community capital allocation protocol
Gitcoin has made a name for itself in Web3 with its grants program and other projects while never forgetting the importance of prioritizing UX. There have been multiple Gitcoin rounds and they always provide helpful resources for each of them. For example, publishing documentation on how grantees can apply or showing donors how to donate.
It currently is a Trojan horse onboarding people to Web3 and crypto. Gitcoin demonstrated its capacity in non-crypto projects through the recent successful collaboration with UNICEF. Imagine the onboarding and awareness opportunities should Gitcoin continue collaborating with widely-recognized organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) or the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
One bottleneck is that, despite Gitcoin’s impact on mass crypto adoption, the user experience may vary depending on the donor’s familiarity with cryptocurrency and the specific initiative. For instance, a donor still needs a crypto wallet with cryptocurrency.
Hacken AI
Hacken, a leading web3 security auditor platform, focuses on making Web3 safer for all users. Its flagship all-in-one platform, HackenAI, emphasizes cybersecurity and offers a range of tools, services, and educational resources. Off the bat, HackenAI's website provides a complete overview of its offering with one scroll, showcasing the mission, purpose, and utility. Take a look and compare it to their older website to see the impact of this redesigned experience.
HackenAI also offers the HAI app, a seamless interface that allows users to access services at the press of a button:
A crypto wallet for storing, staking, sending, and receiving crypto on multiple chains
HAI farming and LP deposits
Educational resources on cybersecurity and staying safe in crypto
Cybersecurity and crypto safe practice tutorials
A password manager for storing backup phrases and passwords
Access to all HAI utilities - the project's native token
In 2022, the company created Trust Army, a work-to-earn initiative that pays community members for completing simple blockchain-related tasks. Anyone can join, regardless of their level of crypto experience, by setting up the HAI app and completing relevant modules from Trust Army Academy. The first edition was a hit, recording ~ 4000 soldiers, and it is evident that TA has a core role in onboarding new people into the HAI and crypto ecosystem in the coming years.
Cabin
Another unique community example worthy of mention is Cabin, a DAO making crypto widely accessible by embracing a nature-centric lifestyle. CabinDAO is building a network city: a global collection of coliving properties. Just as a city thrives through its distinct neighborhoods, the Cabin network is a vibrant community of such "cities" accessible to all through the city directory. The allure of Cabin lies in empowering individuals – whether builders, creators, indies, or solopreneurs – to expand their horizons and form bonds with like-minded peers amidst inspiring sights.
But where does cryptocurrency intersect with the Cabin ecosystem? Enter ₡ABIN, the governance token that fuels decision-making within the community. ₡ABIN holders wield authority over project funding, selection of monthly Creator in Residence at Neighborhood Zero, and the approval of new neighborhoods. For now, you can’t buy ₡ABIN, and there are only three ways to get it:
Citizenship: The initial 5,040 Citizens are awarded 25 ₡ABIN each to their wallets.
Neighborhood Referrals: Earn ₡ABIN by referring neighborhoods and outposts to join the City Directory.
Gifts: Fellow Cabin members can gift ₡ABIN as a gesture of appreciation for outstanding contributions to the community.
An exciting development occurred in May when IndieDAO collaborated with Cabin, marking a stride toward realizing Cabin's IRL RPG (in-real-life role-playing game) vision. We hooked them up with a sync system, harmonizing their on-chain activities from multiple chains, such as Hats protocol and Otterspace, into a unified web app experience. With this app, Cabin's community can seamlessly explore member profiles, discover new neighborhoods to explore and monitor activities across the entire ecosystem. The result was a more user-friendly experience, transitioning from scattered utility to consolidated access via the app.
We believe communities will continue to pioneer mass crypto adoption through simplified architectures and provide more opportunities for participation. Like these 3 communities I’ve just introduced, more crypto communities are “waking up” to the need for improving crypto UX to increase adoption.
Final Thoughts: Balance is the key
Poor user experience can create significant friction to mass adoption. Despite the growing access to crypto products, crypto still has a long way to go in becoming more user/beginner friendly.
To build better products, builders should strive to balance positive user experiences and features based on the average user’s POV and pain points. Communities play a vital role in onboarding users brand new to crypto. They can amplify their efforts by collaborating with similar groups, such as co-hosting a blockchain awareness & onboarding initiative to increase their reach.
Lastly, trust is vital for emerging technology, and we must win back confidence and feelings of safety in crypto, especially amid extenuating factors like market volatility, security concerns, and ongoing government discussions on regulation.
What are your thoughts on UX design in web3? Drop a comment to let us know or reach out to Indie to send us your spicy design takes! 🌶️
 | A guest post by
|