Designing for Web3: Crafting Useful Products, Beyond DAOs, DeFis, and Wallets - Mercy Kolapo

So the next speaker is going to be talking to us on designing for web 3 crafting useful products beyond dowels defy and wallets in person of Messi Luino Colo. A round of applause for her please. Thank you so much. Do you have designers in the house? UIUX graphics brand identity fashion designer.

Okay. So my name is Tuminu and I'll be speaking briefly about crafting useful products beyond those defies and wallets. So I have a friend who is a designer like me. I'm a product designer by the way. So um some years ago we were having a conversation and he was he has vowed with his life not to have anything during web 3.

So we were I was I was asking him why because it was a conversation and he said he does not understand anything like you know designers are supposed to be problem solvers. Our job is to translate complex problems into beautiful experiences for people. But now the designer does not understand what web three is. It was I think it was around that time when um there was this um NFT marketplace thing. So it was so complicated for him and I was not equipped enough to convince him or to continue the conversation.

So it was just there. And this is a bigger problem when designers who are supposed to be solution providers they do not understand the problem. they cannot provide or translate the problem into a beautiful experience for users. So yeah, there's a complex UX problem of web 3 like um the on boarding process trying to onboard users or trying to trying to design a flow that brings people that on board people to that makes people use a product or a solution we are trying to provide and also um reconciling the transparency of of of blockchain with the um privacy expectations. It is sometimes it can be so difficult to to communicate this to people like who are new to web 3.

And this is our job as designers. It is our job as designers to to make this communication as seamless as possible. And a way to do this is to a way to do this is to to design for everyday users. Like a way to approach solving this problem is to design or build solutions for everyday users. What people want to use every day beyond um beyond defies, beyond wallets because defies are cool but what we have right now they are like um built for cryptons or people who are already familiar with web 3.

But if we want to drive adoption and we want people to to really understand what web 3 is, we need to consider designing for everyday users. We can bring in already existing solutions from web two and design it through a lens of web 3. So yeah, we need to in order to drive adoption, we need to consider building products more practical tools for everyday users. Is this working? Okay.

So, who is a web 3 designer? A web3 designer is simply a designer who designs for web 3. It is as simple as that. We are bringing our skill set from wherever we are coming from web 2, we are bringing that knowledge and we are um using it to build useful products on web 3. So, a web3 designer helps translate complex blockchain um tools into simple, helpful, and even delightful experiences.

Sometimes, depending on your career trajectory, you may want to consider learning how to write codes. But it is not very important. We just need to um understand the basics in order to provide the solution, in order to build useful products for people. So our our job is to craft human human first experiences for the blockchain while making it easy for everyday use. So that's our job as web three designers.

This thing slow okay so there are called principles of UX in web 3. This these principles are they are not new. It is not when um web 3 appeared that they now invented a new UX or um some core principles for for web 3. These principles are what we are familiar with like right from time the normal laws the normal UX laws just that this time we are um applying these laws these these principles that we already know we are applying it in building products useful products for web 3. So the first thing is um to introduce the blockchain gradually.

We are if we are designing for everyday users or we are building products and solutions for everyday users, we must assume that they don't know anything. We must assume that people who are going to use these products are they are ignorant and they don't know anything. So we should introduce the the blockchain or we should introduce web 3 gradually to them. and um the use of friendly language. We should instead of saying verify your identity with a cryptographic signature, say click to confirm you're the owner of this profile.

Like this is just the basics. You need to communicate as clearly as possible. And um we should use friendly language, a friendly language like while trying to to to communicate whatever we are trying to. So the next one is feedback loops and clarity. Always let users know what's happening with tailored copies.

You can use micro interactions, micro animations. Just make them know what is happening. Then the next one is account abstraction and social login. I don't know if you've tried to use a web 3 product and you are thinking that you have no business connecting your wallet. Like you're just thinking within you that you why am I connecting my wallet?

I just want to upload something quickly and they asking me to connect my wallet and some some products will even say okay you can only connect your agent wallet or your um which other wallets and it which is okay by the way because of how the product is being built but sometimes this can this can slow down on boarding. People may find it difficult if they are they are trying to install an extension or um install a wallet in order to use your product. So what we can do is to um use what people are familiar with. There's something called um web three authentication. In fact if connecting wallet is that important they can do it later like you can allow them you experience what you've built for them.

allow them experience the solution before telling them to connect wallet or just use Google login, social login that people are familiar with because we are trying to introduce web three to them gradually. So we should we should um be open to consider these other options in order for us to to also drive adoption and on board people easily. So it is also one of the core principles of UX like applying the already existing um UX principles in web 3. So the next one is anchor trust. There are a lot of irreversible actions on the blockchain especially and we must be able to communicate this as clearly as possible that this thing you're about to do there's no going back.

Once you've done it that's the end. We should not be using dark UX or something that will make people run away from from the solution we built for them. So we should make sure to confirm irreversible actions, explain fees in plain terms and the next one is mobile first design. We should consider the fact that Africa is a mobile first ecosystem and a lot of people are going to access whatever solution you are providing for them through their mobile phones. So whatever solution we are designing or providing we should be mobile responsive.

So I already mentioned the Africa first advantage like um we can bring in already existing solutions what people are already familiar with from web two we bring it to web 3 and design it like through the lens of web 3 use and put something that will make people want to actually make use of the solution we are providing. So um two years ago during config config is um Figma's annual conference. So Brianeski said something he said you can and I quote he said you can design the world you want to live in you don't need permission speak up push your vision if you are leading design try to shape how the entire company thinks. designers can run companies, they can build, they can ship. And during config this year, someone also mentioned it.

I don't know who exactly, but I could see from people's stories that someone was encouraging designers to be founders that um since we understand problems and our job basically is to translate problems into beautiful experiences, why don't we just take ownership like we can ship products, right? So we can build products from scratch to launch. And um this is me encouraging anyone who has any idea as a designer like you can you can be a founder you can you can build products like real solutions for people. So um if you are transitioning into web 3 as a designer or you are just getting started, you might not even be a designer. There are um I I wish I had a background knowledge of how to get started when when I started I think I started designing for web three four years ago and it's it's it has just been okay learning from here learning from here learning from here.

It was it was not easy. And here are some things that I I learned I or I have learned over years. The first one is to learn foundational concepts. And you can learn this from um learn3.io.

There are there are free courses online where you can really learn the basic basic basic basic thing like you need to know what some of these terms are. You need to know the difference between gas and gas fee. If you're designing for defi, you need to know what smart contracts are. You need the background knowledge if you want to provide a solution like for people using web 3 as a technology. So you need the basic knowledge.

You need to have the basic knowledge. You need to learn the foundational concept of um web 3. Then the second one is redesign the flow you use every day through a web 3 lens. It might not even be a flow you use every day. It might be something maybe just an idea that you have in your head and just redesign it through this is this is you practicing right.

So then the next one is join web three communities. This one is very very very very important. There will be someone in a community who has walked the path you are about to who will be willing to hold your hands through and guide you through. there will be someone within a community who will be willing to collaborate with you and explain things to you. Things you will not just find and and learn on your own.

So it is very important for you to belong to web3 communities whether they are design friendly or whether they are um your career friendly or not. You need to join web three communities active ones actually. Then collaborate with web3 developers for acadons and worldclass projects. Some people also they they may lack um you may lack ideas or you may not know what what may actually fly and a way to gain hands-on experience is by collaborating with developers and most times you will find developers in communities. If you just go to your maybe your WhatsApp status to announce that oh you are looking for a developer to collaborate with this this this will not answer you because everybody's looking for money.

But if you belong to a community and maybe you have an idea and you need someone or you need developers or you need other people because you are not the only one in a community there are other people within the community who will have interest in whatever idea you have. So it is again it is very important to join web three communities active web three communities because that is where you will find people who are um of the same mind as you. So then use chain abstractions, social login tools and progressive onboarding to simplify complexity. So make sure that as you are trying to provide the solution of whatever whatever idea you are trying to implement, you are also keeping it in mind that we have an onboarding problem in web 3 and you are um solving this problem as much as possible. Yeah, last month I took a course.

It's a developer course actually. It is not very design friendly but because of my background I used to write codes before I transition into design. it was quite easy for me like it was it was it wasn't something so difficult for me and I I got reminded of how um as much as designers are trying to understand users understand their pain point and provide solution to those problems we also need to consider the already existing solutions we need to consider the the workflows from from developers There there are some things that we we will not be able to change as designers and if we come up with solutions when we come up with solutions and we feel like this is the right thing this is the absolute thing it may not be compactable with the solution that the developers are providing. So I taking this course made me know something that as much as I'm um it reminded me of something that as much as I am designing for people I'm providing solutions for people I must also consider I'm seeing the solution from the end of the developer as well like what is already available and I'm working hand in hand to translate to to translate the solution and the the problem or the pain point to in order to to come up with something that will work something that will not will not give people problem. It will not give the users problem.

It will not give the the um developers or the other people working on the solution problem. So yeah, I'm learning how to translate all of these things. I learned or I'm still learning how to translate all of these things into trust through copy flow and um clarity. So the summary of all I've been saying since is um the fact that web 3 adoption fails not for the lack of tech but for the lack of human- centered designs and um we as designers are here to bridge that gap to solve that problem. So designers are very important.

Our job is to translate the tech the solution into trust and make people actually embrace the solution. So we should make sure to use the power of progressive disclosure, account abstraction and human friendly human language to communicate this solution to users. And um we already have the ecosystem Africa's real world patterns are the world's next web 3 opportunity. So we should start now and um design something that works and something that does actually it has to be beautiful and it has to work. So, thank you for listening.

Thank you very much. A round of applause for her, please. Thank you.