“You are not the user!”
-every UX designer ever
This phrase is one of the guiding tenets of UX philosophy. Juniors often latch onto it and repeat it like a mantra. To themselves, to colleagues, to stakeholders. To anyone who cares. They write it on post-it notes and stick it to their screens. After all, the point of user-centred design is to make things better for the actual user.
This is usually taken to mean: make it as simple as possible and don’t assume too much of the user.
etc
In web2, typically the user has less technical knowledge than the design team.
In web3, sometimes the user has more technical knowledge than the design team.
But in both cases, the phrase rings true: “you are not the user”.
Which means that in web3, against all prior experience, you possibly have to scale up your expectations.
This is a hard topic to write about, because UX designers have such strong opinions on making things user-friendly. When a new designer gets involved in DeFi, the initial reaction is usually something like “wtf is this? How does anyone use this stuff?!” They are usually so daunted by the steep learning curve that they totally forget that crucial instruction: “you are not the user.”
I have run into this issue so many times with other designers - either colleagues I worked with, or people that have reached out - that I think it’s worth tackling head-on.
Because actually, quite a lot of people are using web3 apps. Billions of dollars are locked in protocols. And based on the tenor of conversations I see on Twitter, people seem quite passionate about them.
So before we rush to tear down what’s there and build it all anew, spare a thought for the current user. The one who made it big in 2020. The one who approved some random smart contracts and hoped for the best. The one who consistently tries the newest and riskiest apps because they want a first-mover advantage. The one who’s farming 30 different tokens on ten different chains. The one who games airdrops by making micro-transactions on a dozen different wallets. The one who said “stop asking questions ser, and take my money - let’s ape.”
They also found it hard, but pushed through regardless.