Blockchain Designer Profile: Andrew Cohen
Going all in at Infura, the gateway to Ethereum and IPFS.
How did you get involved in blockchain?
A friend from college was talking a lot about Bitcoin when we’d hangout back in 2009. I had always been aware of Bitcoin, but never really dove into the space. My perception was mainly monetary at the time, and it just didn’t pique my interest.
Around late 2016, I started reading more about blockchain and the possibilities of the technology. This was way more interesting to me than cryptocurrency. In early 2017, I purchased a small bit of ETH and BTC as the cryptocurrency craze started taking over all my coworkers. We often talked a lot about the technological uses, but of course money was the main reason most of them were interested in it.
Those that know me well know that I have a habit of going 110% all in on something the second it interests me. I started reading everything I could about blockchain and especially Ethereum. The more I read, the more I fell in love with the idea of decentralization. As someone that grew up on the Internet, I always wanted to be involved with it. To me, Web 3.0 is the next wave, and being able to bring my skill set to that is exciting.
Fast-forward to late-2017 and Sarah Mills reached out to me. Next thing you know, I’m at ConsenSys and couldn’t be happier.
What are you working on now?
Right now I’m the designer on Infura, which provides access to the Ethereum network. We’re an infrastructure company and I often equate us to being like the DigitalOcean or Heroku of Ethereum. Our goal is to make it easy for distributed app developers to have easy access to Ethereum without having to run their own nodes and deal with the complexities of infrastructure.
You’re thinking what does a designer have to do with infrastructure? Plenty. I’m currently improving our marketing messaging, developer resources, and building our first iteration of a developer dashboard. This entails a mix of copywriting, improving our funnel, building out documentation and support ticketing experiences, researching what metrics our users might find useful, prototyping and testing dashboard concepts, and lastly the front-end code to build all of those things.
Outside of Infura, I help with our design team in numerous ways. Things like recruiting, interviewing, culture improvement, process improvement, documentation, and general education. I enjoy leading and coaching up designers since others helped me so much early on in my career. Seeing others being successful in building and shipping products is rewarding and exciting.
What do you enjoy about designing in the blockchain space?
Growing up it was hard to be a mover/shaker on the Internet. At 13 years old I was learning C++, HTML, CSS, building computers, and of course, gaming. It was in my mind that only technical people could be involved. I took classes for programming in high school and eventually went to university for computer science. I quickly changed, after a failed calculus test and an inability to go to class, to design. It was the perfect merger of technology and creativity.
After school I knew I wanted to be involved with design on the web. It was 2007 and designers were for the most part the pretty for marketing websites. Designers weren’t really involved in building products with a lasting impact. Times have changed and we finally have a seat at the table where we can do so much more. After 10 years in design, it’s amazing to be able to bring my wide skillset to this field.
Blockchain is something that could have a lasting impact on so many. Being involved in that is exciting on so many levels for me. Lastly, because it’s moving so fast, it hits on my propensity for working fast while juggling multiple things.
What are some of the challenges you face when designing for users of decentralized apps?
My work is a bit different than others. Infura is more like a traditional tech company than other spokes here. We’re not working on crazy token models yet, but we still have plenty of blockchain-related issues. Things like language, ease-of-use, clarity, smart defaults, and understanding of complex ideas are some of the key things I focus on when designing interfaces.
As we slowly build our developer dashboard it’s hard to figure out what might be useful to developers. We have a unique opportunity with the amount of data in our system. How we expose that, and how we make it useful is something I battle daily.
What advice do you have for a designer new to blockchain?
Dive deep into the ecosystem. Sign up for weekinethereum.com, surf /r/ethereum, and read as much as you can. Typically when you join a new product, you have to learn about that vertical (i.e. fitness). Here you have to learn about your vertical and the ecosystem. A lot of the possibilities that Ethereum promises are new challenges you need to utilize and design for. On top of that don’t be afraid to ask questions. We all suffer from imposter syndrome at times. Everyone is excited for the growth of this ecosystem and more than happy to explain to you what this dataset means.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author above do not necessarily represent the views of Consensys AG. ConsenSys is a decentralized community with ConsenSys Media being a platform for members to freely express their diverse ideas and perspectives. To learn more about ConsenSys and Ethereum, please visit our website.
