Products as Portals: Designing dApps for Communities
Blockchain designer Andrea (Andy) Morales analyzes Web 3.0 UX and shares some predictions and pro tips.
“In the crypto space, designers get a seat at the dev table.” –Andy Morales, Senior Design Strategist at the Cryptosystem Productization Lab
How did you get involved in blockchain?
In 2014, I came to the U.S. on a scholarship to study a Master’s in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons. I had always been interested in technology, games, and economics, and had even worked in the first two areas in Costa Rica, but it wasn’t until I started working on my Master’s thesis that I realized I could mix the three disciplines.
My initial instinct was to design new ways to lessen the influence of intermediaries like Steam, since I was already noticing that my game designer friends were having a hard time dealing with the lack of scarcity in digital economies. Their games would always have to be priced at 1 or 2 dollars, because there was no scarcity in distributing platforms for games. I even started a project called Following the Green Light, but that quickly came to a halt when my professors at Parsons asked me if I’d be interested in going one step further by exploring the design of money and value themselves. That kickstarted my journey down the crypto rabbit-hole, and by 2015 I was deeply entrenched in crypto-communities that were full of artists, theorists, and economists, like MoneyLab or Nettime.
My thesis, called I Owe Us, ended up being about the creation of a decentralized local currency infrastructure for the community of the Berkshires. It included physical objects that could compete with credit cards and cash registers, and a game for people to visualize their local economy as a community.
What are you working on now?
I am the Senior Design Strategist at the Cryptosystem Productization Lab. Our mission is to move beyond theory and discover the limits and real properties of novel cryptosystems by observing them in production, and using that data to improve them through design and engineering. I think it’s a great fit for me as it’s a lab with experimental ambitions and a rapid-prototyping flare.
We currently have two products in the works and one that has already launched. All of them are Token Curated Registries, but we might begin production of other cryptosystems in the future. As a design strategist, I’ve had my hand in product ownership, strategy, research, rapid prototyping, and UX/UI. Too many hats, but all of them enjoyable.
What do you enjoy about designing in the blockchain space?
It’s a space where hybrid designers are welcome and encouraged. Since the scene is moving so fast, you have to mix and match different influences in design at breakneck speed to bring something new to the space. That can be stressful, or it can be a huge opportunity, since you’re empowered to be creative, bring new ideas, and put them to the test.
Also, because the interest in user-centeredness is still nascent, designers get a seat at the dev table in ways that I hadn’t experienced during my consulting years. People will actively listen to what you have to say. It’s refreshing.
What are some of the challenges you face when designing for users of decentralized apps?
Over the past few months, I’ve been pondering how to accelerate user adoption, and what appropriate community management looks like in dApps. I tend to see our products as portals into a broader ecosystem of ConsenSys tools, and we are just beginning to find out how to best introduce users to the big world of Ethereum. That foray could and should involve designers in the creation of the cryptosystem itself so that it’s friendly to users’ initial needs. A Web3 onramp should be designed around continuous community engagement in order to foster a healthy micro-economy.
“Look at dApps as windows into communities with their own economies.”
The biggest challenge right now, then, is to look at dApps as windows into communities with their own economies. We should be designing with this mindset, and my prediction is that game design and community organizing will be big influences in our work as designers for dApps.
What advice do you have for a designer new to blockchain?
Don’t get caught up in the incredibly fast production cycles that this field incentivizes, or in the newfound power that designers are given as torch-bearers for the users of dApps.
Keep up with all the commits and pull requests, and produce quickly, but surround yourself with others who can act as checks and balances to this speed. Remember that good strategy is good design, and you’ll probably have to put on your strategist hat on more than you think. Take a breath.
Finally––without meaning to be cheesy––with great power comes great responsibility. Developers will look to you to bring the user’s voice to the table, but that doesn’t mean that you are yourself the user. Research in parallel to your work, and include your users as much as you can in your process. Also, get caught up with systems thinking: there’s a lot in there that dApp designers will need when designing for a decentralized technology.
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.
