Rethinking web3 wallet onboarding
The Polkadot ecosystem has been widely criticised for providing a poor user experience and being unnecessarily complicated. Many existing tools have been designed with developers and power-users in mind but do not cater to those who are exploring from other crypto ecosystems or just getting started in web3.
In order to establish strong network effects, onboarding new users into the Polkadot ecosystem is vital, and a wallet is usually the first touchpoint for most users. Setting up a wallet needs to be fast and simple, allowing the user to complete their first transaction in as few steps as possible.
In addition, users also need a way to fund their wallet so that they can start using applications within minutes. With this in mind, we’ve added a fiat on-ramp directly into the wallet, making it easier for users to buy their first $DOT and get going on their Polkadot adventure. We’ve partnered with one of the leading on-ramp providers, Banxa who currently supports DOT, KSM, MOVR & ETH with more Polkadot assets coming.
After speaking with many wallet users from different crypto ecosystems, it became apparent that people want to take a look around before deciding to go all-in on a new wallet. This shaped our design decisions to cut back the onboarding process and make it as simple as possible, so users can get into the wallet and explore the ecosystem faster.
We took our existing onboarding flow, broke it down into steps, and counted the number of clicks that a user would need to take to achieve their goal of simply setting up a wallet. We also explored other Polkadot wallets and found that the onboarding experience ranged between 4 to 8 steps. However, the number of clicks was anywhere from 7 to 100+ (yes, really) if they wanted to access all the networks within the Polkadot ecosystem.
With our new onboarding experience, we have been able to condense the flow down into 3 steps and 4 clicks. A step being defined as a screen where the user needs to take an action.
This was made possible by utilising a number of techniques:
- Combining several screens together, e.g. the Terms of Use and creating an account screen.
- Delaying specific actions that the user needs to take until after the onboarding flow e.g. confirming the seed phrase or purchasing crypto to fund their wallet.
- Being careful around focusing the keyboard and making sure the user was able to start typing in any text field without clicking.
- Auto completing steps without requiring the user to click or take action eg. naming an account.
The goal of experiences like we have created is to make web3 and Polkadot more accessible to crypto and non-crypto users alike. We’re pleased to see more and more people trying Talisman and choosing it as their default wallet across Polkadot and Ethereum.
“Used your wallet (Talisman) today when transferring USDT.xc, a really good experience. I only used Polkadot JS before, night and day difference.”
Tim — CEO Beamswap
To get started in the Polkadot ecosystem, download Talisman at https://talisman.xyz/download and onboard in three quick steps:
- Create a new wallet
- Choose a password
- Opt in to (or out of) analytics and error reporting
That’s it! No need to name your account, select the networks you want to use, be forced to enter your seed phrase in a random order, solve a google captcha or call your Mom.
Please join our Discord and chat with us, we’d love to hear your feedback!
About Talisman
Talisman is a web3 wallet that unlocks a universe of applications in Polkadot and Ethereum. The Talisman browser extension allows you to safely store, send and receive assets. Use it to connect to applications across Polkadot, Kusama and their Parachains.
Talisman is non-custodial, audited, supports Ledger devices and is also Ethereum compatible, letting users store, manage and transact with Ethereum dapps.
