Should web3 be visible or invisible? | by Lell | Feb, 2022 | UX Collective — uxdesign.cc

Should web3 be visible or invisible? Designers seem divided on whether apps built on the blockchain should be distinguishable from apps that are not. Since Web3 is in early building stages, we are still forming its design principles and best practices.In an article on how to design for Web3, product designer Derick David writes, “To design a better Web3, people shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Web3 and Web2, meaning it should be familiar to current products that we use every day.” Web3 faces the challenge that it is a complex and novel technology with a lot of components (“airdrop, NFTs, Defi, Solana, Token, ENS, and the list goes on”), which creates steep barriers to adoption. Right now, there’s a learning process required in order to engage with Web3, and there are YouTube videos dedicated to how to do basic steps like set up a wallet — it’s the opposite of invisible.The need to make the design of Web3 invisible is largely the need to make onboarding users to Web3 apps more seamless, and to make the experience as simple as using Web2 applications. Users need to be able to trust, understand, and use applications, and familiarity helps all of those things.Invisibility is also a standard of Web2, so users are already familiar with it— when technology is designed well it is invisible, it blends into the background.Crypto YouTuber and educator Hashoshi predicts that this is what greater adoption of Web3 will look like on an episode of the podcast DAOn the Rabbit Hole — “In 5 years I think we’re going to be making our transition to a world where blockchain disappears, and I don’t mean disappears in the sense that it’s not used, but disappears in the sense that people who are using it don’t know they’re using it.” If Web3 is invisible, it’s completely normalized and familiar. But is making Web3 design familiar, user-friendly, seamless, and even ubiquitous the same thing as making it invisible?There are some important fundamental differences about the experiences of using Web2 and Web3 — in the podcast, Diana Chen points out that in Web2, if you make a mistake you can undo it, like deleting a Tweet you rethought, whereas in Web3 nothing can be deleted. That’s an important concept for users to learn when they start using Web3, and it may be important in certain cases regardless of how long blockchain has been around. In Web3’s early stages, many people are learning that actions cannot be undone the hard way.So there’s also a chance that obscuring the difference between Web2 tech and Web3 tech could prevent users from having essential information they need about their experience. An invisible experience might mean a visible difference in design.In his article Web3 Design Principles, designer Beltran goes the complete opposite direction — “Dapps are fundamentally different from normal web or mobile apps because they are based on, and should strongly convey, the powerful principles enabled by the Blockchain: decentralization, transparency, trustlessness, immutability, uncensorability etc… The objective is that, once applied correctly, a user that lands on a Dapp can immediately tell she is interacting with one and, more importantly, has access to the powerful properties of the Blockchain and therefore knows she can trust every interaction with the application.” While there are benefits to invisibility for onboarding users, there’s also a case for highlighting the differences. Since there is a genuine learning curve to interacting with blockchain and many potential users have doubts or fears, a clear differentiation between Web2 and Web3 could actually make users comfortable enough to engage where they were hesitant before. How invisible should Web3 be? And if users can tell a difference between web2 and web3 projects, what design differences should let them know?These will to be important questions to explore when designing applications for Web3, especially because, as Sarah Mills, lead designer at Consensys, puts it, “Blockchain is serious stuff. Many projects are dealing with people’s identities, large amounts of money, sensitive information, and replacing legacy systems that we may not even fully understand yet.” I think that both approaches have important reasoning behind them that needs to be taken into account in designs for Web3. It seems like there is a lot to gain by trying out concepts from both approaches and seeing when invisibility and visibility are most effective. Sources mentioned How to Design Better Experiences for Web3, Derick DavidWeb3 Design Principles, BeltranDAOn the Rabbit Hole, How Does Blockchain Work and Why Is Gas So Expensive? with Diana Chen and HashoshiDesigning for Blockchain: What’s Different and What’s at Stake, Sarah Mills

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