Nuno Loureiro - Is Design the final frontier to mass adoption?

Transcript

so welcome to my talk I will be talking about design for something different so why this talk uh mostly because that's we need to start talking about design on this kind of cont a lot more I think it's something that we all feel that it's needed within the ecosystem experience user facing user Centric whatever you call it we need more design and then again yeah so every now and then we hear these things all over the place and just by the own conference I'm the only one talking about design so let's try to bring this in the table and that's why

I'm doing this talk mainly because of that so if I manage to do this talk right now it's already a win because we need to think about design so that's it I'm done thank you now I'm kidding so if you go whatever Twitter whatever podcast whatever publication and you see a lot of things talking about experience ux it's broken it's not ready for the user it's not that thing so this is why I'm doing this thing this is so okay so I end up giving a title to this kind of in the question try to answer this question during this talk let's see if I can do this so Mass adoption it's kind of yes design it's a

last frontier and we we all assume that it's the the very end it's the users we are working for for for the users in the end we are building products we are building infrastructure whatever you call it but some of them might think no the tech is not ready probably might not be the final frontier probably might not be that and so in the end it depends depends on what you're looking for so let's try to unpack this a little bit but to start though hello my name is Nuno I came from Lisbon um I've been a designer for over 20 years in a lot of different things like I like my white hair on my face tells you that I'm a bit older than some of

you so I have some experience and that's why I'm trying to bring that to a new area which is the web three space so this is where I spend all my day I work at ethereum.org I build this platform this is a community-driven um uh learning platform for ethereum it's well known I hope every everyone here knows and being there at some point and learned something from it I really truly hope that you keep going there and join the community help us Build The Better community-driven platform uh out there so this is me so back to back to to the topic so let's identify what is a frontier in this perspective so a frontier is something that it's on the edge to be explored something that is

new something that we don't know the outcome that um somehow you want to feel that uh it's the next thing that you know on a break that you going explore whatever that is so that's what I call the frontier and and yeah design so there's a bunch of different ways of defining what you've designed but uh I just chosen a bunch of keywords so problem solving functionality Aesthetics user cented Innovation communication this fits on the big picture of what is designed so in that sense both of them might might um might work well but with the lens of web 3 we might add

that design can help on the learning curve on like balancing security and usability what it's secure like how can that be useful and how can users engage with more secure products educating so we can help a lot of educating and uh sometimes design is not on the educating phase so there's a lot of new things on the field and Trust transparency and honesty so that's another field that probably designed it's not really what you think of as a designer but um and even on the on the yest part I just wanted to to bring something to you guys do you know what this is do you know the other hams famous designer German from Brown he started the 10 principles of good design this is not the topic of it

I just wanted to bring one analogy because in the end the number six it's about honesty so somehow now when we talk about trust your UI and put the products honest products in front of the users somewhere down the line in the 60s Way Way Back someone was talking about this anymore and just for for the reference that's why he was important like we all use probably if you have an iPhone on your pocket you have a the hams based calculator for sure because it's where JN I've inspired all the products so again and then this is this is a design talk so I need to have an apple reference so that's that's why and

more of that like I had two references this was my second reference from the beginning so that's an side joke okay back to the topic I wanted to try if it is a frontier normally you understand like like a field like a layer something that you can build upon or being on top of it so what I see is that design is kind of the window it's kind of the thing that you need to put in in front of all the users and something that we don't discuss anymore we don't use that much so you have the code the data the chain whatever like all those big words all those big tag that it's like the backbone of everything but we need to talk we need to spend more time thinking about the users who are the users who

are who are we working for and then in the end behind it there's another layer which is all the ethos all the values that uh we stand upon and we build upon and we think that they are the true Ral way of Building Products within the we3 environment so again this was the inspiration do you know the cover from the pink Floy so it's another pop reference there yeah funny so um I I have a few topics might be assorted might not be connected with each other but I I wanted to bring them in order probably to pick a little bit your brains on some some ways of thinking differently about design and

about incorporating Design Within your field whether you're developer researcher C developer whatever you're doing within the within the field might be one way of doing so I will bring some topics and this is one of them first one Web Two web three can bring disruption and I come up with this image did you saw the the movie poor things just went to the Oscars and if you if you didn't like there's uh well I I will not do a spoiler but there's a bunch of animals that are like half of one animal and half of the other and sometimes it's that this is how I feel some of the products that we are shipping right now it's kind of you're using the browser and inside the browser

there's a metamask thing coming up that it doesn't feel like within the product but it's a wallet but it connects to the other thing so when I was building the presentation this was what came to my mind probably I saw the film recently I was mind I did I really think this is how I feel what we are shipping right now but it's what it is the tech is not ready but design needs to adapt so somehow it feels a little bit weird this thing another thing that I that we as designers need to take it that new patterns new ways of interacting with products will emerge from this and for web 2 this was this is one example that I've always bring to

I'm not sure if you remember but back in the day Twitter was a good company do you remember Twitter has a good company yeah it was cool has an API but they had only the website back then and everything all the apps were made by Third parties so there's a a bunch of value do you remember twey uh tweet deck all those were independent startup this build upon the API and that drove Innovation and the best example is this do you know that pull to refresh was born in a Twitter app called TWD back then and it was against the rules against Apple rules they had to fight to put that and now we take it from Granite like now it's built within the apis of of the operating system on your phone either Android or

or um or iPhone but this thing was a new thing was widely discussed in in in in in the in the design field uh was widely discussed in the in the in design field is it good is it bad because before pull to refresh you had to had a button on top to refresh the feed like it was like a circle with you would refresh the feed like on email or or whatever field you had you had a button and some guy like why don't I do refresh this is a new pattern this is a new thing and I'm sure that within web 3 we will come up with new parents that will become a norm in way because we are dealing with emerging technology new ways of interacting with code with the experiences so we need to be open to do this I'm probably this will not pass any

user testing at this point and the users would say oh this doesn't feel natural this is not my way of doing so we need to be ready to new patterns emerging another thing that normally I refer as an example it's the car like user don't know what that is blockchain underneath it's kind of a statement that um I don't agree fully so they don't need to do know everything about blockchain but they need to know a little bit about blockchain and the car analogy is the same thing we all know what cars is we all know that's a motor under the hoods but I'm guessing a lot of us don't know how the work like how the engine really works like what pieces are there what blocks does does it compose the motor but we all drive we know what the wheel

is we know what the brake is so it's kind of the analogy that I do relate to users that they need to know something in order to do to know what they are doing the risks involved probably they don't don't need to know on detail which block it is which signature whatever thing it's happening so the analogy here for the cars is kind of something that I've always bring up to say that there's a middle ground and you need to educate the users at some points and we need to find what is that that middle ground oh yeah the next one it's like it's probably it's because of the meme thing that's going on uh it's it's kind of um too much but uh I'm tired of being funny I'm tying of jokes I'm tying of user

interfaces that doesn't bring trust there's a bunch of apps out there that uh they don't realize they don't um portray that trust that you need for the users to be able to like exchange funds do whatever they they need to do so let's stop doing this once and for all and we has designers have probably a better job to do this because we need to step up our game and start do things more credible so we have a job to do here yeah another one this is probably for devs like has a designer it's really hard to navigate the space so probably

this might be one of the reasons that we don't have the user experience that we might expect at some point like look at this like if I want to understand what's going on if I want to like incorporate some new thing within my products how can I find what's going on what's happening what's going to be shipped what's going to next upgrade how can I not a technical driven guy more a user Centric design Centric can navigate this kind of thing this is a good example this is the way it is it's it's really hard to to do community-driven Approach at the same time but probably we need to have we as designers have fault here as well so we need to understand better what's happening so the example we need to communicate more in the like a core devs with more user Centric research

approach so we need to have H more of that the other one it's kind of this is like a personal peeve probably personal thing it's like I we've heard some sometimes like my mother would not use this this is too complex but why should your mother use this probably this is for your kid probably we are targeting the wrong generation so we are building the New Frontier we not we new technology that will be adopt by the youngsters not the elders so we need to understand them we need to understand what is the Tik Tok generation how do they use the products how do they engage with with with the data how do they perceive what's happening there's a lot of things that go goes on and probably under this generation the lastest one

will be the one that will drive adoption in the end so when whenever I hear oh my mother will not use this is too complex probably she is on the very end of the long tail probably the first adoption will be the kids so you need to think the interfaces we need to think the products for the kids for the youngest for the one that is 14 20 something around that and we need to understand them that they grew up in the centralized company uh environment where Spotify is their music where probably they never bought a book or rarely read a book because they don't own books they don't own things and we want to give them ownership of stuff of being ownership so there's kind of a way of mixing stuff that we need to understand

how to talk to them so this is one of the the things that probably need to think while thinking products uh the other one it's like the jargon now this is something that we at the.org always talk about like the learning perspective how can we dism mistify some of the jargon we need to be careful at some point but we need to understand that the users will not understand what is this like try to explain what is a dow to someone that's isn't outside like it's really hard to understand so there's a bunch of tricks like um analogies like I did with a car uh using icons and we need to be careful that's that's why those two icons we need to be careful about the schori do you remember the schori back in the Apple the beginning so the

relationship between like I have a kind of a thing with a wallet the naming wallet a wallet that is not a wallet probably it's just to store your key not quite a wallet so the name wallet by itself it's not the best it's the best we came up with I understand that but probably not the best probably it's more close to a key than to a wallet so as a designers we can step up a little bit and be more sure that all the metaphors that we use need to be the right ones but it's important to um dism mistify these words understand how to explain them to someone that comes from the outside the other one it's more on the find users when they are so we are in uh in Switzerland we are within ourselves

we talk a lot with ourselves we are within a bubble and uh we need to step up the bubble a lot more go to other geographies go to other count understand the needs because they in the end they will be the the drive for the adoption so um understand who are in the end those geography those needs like third world countries uh other problems understand what problems are we trying to solve with web 3 specifically and not just going to because it's fun it's Tech it's hard like and and go on like that um so the nine one it's um probably most for designers at this point which is the design culture uh we drive we evaluate a lot a

lot of the things from web one web 2 and probably prior to that and we need to stop a little bit to think that shipping products within web 3 is different thinking about the users it's different we need to understand those differences and incorporate it in our way of working and probably something that I've been advocating even more it's open source design something that you don't talk you have open source code and the design it's still is in closed doors still is developed by a few you might use figma might ask for feedback but probably we should sh share more the pain points share what's happening like if you're building a wallet probably share your your figma file at some point with the community try to get a feedback try to put that on GitHub repo why not close to

the code like if you want to inspect the code why not inspect all the screens all the all the layout all the flows like who's using what that's important as well so why don't we do more of this um it will help W trap probably the conversation we'll help Drive adoption we'll have we'll help new products emerge like let's do this has a community has an open Community like why don't just code just open source design as well let's open up the process like there's nothing wrong with it so in the end I'm almost finishing yeah design has the power to humanize and enhance the impact of new technologies so this is something that I want to resonate in all of you this is probably the the the modotto of this

talk like let's use design to empower and bootstrap the technology and make it available to everyone so in the end my own thing it's yeah it's yes design will be the last frontier I'm not sure if we are there yet but design will be the last fun cheer to mass adoption and this is kind of what I've wanted to to bring to you guys thank you so much thank you very much Nuno from the ethereum foundation um any questions already some hands up so let's start there yeah thanks a million I mean for the people in the audience if could can you hear me yeah

ah great uh thanks for the awesome talk it was really fun um can you give me an example of a well-known app that did really well and not ethereum.org and then one that did really bad I can I not do that yeah no because there there's a lot of um errors in like there's a lot apps it's really hard but um I don't want to pinpoint just one app saying well this is bad this is good I think it's not the place to be I don't I don't want to like talk about specific experience here I want to just keep it open keep it open minded to everything we all know some apps have a really bad user experience something is happening sometimes it's related to the code and it's not the

design fault the designer is doing the best like it happens a lot but I don't really like to pinpoint specific products like oh this is bad this is good I think this is not the place to do it great in what sense sorry let me let me because I mean we hear you but probably the people up up there don't yeah maybe just a good practice I don't know how the I don't know even the renaming of one button helps really for the apps I I I do every conversation that I have out there I think design is growing even here I was talking yesterday uh with someone it's talking about we adop design we we think about

design I think everyone that is building some sort of interface whatever that is thinks about how it's used but again they first think about the product toomics oh how can I make the toomics how can I I want to do this and then the UI and we need to change a little bit that practice probably get a designer in the room to begin with to think about what you're doing even if it is hard for designer and and I I speak for myself a lot of my colleagues don't want to be they like this is like some of these talks that we've just seen too technical I think we as designers need to be here and the other way around goes like you guys need to be close to designers as well and change ideas because having a creative mind within your like small room thinking about the product thinking

about like the core toomics of it or whatever it's the flow of the the user oh I want I think this will be a good product let's build something like this okay but let me get a designer here first and start thinking about that I think you will improve the flow if if it helps okay um thanks for the talk really interesting uh I'm the lead designer at oron so really feeling uh your sayings here also about the open source thing uh so one big question I have how many designers are you at ethereum sorry how many designers are you at ethereum Foundation a few yeah so in my team we are two of us there are a few more are

doing more Communications and psse has a lot of them so we do have a lot of designers on the research field uh and they do amazing work okay uh go the the previous talk from from my colleague from the PSC go to their websit uh and check all the projects that they are working on and all of them have a designer init so it's something that that it's that is growing and they are doing an amazing job okay on the research side yeah thanks I mean like my side here is a little bit um there is a big disc ceny between designers and developers as you mentioned right the knowhow transformation um and um yeah also the process to get to to a product or or or a protocol even like decisions

in Protocols are often like front run before you even think about the experience itself let's say also the Nets speec documentation right uh where do you trust the information is coming from um yeah and I really think like that's that's a big topic we need to but again that's that's why the going back to the first slide that's why that's why I'm doing these talks in these events because it's it's just opening the door like putting in your mind probably you're a core core researcher at some point you're just mathematical geek that does stuff that I don't know probably and probably should think about design just talk with the designer at some point just get get somewhere like how useful this how can you help me thinking

about like at least communicating what I'm doing and understand how can it be used that's what PSE does within within EF but I I know that a lot of other companies are building new X teams right now um so it's growing but even so we need to talk more about this that's probably the purpose of being here we need to to talk more about the the user and not the technology that much even though it's important yeah uh thank you very much for the talk my question is about uh the role of security in the current design um like Journey oh I guess blockchain apps and all that stuff for example obviously you know like it was very cool how Twitter did the whole

pull down refresh thing uh but when we're talking about our crypto apps we're also talking about people owning their keys and a wrong button could you know drain their wallet so to speak so are we really at a point where we should be thinking about user experience and usability and all that stuff or is the technology not there yet from the security point of view you know say smart account abstraction whatever all that type of stuff yeah it's a great question um security like I said in the beginning where design can help it's educating in security we've never designed for security like it's it's almost never the reason to do that and one a good example is that we did a shitty job in web too so the the user

password uh thing that we are used to it it's really bad so there there's a bunch of uh scams and hacks and things going on in the web 2 as well and probably we don't think of we just think about web 3 because it requires funds it's it's it has value attached to it but how many big companies have been under like hacking and being like security itself is a problem for the whole scope not just for this but for this specifically design can help and we should have a design thread a specific design thread to help understand where where is up until when the user needs to know where's the risk up until when a key it's portrayed has a key up until when account obstruction can help in which

cases how can we show what can we show what's the flow like even the spinning and keeping like the screen that say this is the 12 um key uh like store it that's Dam thing like o you're scaring the user right in front of them might not the best one but it's the best one that you have right now um so we are going we we're going to be better with time but design can help so please get a designer in the room as fast as possible uh like hire designers be with them I don't know I'm I'm just advocating for them probably for my own species species uh so um work with them they will improve the flow for sure amazing

thank you very very much Nuno a round of applause once more to Nuno from thean Foundation