With the new year rolling in, the annual question of "will this be the year the blockchain grabs mainstream?" is again making the rounds. Some of it is wishful thinking, some of it is hype. But there is one thing blockchain apps MUST do to ever have a chance of "mainstreaming" and until they accomplish this, mainstream will continue to walk away.
Build a user friendly frontend and/or include HELPFUL, easily understood help screens.
One thing I learned long ago before the internet was more than Prodigy and AOL was to never ever let the people who wrote the code also write the user manual, or the screens the user would see. Today there are UI designers who specialize in designing user interfaces that make it easy for anyone to interact with the program.
Check out most of the apps in the blockchain world today, and easy is absolutely not the word that springs to mind when trying to figure out what to do on that page. Not only are most lacking a user friendly interface, but help screens are usually non-existent. Mainstream users have become used to seeing a little question mark next to a field that will give some sort of tool tip for what is required in that field or how to use that function. Mainstream users have become accustomed to these handy help messages and look for them and use them to find their way around a new program.
Some very useful Dapps have another degree of complexity added in - the collection and conversion of the coin token used with that blockchain. The poor end user is overwhelmed by not only the program itself, but by the addition of a new type of exchange - block tokens that can be converted to fiat money after jumping through innumerable hoops.
Let’s take Steemit, the #1 ranked Dapp on State of the Dapps, as an example. A very useful program that at its core rewards users for making blog type posts. There are millions of people posting to a Word Press site of some sort, often on a daily basis. But there are nowhere near those numbers using Steemit. The idea of getting paid to post a blog article should have masses of people beating down the door wanting to give Steemit a try. What could be holding them back?
After bringing several people into the Steemit community, I think I have the answer, or at least part of it. The questions I got from each of these people were pretty much the same. It should be noted that each of them has been online for a number of years, and two of them have been making their living from online work - they are “newbies” to the net!
The first thing that threw them was markup language. They were all used to the slick WordPress type interface and having to put a bunch of #’s or <’s or other arcane symbols was new to them. There is a handy help for markup built in to the editing page, but there are two problems with it.
It’s not accessed where a user would look for it, and it gives no examples about how to use HTML with Markup. So common things, like centering an image, or flowing text around a left aligned image is left up to the user to discover. In the world they come from, it’s a one click solution - no knowledge of HTML is really required although you can jump into raw code to make changes if you wish. The poor user is left with either researching solutions to formatting issues on their own, or having a pretty bland looking article that’s hobbled by the limitations of the few Markup commands and examples present in the help area.
The user finally does get a post written and live, and then comes the really fun part - upvotes, comments, and “money”. Trying to wrap their head around the different “tokens” - Steem, Steem Power, and SBD is confusing for anyone new to the system. What is a delegation? What is a witness? What is the difference between Steem and SBD? WHY are the upvotes paid partly in both? What the heck is voting power anyway?
And the most often asked question I got was “Why can’t I answer a comment? It says I don’t have enough something or other.”
The answer to these questions are found in links to articles - some of which are badly outdated, most of which are not particularly easy to follow, no matter what language is native to the user. It becomes painfully obvious that no qualified UI designer or talented user manual writer has ever tackled the task of clearly explaining what the user needs to know to have a good experience on this platform.
Then comes the third party exchanges necessary to convert that SBD or Steem to the cryptocurrency and fiat of choice. Those exchange platforms are not created equal and some are more difficult to maneuver than others. Signups are not “sign up with Google” or “sign in with your Twitter account”, but must meet the KYC requirements. Again, this step can be difficult when the directions are unclear - a frequent occurrence with many of the platforms.
Thus, to do something that should be simple - write a blog post, get paid by token, and transfer that token to crypto or fiat, becomes an exercise in frustration every step of the way. This frustration could be alleviated by a user friendly interface and clear, concise user help areas.
This issue is shared with many of the Dapps no matter what blockchain is being used. And Steemit is not the worst by far! Many apps I’ve looked at are a total maze of confusion for the average user. It's difficult to move a user from a system or program they are comfortable with to a new system or program at any time. When that new system or program is difficult to use, or has a long learning curve, it will not be quickly adopted by mainstream users.
No Dapp will have a breakout year where they capture mainstream users by the millions without making it easy and intuitive for average users coming from the conventional internet world to use their application.
Instead of asking “Will 2019 be the year that mainstream comes to the blockchain?” I’d rather ask “Will 2019 be the year Dapp companies recognize the value of user friendly UI’s and clear, concise help areas?” If they do, the mainstream masses will follow and 2019 will be a banner year for blockchain apps everywhere.
All images courtesy of Pixabay