The entire blockchain space is still in its infancy.
Anyone who has used the Ethereum blockchain to do anything realizes the blockchain world is still in version 1.0. Well-designed software products that solve real problems and which can be used by average people are still fairly rare in the blockchain space.
We all remember how Cryptokitties brought the Ethereum blockchain to its knees. Actually, the Cryptokitty user experience was okay, but the underlying tech, the Ethereum blockchain, was responsible for creating the cumbersome Cryptokitty experience due to its inability to process large amounts of transactions quickly. And the gas fees were also a negative.
Decentralized social media apps are in their emergence phase, and they are all trying to solve problems that centralized social media giants created. The race is officially on.
But the centralized media companies still do one thing very well that currently is challenging for the decentralized social media apps: user experience (UX). Decentralized social apps are behind in this area for several reasons, one being the slow speed of most blockchains and the other being the fact that the blockchain space is not developed yet.
There is one decentralized social app, however that seems to get the user experience part right and it’s called Partiko. I found Partiko by accident over a month ago, and have been using it continuously ever since. I liked using this app so much that I’m now working with the Partiko team as a content creator.
Many of you might be curious what my new role with Partiko entails. Firstly, Partiko will be the official sponsor of my new project named MAKECRAZY. This project is similar to the Banana Program that I developed over a month ago, which rewards people who do social and creative tasks. Its aimed to create a way for people to explore their imagination and get rewarded for being social, too. I’m also writing articles for Partiko. I’m very excited to be working with the Partiko team and 
Before we delve into the user experience characteristics of Partiko, let’s review what user experience or UX actually is since it’s quite the buzzword nowadays. The concept of UX was popularized in 1993 with Apple’s VP of the Advanced Technology Group, Don Norman,.
“A good user experience is the intangible result of a variety of core elements — including the architecture, user interface, human interaction, usability, functionality, materials/frameworks, and guidance/instructions — working together seamlessly to meet the needs, preferences and goals of your target audience. It heightens your product's ability to be useful, usable, and most of all, enjoyable to your users. -https://www.chasmcommunications.com/what-is-ux/
If one of these areas fails, people get grumpy and then they tell all their friends about it.
Everyone in the blockchain space talks about “going mainstream”, but few grasp how network effect is actually achieved.
It’s pretty simple: your experience using a new product is so good that you end up telling all your friends about it. And then your product is both easy to find and easy to use, so your friends end up trying it. If the UX is exceptional, your friends end up using it, too. Products that solve human problems will always be in demand. But most companies and teams fail at good UX. Most teams don’t understand how critical UX is.
Let’s see how the Partiko app performs in the areas of user experience (UX). This review includes both positive feedback and areas that need improving.
Architecture
The Partiko app uses the existing Steem blockchain, which can process thousands of transactions per second. Partiko uses the SteemConnect sign-in process, which has been deemed safe. The Partiko app is very fast, you won’t even realize you’re on a blockchain. Its speed is similar to popular social apps like Twitter. By using the decentralized, server-less Steem blockchain, Partiko can save on server and infrastructure costs and remain agile. The Android and iOS Partiko apps were built using native programming languages.
Negatives: Being dependent upon the Steem blockchain means that when unexpected outages or hardforks occur, there’s nothing Partiko can do. On the flipside, this means that Partiko is not directly responsible for any service interruptions on the blockchain layer.
User Interface
The app is easy, efficient, and user-friendly. The icons in the Partiko app are simple, intuitive, recognizable and well-designed. Partiko’s design aesthetic is minimalistic, simple and clean. There’s adequate white space to ensure the icons are easy to select. There are 5 icons at the bottom, which is just the right number to fit in the app. The fonts and text colors are very appealing. Three dots to the right of posts are intuitive, as they indicate a menu.
Negatives: it took me a month to figure out how to see my list of followers. This is because I tapped on the word “followers” not the number of followers. I would change the “hot zone” to include both the number of followers and the word followers.
Human Interaction
Instant notifications tell you when someone votes, replies or resteems your article. The existence of notifications allows you to communicate in real-time with others who engage with your content. This creates active social bonds. The existence of a leaderboard adds a human community element to the experience. Instant private chat messaging is a soon to be added feature which will be similar to Facebook Messenger sans spying.
Negatives: can’t think of any
Guidance/Instruction
In Partiko’s discord channel, there’s a dedicated room in which users can get tech support in real-time. There are also channels for many foreign languages and a room dedicated for people to promote their own posts. Additionally, the 
Negatives: can’t think of any
Usability
The mobile app does what it’s supposed to do: you can read, comment, vote, reply, and post content in a fast, frictionless way. Scrolling is fast. Due to the continuous login feature, it’s not necessary to log in with your Steem key after it’s done once. Typing works well. Also, text is saved in the comment box even when going to use a different app.
Negatives: When on the home feed, a mechanism needs to be added to refresh content instead of constantly scrolling up.
Functionality
Voting, commenting, posting articles and navigating to different sections of the app works well. Partiko has the same refresh feed function (the spinning wheel at the top of a page), which people find very addictive. Interaction with the Steem blockchain works very well and this app is very fast. I believe that once private, encrypted chat is available in this app, it will become even more valuable to users. Private messaging has been the missing piece for the Steem blockchain.
Negatives: When pressing on a comment notification, the app should take you directly to that comment, not to the article, which requires scrolling. Some videos and long articles don’t load well. Currently there is no wallet functionality, but it’s going to be included in a future release.
User feedback
The Partiko team is attentive to user feedback and suggestions, frequently addressing concerns in real-time. They achieve this by being active listeners and also by applying users’ suggestions to existing solutions. They also have frequent contests which greatly improve feelings of satisfaction among the existing user base. Having a dedicated support room in their discord channel helps the users feel more at ease about using the app. Just knowing they can get tech support in the future helps users feel more secure about using the app.
Negatives: many users have complained about the “Posted with Partiko” auto tag that is attached to every post and comment. Since some users are greatly annoyed by this, the sooner a solution is created, the better things will be.
Unique Feature: Built-in Points System
Each social action performed using Partiko gets rewarded with points. Logging in each day gives you 10 points. The more active and social you are, the more points you receive. This helps to solve the problem of new Steem users feeling invisible and under valued. steemit.com does not have any built-in activity rewards for users, so Partiko fills in this void.
These points can be redeemed for monetary upvotes. For example, joining Partiko for the first time results in 3000 points, voting for someone else’s article is 5 points, and writing a post is 30 points. As a user accumulates points, they can exchange these points for monetary upvotes from the official Partiko account. It’s not a huge amount, and last I heard it was somewhere around 5000 points is the equivalent of a $.35 upvote. While this may not sound like much, social media power users can do quite well, simultaneously leveraging both the point system in Partiko and the Steem upvoting system.
Negatives: No clear way to deal with scammers.
User experience is critical to mass adoption of new technologies. Without good UX, it doesn’t matter how good your tech is, no one will want to use it. If you have opinions about Partiko, please provide yours in the comments below.
Cheers,
Stellabelle