Blockchain design principles and communication

Blockchain — a peer-to-peer network that sits on the internet — was introduced in Oct 2008 as part of a proposal for bitcoin, a virtual currency system that eschewed a central authority for issuing currency, transferring ownership, and confirming transactions. But even after more than a decade of launch, blockchain hasn’t gained widespread adoption from the mass market. Ideally, companies like Expedia, Spotify, and Booking should be building their encrypted databases using blockchain peer-to-peer networks. But that has not been the case, because blockchain’s sophisticated technology hasn’t still gained a trustworthy status. At least not trustworthy enough to replace all of the traditional systems.

On the bright side, blockchain has all the ingredients to be successful and gain wider adoption. But to do that we need to be able to design interfaces that communicate trust and consistency. To do that, we can probably start by using Blockchain Design Principles from

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IBM’s Blockchain Design Principles

The principles are broken into six golden rules to follow for achieving design trust and consistency for Blockchain interfaces. These are trust, exposure, consistency, feedback, mistake anticipation, and guidance.

Design for trust

Blockchain isn’t novel, but since the adoption rate is so low, companies are putting it on a backlog list and not concerned about executing it immediately. As a result of the low adoption rate, tech & design must assume that everyone is new to the system. Therefore, they must provide a reliable, trusted, and stable platform to accomplish transactions.

Data Exposure

Designs should provide a way to showcase more of the underlying blockchain data that is actionable and establishes trust. Through the interface, users should be able to learn how blockchain technology is replacing their previous processes.

Consistency

• Basic design elements like typography, grids, and colors should be carefully implemented to provide meaning.
• This can be further used to reduce misinformation using meaningful & relevant iconography.
• Another way to create consistency is to be mindful of the communication language that is used to reveal system critical information and system status. It is important to use clear, concise language that maintains a conversational tone in your communications with your users. Communicate blockchain concepts in a way that reduces confusion.
• Similar heuristic from Jakob Nielsen’s 10 general principles for interaction design
  #4: Consistency and standards —
  “Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions.”

Constant feedback

• Design should reduce anxiety and provide reliable feedback to the user using motion, animation, and micro-copy.
• Use Jakob Nielsen’s first heuristic principle — “The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.”
• Processes and transactions that require waiting often increase anxiety. In such instances, make sure to inform the user about what’s happening currently, what they can do in the meantime, why it is taking so long and when can they expect the process to be completed.

Allow for and anticipate mistakes to be made

• Often things cannot change in a blockchain-based transaction. It is essential to assume that people will make mistakes, and hence it is first crucial to add friction in the form of alerts to bring this to the user’s notice.
• There is a big difference between the way financial systems work in the fiat world vs the blockchain world. It is important that the users are communicated about the nature of transactions in the blockchain and why making mistakes can be quite costly in the chained network world.
• A similar heuristic from Neilsen’s chest
  #3 User control and freedom —
  “Users often perform actions by mistake. They need a marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted action without having to go through an extended process.”
• #5 Error prevention —
  “Good error messages are important, but the best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.”

Active Guidance

• Anticipate where users could go wrong and help them beforehand.
• Communicate functional instructions to reduce the need for manually looking for help, support, or FAQ. Although it is important to build these modules in case users end up navigating to them.
• Declutter designs, and promote white breathing space while promoting clear hierarchy and typography that allows users to follow the natural flow of content based on screen type.

Blockchain Economy

This was beautifully expressed by this write-up on the 7 Design Principles of a Blockchain Economy where the writer breaks it down into the basic principle, problem-solved, the breakthrough, the Implications, and the sniff test. But to further add to this, I should mention that an average person getting to add themselves into the blockchain economy doesn’t understand all the aspects of it and how it works. Therefore it is important to assist users in discovering some of these complexities of the blockchain system.

1. Networked Integrity: Every interaction in Blockchain becomes a link in a chain and there is no undoing it as once it’s recorded, it is going to be there forever.
2. Distributed Power: The power of blockchain is distributed by design which means no one entity can have an overwhelming majority control over the amount of data.
3. Value as Incentive: Users of blockchain have their selfish interests in mind when transacting on the network but doing that also serves the system as a whole.
4. Security: Blockchain is distributed, so the tech going thru’ a complete central point of failure is not possible. It functions on a Public Key Infrastructure where transactions are linked to two keys — one to encode, and one to decode.
5. Privacy: Users of blockchain have complete control of their data.
6. Rights preserved: Blockchain contracts are made smart because transactions can only be successful when predefined benchmarks have been reached. This ensures that rights and freedoms are clear and enforceable.
7. Inclusion: Everyone globally can participate in the blockchain’s economy using the Simplified Payment Verification (SVP) method.

Security and distribution of power are two of the main motivations why companies would look to build new databases on blockchain and migrate older ones to it too.

Although there is no telling when blockchain will get picked up by major companies and build their tech around it. But the change will likely take a bit more time than originally anticipated. The trajectory of it happening will almost depend on how the consumers are reacting to it and if they are open to start utilizing blockchain in their daily lives. A ray of hope was provided by Spotify’s Web3 job openings.

Useful Reads:

That’s the end of this short yet hopefully insightful read. Thanks for making it to the end. I hope you gained something from it.

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