Blockchain has given rise to a new kind of app: decentralized applications (dApps) that minimize the role of intermediaries in online interactions. These range from peer-to-peer transfers, decentralized finance (DeFi) trading platforms, and onchain games that let players truly own their in-game assets.
The advantage of dApps is clear: You hold your assets instead of trusting a third party to hold them for you.
So why isn’t everyone using them as much as their more traditional apps? A major challenge in driving greater adoption of dApps is that they have historically struggled with user experience (UX) when compared to Web2 apps, such as Venmo, Revolut, and Fortnite.
But dApp builders have every reason to change that. For example, for every dollar traditional apps invest in UX, there’s a potential 9,900% return on investment waiting for them. It’s a no-brainer that dApps that offer better UX can expect wider usage—and greater profits.
Common UX challenges in dApp development
Every application faces UX challenges in their development, but because dApps are built on blockchain, they face unique obstacles. Some key ones are:
Onboarding: dApps face an extra hurdle that simply doesn’t exist with regular apps: Onboarding onto the blockchain. To download a regular app on your phone, all you have to do is open the App Store or Google Play, search, and download. Before you use a dApp, though, you have to first download a wallet and then acquire cryptocurrency to cover transaction fees. This process can be cumbersome, especially for new users who haven’t exchanged crypto before.
User-interface design: Now imagine you’re a total crypto newbie, and you have actually managed to download a wallet, get some crypto into it, and start playing a game. After that process, you’ll usually come across a pop-up asking you to sign a transaction every time you make a move. WTF? Sounds like a great way to annoy and put off users, right?
Performance: For dApps built directly on Ethereum, another challenge is the high transaction fees and slow transactions during peak usage times. This can deter users from engaging with the dApp, especially when cheaper and faster alternatives exist.
On top of all this, there’s also a stigma associated with poor dApp UX, stemming from previous experiences with slow, expensive, or complicated dApps. But its not all doom and gloom…
The good news is that by addressing UX challenges, developers can work toward closing the gap between dApps and traditional apps, fostering greater trust, adoption, and engagement within the Web3 ecosystem.
So, what can builders do to create the best possible onboarding process, improve UX design, and offer consistently high performance and reliability for their dApps?
Onboarding
Think of how playing Candy Crush feels so intuitive right from the start—traditional apps excel at creating seamless, user-friendly experiences that everyone can navigate with ease. To compete, dApps must implement streamlined processes that make it easy to onboard. Here are some tips for doing so:
- Pick a low-cost chain: As of this writing, there’s no getting around that users who want to use a dApp will need a wallet with funds. But imagine how annoying it must be to constantly have to reload your wallet when you run out of funds to perform the most basic action on a dApp. You, as the dApp builder, can make sure that happens (much) less often when you build on a chain with super low fees.
- Integrate top wallets: Strive to enable compatibility with as many popular wallets as possible to minimize the need for users to download new wallets.
- Simplify registration: Make it easy on users by gradually revealing more complex features as the user progresses through the experience, rather than trying to explain everything when they first start using the app.
- Offer tutorials: Provide interactive tutorials using tooltips, pop-ups, and walkthroughs.
- Provide visuals: Use visual guides and animations to show how different parts of the dApp interact.
- Security assurance: Communicate security measures, such as data encryption and secure wallets, to build trust in the platform.
User-interface design
Ensuring clean and user-friendly interfaces throughout the user experience in decentralized applications both attracts and retains users. The result: Better dApps, more users, and a better reputation for blockchain-based UX that will drive further adoption.
Best practices for designing intuitive and visually appealing Web3 dApp interfaces include:
- Clean visuals: Using clear visual hierarchies to prioritize easy navigation.
- Minimalism: Applying consistent, minimalist design elements across the dApp to familiarize users with the interface, reduce distractions, and focus user attention on key functionalities.
- Responsive design: Integrating responsive design interfaces that adapt seamlessly to various devices.
- Immediate feedback: Providing immediate feedback for user actions, such as confirming transactions or highlighting errors, enhancing user confidence in the app’s use.
Performance and reliability
Transaction fees and speeds can make or break a dApp. Users might be willing to pay high fees on Ethereum when they stand to make bank on the latest NFT to boom, but not when it means regularly using a dApp—whether a DeFi trading platform, onchain game, or otherwise. Super low fees and fast transactions instantly boost the user experience.
Builders that develop their dApps on Layer 2 (L2) validity rollups get a leg up on those who build directly on Ethereum in terms of transaction speed and cost. To understand how and why L2 validity rollups make transactions faster and cheaper than on Ethereum, check out this post.
Additional tips for enhancing dApp UX
So, we’ve covered the key best practices developers should keep in mind throughout the design process. Here are three additional (and super helpful) tips for ensuring your dApp offers users the best UX on the market.
Balancing blockchain needs with UX
Building dApps on blockchain provides security and decentralization. But not all aspects of a dApp necessarily need to be onchain. Hybrid games, like Axie Infinity, keep core gameplay offchain while using blockchain for asset ownership. Putting only the app’s assets—rather than its entire logic—onchain can make it easier to provide a Web2-like UX, because most of the app itself is offchain.
On the other hand and in keeping with our gaming example, fully onchcain games offer the advantage of putting the entire game logic onchain, ensuring the community—rather than gaming companies—decide the fate of the game. No single company can decide to one day shut down a server, for example, and destroy the progress of thousands of gamers.
There are various tools for building fully onchcain games and autonomous worlds that put the game’s fate in the hands of the community, with a notable example being the Dojo game engine on Starknet.
Check out the Dojo game engine now. →And don’t worry, there are ways to make fully onchain dApps user friendly too, with account abstraction being a method of choice.
Use account abstraction
This one is crucial. Account abstraction enables builders to offer sleek UX features that are much more similar to those of the Web2 apps users already know and love. In the world of blockchain dApps, users take custody of their own assets in their crypto wallet, which is usually used to connect (or login) to various dApps.
This wallet is usually controlled by a private key. However, all too often, the reliance on private keys and recovery phrases has meant a more complicated user experience, as users need to remember strings of letters and numbers. Even worse, they need a list of entire words (the recovery phrases) on hand to recover their account if they lose their password.
Account abstraction enables developers to provide the same user experience they are accustomed to with Web2 apps, such as signing into dApps with face ID or fingerprint ID, instead of using their private key. To ensure security isn’t compromised in the quest to make dApps more usable, account abstraction also enables two-factor authentication, three-factor authentication, as well as multi-signature approvals for transactions that require the approval of multiple users.
On Starknet, account abstraction is actually built into the network protocol itself, enabling developers to leverage its benefits without having to reconfigure their dApp. Native account abstraction on Starknet even offers DeFi-specific UX features, such as making it possible to complete a DeFi transaction in one click, and gaming-specific UX features, such as minimizing the need to sign transactions during gameplay. Together, these capabilities bring the dApp user experience much closer to that of traditional applications.
Implementing iterative improvement
Continuous improvement and interaction through user feedback help developers attract, delight, and retain dApp users. Using tools like in-app surveys and session recordings to gather information on user behavior and identify pain points is just the start. Developers must prioritize iterative improvements to keep dApps relevant and user-centric, as even a great UX can fall short if competitors offer a more innovative, seamless experience.
Conclusion
A smooth user experience attracts more users and keeps them engaged throughout their journey, making it important for any kind of app. It’s even more crucial for dApps, which have historically struggled with creating a seamless experience for their users. Closing this gap will drive mass Web3 adoption, as users won’t be impeded by UX hurdles in enjoying blockchain’s benefits.
The good news is everyone already uses apps, and we know which UX features users know and love already. By following the best practices and tips laid out in this post, you’ve already started on the path toward building a seamless, enjoyable dApps that will drive greater Web3 adoption.
To learn how to build a dApp on Starknet, check out our ultimate guide for building and launching a successful dApp.
