Replying to Avatar Shawn

Saturday night launch. πŸš€

Nostr's UX problem isn't a secret.

30-day retention trends to 0%. Daily active users stuck at ~10k. Posts disappear. Followers vanish when you switch apps. Every app feels like beta software.

I've spent 2+ years arguing that great UX wins. So I designed a meta-study, threw a few hundred dollars at Claude, and put together what the evidence indicates.

tl;dr: Ship working experiences, then add features.

πŸ”— https://nostr-ux.com

6 critical patterns backed by 100+ citations:

β€£ Onboarding, content discovery, core interactions

β€£ Performance, progressive complexity, cross-client consistency

β€£ Anti-patterns to avoid + validation checklists

I'm not a designer, but I know what good looks like. This is opinionated, evidence-based, and focused on retention.

What am I missing? What did I get wrong?

Send PRs this way: https://github.com/shawnyeager/nostr-ux-research

cc: nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqyg8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqpqr0rs5q2gk0e3dk3nlc7gnu378ec6cnlenqp8a3cjhyzu6f8k5sgsy67l5w nostr:nprofile1qy8hwumn8ghj7mn09eehgu3wvdeqzrthwden5te0dehhxtnvdakqqgqh2wxu9f38d8gfgsl33smuhc6cl26mh7vpzu6592nutlchrmthcsdtdqz4 nostr:nprofile1qydhwumn8ghj7cmgwfhku6trd3jjuer5dahx7m3wvdhk6tcpr9mhxue69uhkcctwvuh8yetvv9uhxtnvv9hxgtmfwsqzq77777lz9hvwt86xqrsyf2jn588ewk5aclf8mavr80rhmduy5kq92xkt0h

Nostr is like TCP/IP - nobody cared until the web came along. I don’t think censorship resistant social media is the thing either. Look how Twitter is turning out. My hunch is that it will be something to do with controlling and sharing your own records that can official and informal. That is what I am trying to do with #nostr #safebox

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

There are much greater goals ahead, no doubt. I also think we can gain ground on the social media and β€œcomms” front. However it plays out, my contention is good UX is what makes it stick.

Agree. It’s a long game and I suck at UX.

πŸ˜† We all have our things!