Subnostr

Replying to

Christoph Ono

How can the Bitcoin UI Kit be improved? I am currently gathering ideas for a 2024 roadmap. https://www.bitcoinuikit.com

HoloKat 2y ago

I've only recently taken a glance, so take my observations for what they're worth...

I think we have to always think back to the very basics. Who is this for? What are we trying to do?

It's difficult to know what we're going to do, unless we know who it's for.

In terms of the wallet UI, I am unsure of who the target audience is. Some parts of the UI look too technical for a total newbie, but maybe this is not the intended audience.

I always fear spending too much time in one area and forgetting that I've spent too much time in this area and that others may not have a clue about things that are second nature to me.

What may seem like an obvious and clear step in bitcoin wallet usage, may actually be confusing to people who are just looking at it for the first time. And yes, I am aware that some things cannot be abstracted away further, I do wonder if we've abstracted away enough.

So, I guess what I am trying to say is that, maybe we just need A LOT of user testing and feedback from people of all sorts of backgrounds. Maybe that informs our design kits and helps us with the roadmap?

If I were in your exact shoes, I think I would look at the best UX experience we currently have in the ecosystem, and use that as a starting point for improving the UX - and let that be the start of my UI kit.

I might also create distinct categories / use cases for each wallet type / each transaction purpose. Then look at the existing players, and design something more intuitive, more useful than what they currently have - then throw that into the UI kit. Maybe they can use that to get some ideas - or just copy the better UX.

As always, just my mad kat 2 sats. Keep pushing, legend 😻🫡🚀

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Discussion

Christoph Ono 2y ago

Thanks for your thoughts. I think there are two general audiences with UI Kits (or design systems).

There are highly structured ones, tightly integrated with code frameworks/libraries, meant for production environments in larger projects or companies.

The other category is more of a foundation for designers to quickly kick off their projects, maybe even just for prototyping or a quick exploration. Maybe the design goes into development, but it can be with any framework or platform. Maybe they want to make larger changes to the theming. It's more open-ended.

Something I also noticed in conversations is that the real value is in the screen mock-ups. Any UI Kit will have your usual buttons, dropdowns, etc. But only the Bitcoin UI Kit has detailed send/receive/backup/etc screens and flows. So it's a real selling point that there are tons of screens you can pick from to put together your own user flows.

The other unique thing is that the kit is closely tied to the guide. If someone wants to understand the rationale behind a certain design decision, we can just link out. That allows the kit to be more focused on just being a good kit.

I have gathered some improvements to the UI Kit itself, but I see the larger work more around making it easier to start using it (shared in the Discord channel). For example, via a playground page, how-to videos, case studies, and a custom plug-in for some menial tasks. Creating and sharing those will ideally also lead to conversations and learnings on what the needs and wants are.

That's my working theory at the moment. Happy to be learn and adjust.