Saturday night launch. 🚀
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.
6 critical patterns backed by 100+ citations:
‣ Onboarding, content discovery, core interactions
‣ Performance, progressive complexity, cross-client consistency
‣ 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
One really cool thing about Nostr is that you can create guest accounts for users, allowing them to not only browse but also interact with content before committing to the platform.
After they’ve completed about seven engagement actions—such as posting, liking, following, or resharing—you can prompt them with something like:
“Enjoying Nostr? You can make this account yours! Update your profile here.”
Boom. Hooked.
No replies yet.
