Apple’s inspiration for blockchain application designers

Baozou Comment : Blockchain technology itself is very complex, so most people cannot really accept or understand it. However, like all high-tech applications, consumers only care about whether the application itself is simple and convenient, not how advanced the underlying technology is. Therefore, if blockchain companies want to succeed, they must start with user needs, understand customer preferences from the beginning, and make the application itself simpler.

Translation: Annie_Xu

When most people hear about blockchain, they conclude that they cannot take advantage of this innovative technology because they don’t understand code or encryption.

Participants in the blockchain space believe that 2017 will be the year when the technology moves from proof of concept to product integration. Therefore, it is imperative that potential users overcome this psychological barrier.

Fortunately, we are already familiar with this problem.

Ask a random person about the workings of SMTP and you may not get the answer you want. All they know is that they can just click the send button and the email will be delivered to the recipient within a few seconds.

What is the significance of this survey? From this, we know that the focus should shift from working principles to future applications. Therefore, blockchain applications must be more intuitive and achieve a simple and beautiful user experience.

Learning from Apple

Many people know someone who doesn't understand a normal functioning cell phone, let alone a smartphone. How many people know someone who doesn't understand voicemail?

When Apple came onto the scene in 2007, there were already many smartphones, but it dominated the market with its intuitive, simple, and unsurpassed features.

Over the past decade, Apple has been giving consumers higher expectations, leading the times with new products, and using simple and attractive technologies.

Blockchain developers should keep Apple’s core principles in mind.

Inspiration from blockchain

Blockchain developers and industry participants now face a dilemma similar to Apple’s: they need to inform consumers of blockchain’s unique value proposition and provide them with intuitive and familiar products.

The focus is not on the technological advantages of blockchain, because that would only put the cart before the horse.

Ali Nazem

Ali Nazem, vice president of business development at blockchain-based identity solutions company ShoCard, summed it up well:

“The key to blockchain adoption is to demonstrate what use cases the technology can support. Consumers don’t need to know the complexity of the underlying technology, but rather want intuitive and secure solutions.”

Olivier Veyrac, vice president of customer development at payment services company Align Commerce, said:

“Most consumers don’t know the specifics of blockchain, they just care about its speed, convenience and traceability.”

Veyrac explained that when customers have questions about the technology, they need explanations, but this is too time-consuming.

The Importance of Design

For blockchain to replicate Apple’s success, a simple user experience is needed, but it must start with the user interface of products and applications.

The product user interface is the road signs, the receptionist, the salesperson, the customer service representative, etc. Yes, a lot of them rely on backend databases and servers, but the user interface is the channel through which customers can experience and understand the product.

We often see minimum viable product or product testing competitions, especially in the blockchain field, but the importance of design is ignored; although there is some truth to it, command line systems cannot enter the market.

Moreover, the risks in the blockchain field are even greater, and speed is its core factor.

For example, imagine running a blockchain-based remittance service. The time it takes for a user to initiate a remittance should not be longer than the actual remittance time.

However, based on current experience, having only a backend and an attractive user experience is not the best solution.

In short, making applications simple is not easy, so companies must understand the importance of user experience and interface to the product and technology stack.

Specific goals

An enterprise’s UX development must be allocated appropriate resources.

So you need to research your customers’ preferences and expectations of your app. Understand the experiences they are used to and hate.

And blockchain companies must understand the importance of different technical experience and expertise in attracting different customer groups.

Only after understanding these can you start designing to ensure that the product meets customer expectations.

Keep it simple

To sum up, remember that the basis for the popularization of blockchain technology is the intuitive format.

Although there are always too many factors to consider in the competition among blockchain enterprises, design cannot be ignored because the first product or even the best technology usually cannot succeed, and the ones that succeed are the simplest and most user-friendly ones.

The arrival of 2017 will bring great opportunities to the blockchain field.