Thread by @lyricalpolymath

I just published "Web3 Design Principles" - a framework of UX rules for Blockchain based Distributed Applications

To get the conversation started on the front-end experience of Dapps

TL;DR; tweetsummary ahead
bit.ly/web3DesignPrin…

#Web3 #Design #Blockchain #UX

Decentralization, and the trustless exchange of value between peers, are the future of (a part of) the web. the Blockchain is the technology that for the first time enables the trustless, transparent, distributed, p2p, uncensorable communications that will create that future

Today those special properties of the Blockchain are only visible at the protocol level, the softwares creating the blockchain itself, but they don't bubble up to the front-end that users see and interacts with.
Distributed applications (Dapp) today still look much like web apps

However Dapps are fundamentally different from normal apps
and they should strongly convey the powerful principles enabled by the Blockchain: decentralization, transparency, trustlessness, immutability, uncensorability etc 👉#Web3 #DesignPrinciples codify these into usable tools

Here is a useful 🔧 cheatsheet
bit.ly/W3DPCheatsheet

the Trust Through Transparency D.P. propose a radical transparency approach to enable front-end users, even non technical ones, to be fully aware of data provenance, understand implications of transactions, and ultimately, be able to trust the code and service at hand.

TTT Design P.
1-(Reading Data) Transparency of Data Provenance
2 - (Writing Data) Transparency of Transactions
3 - (Pushed Data) Transparency of Smart Contract Events
4 - (History) Accessible and transparent User interaction History
5 - (Code & Environment) Transparency of Code

Web3 Postulates 1
- It isn’t transparent if you don’t know where & how to look
- If it isn’t transparent it can’t be trusted!

Web3 Postulates 2
— it isn’t transparency if it requires a humongous effort to find, see and verify the data
 — It isn’t transparency if 99% of users are deterred from wanting to look

Web3 Postulates 3
—for a Dapp to be trusted, it’s code needs to be trusted
 — for code to be somewhat trusted, it needs to be transparent, independently executable and verifiable

General UX Principles
address UX problems that arise from the general use and implementation of Dapps
6 — Time/Wait Management
7 — Human Readable Hashes Format
8 — Permanent Newbie Mode
9 — Gas Prices and Transaction reversals

DDP Decentralization Design Principles
these are just a hint for developers to start thinking holistically about the function of their Dapps, and the new UX requirements that emerge, in the larger context of the distributed societies we are creating.

Decentralization is a new powerful form of globalization.
One that, for the first time, is potentially led by masses of self-sovereign individuals coalescing around borderless ideas, self-managing organizations and distributed market systems.

As these principles impose a lot of burden on the dapp developers I was thinking that this could be
- a Bootstrap like library to plug and play into the the dapp,
- a browser plugin, that enforces the transparency wither the Dapp creator wants or not
what do you think?

Here are some ideas on how a "ChainView" plugin could be added to inspect (and certify) the transparency of a Dapp and the compliancy to the Web3 Design Principles

What do you think? 🙏😃
how has your experience with Dapps been lately? 🙈🙉🙊
what would you improve? 🔥😎
let's start talking about the decentralized future for the masses 💪

NB: I was forgetting a much due credit: some of the ideas for the Web3 Design Principles have been inspired by the radical transparency of @AragonProject and team.. who from a Web3 Design perspective are already doing most of the things right 👏💪🥇