I used to plate duck confit and brûlée creme in the underbelly of Toronto's kitchens, blasting punk and painting walls with tattoos. Today, I push pixels and code for decentralized applications. If you think the jump from culinary arts to code is wild, try going from Web2 to Web3 UX.
As a self-taught designer-turned-frontend developer, I’ve lived through the chaotic beauty of the early web. But nothing prepared me for designing in Web3. It's not just harder—it's a fundamentally different beast. Here's what I've learned from the trenches of crypto UI/UX design.
Why Designing for Wallet UX is 10x Harder than Web2
In Web2, auth is simple. OAuth, cookies, sessions. You know the drill.
In Web3? Your user is their wallet. That wallet could be MetaMask, Phantom, Rabby, or a cold storage Ledger buried in a hardware drawer. Each wallet behaves differently. There's no consistent design standard, no native onboarding flow, and zero margin for error.
You can’t just say “Connect Wallet” and call it a day. You need to:
Detect installed wallets (and gracefully handle when there are none)
Guide users through complex, unfamiliar signing flows
Communicate gas fees, network switching, and failed transactions without losing trust
Handle multi-chain realities (good luck if you're bridging assets or supporting L2s)
Every modal matters. Every interaction risks abandonment. This is design in an adversarial environment. UX is not a layer on top—it is the protocol.
Breaking Down the UX Failures of Major dApps (and How to Fix Them)
Let's not name names, but here are the repeat offenders I see in big-name dApps:
- Wallet Connection Dead Ends
Nothing screams "bounce" like landing on a dApp that greets you with a broken Connect Wallet button. This happens more often than you'd believe. Fix: detect wallet presence, offer fallbacks, and never assume MetaMask is the default.
- Gas Fee Ambiguity
"Why did that cost $37?" is not a good post-onboarding sentiment. Many apps abstract fees to the point of confusion. Users need transparent previews, cost estimators, and fallback paths.
- No State Management for On-Chain Events
Your user clicks "Stake." The transaction spins. Nothing happens. You lost them. Fix: use robust on-chain listeners, show pending states, and provide confirmations.
- Unclear Transaction Purposes
Asking a user to sign an arbitrary message without explaining why? That's not trustless UX. That's lazy design.
- Mobile? What Mobile?
Too many dApps are built desktop-first. Yet in emerging markets, most users are mobile-only. Progressive enhancements and mobile-first design aren’t optional. They’re survival.
How to Design a Seamless Onboarding Flow for Web3 Without Losing Users
The traditional SaaS funnel? It's dead here. Your user doesn’t want to "sign up." They want to interact, swap, mint, or stake — now.
Here’s how to onboard without losing your user:
Progressive DisclosureDon’t show users 8 wallet options at once. Detect their environment and suggest the most likely wallet. Simplify decision trees.
Pre-Onboarding EducationBrief walkthroughs, ghost tooltips, and inline help text can teach without preaching. Show users what "signing" does before they’re asked to do it.
Friction Isn’t Always BadSometimes, a tiny delay (e.g. animation during wallet switching) is good. It reduces panic. Create UX that feels confident and guided.
Track UX Drop-Off PointsAnalytics still matter. Where are users leaving? Where are they hesitating? Use this to iterate your flow like you would in Web2.
Fail Loud, But FriendlyWhen things go wrong (and they will), don’t hide it. Surface helpful error messages. Encourage retries. Offer backup options.
Final Thoughts: Design Like a Crypto Punk
Web3 is chaotic, unregulated, full of scams, innovation, and promise. It's punk rock. It's permissionless. It forces you to build trust through UX, not marketing.
To design in Web3 is to rebel against the status quo of Web2 design systems. It means embracing broken standards and still finding ways to guide, educate, and delight users. If you're a designer or frontend dev making the leap, prepare to unlearn everything.
Remember: frictionless doesn’t mean trustless. And in Web3, the best UX earns the user’s trust at every interaction.
We’re not just building products. We’re building new paradigms. And that’s a frontier worth designing for.
Top comments (1)
Really enjoyed reading this. That transition from kitchens in Toronto to decentralized UX is wild but oddly relatable. We’re also based in Canada and have made a similar leap, though ours was from traditional SaaS design into the complexities of Web3.
Everything you mentioned about wallet UX, inconsistent flows, and the absence of standards mirrors what we’ve faced too. The part about UX being the protocol couldn’t be more true.
Not long ago, we worked on a Web3 UX design project that tackled a lot of the same issues like wallet onboarding, transaction clarity, and mobile-first interaction. Would be great to hear your thoughts on it.
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