Web3 perfectly balances the potentials that technology can bring us, with the needs of customers put into focus. However, Web3 design just doesn’t address our overall needs right now.

When Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper, it became the bible for crypto evangelists to spread the gospel on the immense potential that blockchain technology can bring us.

As breakthrough technologies like Bitcoin and the blockchain are built on the promise of value – where something is created with the promise that it will generate returns. In this case, the returns in question are to better human society. 

Web3 then became long-touted as a cure for the world’s systemic issues, from supply chains, privacy, and finance, making people believe that once something is put on the chain, it can be magically fixed. 

However, once we start mystifying the technology behind it, all can get lost, creating an alienating gap for users to even push through to adopt the technology. People then stick to their existing solutions, as they don’t believe that new solutions are quite user-friendly enough. 

While it’s tempting to develop with the intention for technical perfection, Web3 design should be focused rather on human-centric, friendly, and accessible solutions, in order to drive the mainstream adoption of Web3.

Instead of placing importance on the technology behind any application, maybe it’s time we should focus more on how people use the product.

A new way to approach Web3 design

It is without a doubt that Web3 design has the potential to change so much in our immediate history.

In order to bring Web3 to the everyday person, developers should take into account factors that can bring not only interest, but regular use of the project, product, and platforms considered.

Customer always comes first

Proper assessment of customer needs must be met. Either through surveys, community engagement and questionnaires, developers must take into account the needs and wants of their customers – including potential ones in the future. If customers can find constant value in the project, knowing that their demands can be met, then it can lead to engagement and loyalty to the project.

Assess what’s valuable for customers, then follow through

Of course, not every customer demand can be met. Assessing what can be technically done at the moment, at a step at a time, can be quite daunting. 

It can be also tempting to choose what can bring value to customers as soon as possible, but constantly checking in with your customers in a more mindfully-directed approach can lead to more effective solutions.

It’s not just about the roadmap

In the end, customers are focused on the results, not the steps that you take along the way.

Of course, a roadmap is great to show your commitment to building, and your accountability in making the right decisions, delivering meaningful results is what customers really look for, rather than completing every intricate step in the process you’ve meticulously planned out.

Be fast, accurate, adaptive

The crypto industry is a new, and rapidly evolving industry. This puts developers into a position where they’d have to constantly cook up new, and multiple solutions to ship out or even deploy to customers. 

With that said, developing skills to anticipate for the worst, and readily be able to change directions based on customer or market needs and feedback can prove to be effective in the long run.

Complete it, don’t perfect it (yet)

Perfection makes it slow. Take project steps at a time to deliver the most effective product in the meantime. Limitations are only natural, and don’t take it to heart. You’ll always get a chance to work on it again later. 

Collective responsibility, individual accountability

For a true human-centric design approach, everyone in the team must be responsible for maintaining and adapting the code as a group. However, individual responsibility must also be  accounted for, and developers should be encouraged to maintain the quality of their own contributions so that others can continue to build on from there.

There needs to be a shift from thinking about an idealised future to one that is focused on current user needs and values. If Web3 design can be more relevant, and can reach more people, more will recognise that there’s much more to be fixed with Web3, creating room for its growth in the future.