So as I'm currently sitting on my flight home from ETH Bogotá, I figured it would be fun to write something. Flesh out some thoughts that crossed my mind this past week.
No giga-brain insights, but rather some guiding principles for designing in web3 and AI. Hopefully someone out there will enjoy it.
Time to hit that publish button.
Draft faster, improve faster
We're collectively trying things out, exploring patterns, and finding out what sticks. To keep the momentum up during this exploration, it helps to be able to design quickly.
For most people, the design process is split into two phases: drafting and editing. In the drafting phase, the goal is generally to get out of your way to get something onto the screen (or whatever medium you're working with). Then you step back and evaluate the work from a more critical perspective in the editing phase.
When you can draft quickly, you can start editing sooner. When you can start editing sooner, you can share more designs with people. And the more designs you can share, the more feedback you can receive.
And the best part? Designing quickly is a compounding skill. Faster iteration cycles mean more opportunities to learn, improve, and ship.
Skill-up for collaboration
As web3 intersects finance, distributed infrastructure, and socio-technical systems in ways we haven't seen before, teams should seek to build a team of overlapping multidisciplinary members.
In my experience, I've been able to run the furthest, the fastest, and had the most fun, when collaborating with people in complementary roles. Where we each took the time and effort to speak each other's language.
So should designers code? Write copy? Understand the sales pipeline? Interview users? Read the data? Yes.
It's just that it's not practical to try to be the one person who does all of these things day-to-day in any meaningful capacity. But if you can be the bridge between these teams, and not feel alienated by their different lingoes, you'll gain a lot.
Don't try to solve everything
It's easy to add more features: slap a button here, throw in a disclaimer there, and pin an explainer tooltip on everything. It's not so easy to take those things away.
Educating people about new features or changes is tough. And it's even harder to dismiss a loudly-requested feature for reasons that users might not easily understand.
Designing quality UI is knowing when to add features. Knowing when something works well and when to take things away, especially if a feature is no longer in service of a broader vision.
This past week I've seen too many can-do-it-all products showcased; DeFi products with more features than the G Suite, NFT projects with twelve different utility verticals, and alternative layer ones claiming to be better at pretty much everything. I.e. products trying to do everything, but end up doing nothing.
One thing I've learned from participating in, and sometimes winning, hackathons is to always scope down your products. Start by identifying one tiny problem, friction, or annoyance you've thought about, and begin with solving just that super smooth.
Quality software is fast. Data is cached. The first paint feels instant. Interactions respond in milliseconds. Simplicity and narrowing things down to the core is everything.
Track the space
Early movers define the arena. Designers who mastered mobile interfaces in 2008 now hold influential roles across the industry. Their expertise became foundational, portable, and valuable.
Today, we can observe similar opportunities in web3 and AI. And as the space expands, the foundational tools we have access to will flourish. From new standards, to protocols, to frontend libraries. We continue to invent new and exciting primitives that unlock the ability to solve new kinds of problems.
Those who make it a habit to examine the latest trends, details, and product decisions will more likely be able to push the limits of their own products further.
Prioritize attending conferences, hackathons, and talks within your interest. Wherever you are in life right now, occasionally throwing yourself into 48h sprints with like-minded frens, new tools, and red bulls is an efficient method for staying up-to-date.
Until next time 👋
Thank you and stay blessed. Let me know what you think and feel free follow me on Twitter.