Call to NEAR Community Builder and Contributors to help create the UX Holy Grail a simple document to capture NEAR’s superior tech stack, empower community to be able to explain in simple terms why NEAR is different, and attract the best developers and builders who want to build great product and user experiences.
Why we need a UX Holy Grail? (The Problem)
- Is all starts with one basic premise: NEAR is the best place to build applications - secure, scalable and usable.
- Other blockchains may one day be scalable - our true differentiation point is the ability to create seamless user experiences.
- Core message - you can build things on NEAR that you can not build elsewhere.
- There is strong alignment between NF, Pagoda, and Builders to focus on [PRODUCT] but…(NEAR Strategic Update and Outlook for 2023 – NEAR Protocol)
- NEAR Tech stack is so (brilliantly) complex and it is continues to evolve and improve (Meta Transactions, etc.) that even active developers within NEAR may not know the latest tools available to them and community members may lack the big picture and language to accurately convey the size of the opportunity.
The UX Holy Grail
This cheeky working document, which I’d like to become the Builders Bible or UX Manifesto, something every community member is able to understand and recite with confidence, something that can go viral and infect more builders and developers. It should include:
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Unique NEAR Tech Stack that gives Developers Super Powers. Including, but not limited to:
1.1 Account Model (Abstraction, single access private keys?)
1.2 Sharding (Dynamic, Cross-contract)
1.3 Meta Transactions (links to Github, working groups to contribute)
1.4 Remote accounts (links to Github, working groups to contribute) -
Existing apps and tools that leverage cool stuff above. I believe this is where the gap begins. We have people assuming NEAR is like other blockchains, building something that is similar or worse, leaving NEAR to build the same thing elsewhere.
2.1 Keypom
2.2 Satori(?) -
A comprehensive list of services and tools for each category
3.1 Authentication (SSO)
3.2 Oracles
3.3 Storage
3.4 Indexers
3.5 Etc.
The idea here is to avoid duplication of efforts. Early days NEAR saw a lot of people jumping to build the tools they need. There are increasingly more solutions out there with little visibility.
- Best Practices and Hot Trends. The idea here is to bring it all together into a Master User Flow that gives an overview of why NEAR is the best place to build, inviting builders to unleash their creativity and pick and choose whatever is applicable to them.
i.e I want to build a Tamagotchi app - kinda like NFTs but ALIVE. Feed it, take care of it or it dies.
Onboarding - how can applications enable users to join with just an email or social authentication?
On-off ramp - current list of providers. Can an application enable users to pay for goods and services within app without needing to touch crypto? Buy your modern day tamagotchi with Apple Pay, buy bundles for food and shelter.
Oracles - can I introduce funky variables into my app based on real world events? Perhaps the food available to tamagotchis is linked to the weather in Brazil. Or the tamagotchis have a gambling habit and like to engage in a prediction market (but the loser dies? lol).
On-chain logic, automating transactions - tamagotchis who are not fed, looked after properly die. Talk about a deflationary supply!
Indexer, Near.Social - can we pull on-chain data on which tamagotchis are most active (or dead), and display a leaderboard (or cemetery), what about creating the whole thing as a near.social widget? What is near.social?!
There is a literal endless list of possibilities that may apply to each product. And there is no shortage of silly little ideas that may be fun for small teams to hack on on the weekends. What we may be lacking is a clear message on the potential of NEAR, a simple pathway to get started. There is a gap in the community between ‘I know NEAR is bonkers and you can build anything’ to 'I have this great idea… how do I start putting the pieces together (composability is king).
- Comprehensive comparison on how similar tasks or features would look like on other chains (Friction).
I’ll deal with the basement dwellers - come build with us or have your great idea built by someone else, better on NEAR.
NF can deal with the big dogs. Imagine having a SUPERB UX Playbook to approach corporates: dissect whatever it is Polygon has with X but using the NEAR tech stack (we can give you custom top level domains…)
Think about Grandma.
Building beyond the headlines. Can Old G actually use this product?
P.S - I know NEAR Discovery is coming. I believe the UX Holy Grail is a necessary step to set the stage. Decentralised, composable front-ends as an isolated concept don’t make much sense to the average builder or user. Let’s put it in context - where does it fall in the user journey? How can it integrate with everything that already exists? What are the core NEAR primitives that make it possible?
Next Steps
I’m trying to think of what may be the best tool for collaborating around the task of creating the UX Holy Grail. Open to suggestions.
- Get the environment set up (shared doc, GitHub?)
- Start laying down the bases
- Encourage everyone to contribute
- Amplify it across community