Hey all! Inspired by @verbiricha of doing his quarter progress report in public, I thought I’d share what I’ve been up to and the progress made in the first quarter since the OpenSats grant award.
First, none of this would be possible without support from OpenSats and for that I am very grateful! Being able to do work on Nostr is one of the best thing I could hope for! Thank you!
TLDR;
- Launched nostrdesign.org and updated it with content, reference designs.
- Reviewed a bunch of client UI/UX and provided suggestions
- Worked on designs - snort, zap stream, and redesigned some clients, while providing visual feedback where I could.
- “Started” #nostrdesign hashtag to encourage design discussions, questions, comments, and feedback from anyone wishing to participate.
Hashtag
Since creating the #nostrdesign hashtag, we’ve seen a good amount of participation from the community. I am very pleased to see that people are using it to share design progress, ask for feedback, jumpstart ideas and propose improvements to existing clients.
The best part is that people who are not designers are able to chime in (and do so frequently) under discussions originated by designers / developers!
This is exactly what I was hoping to see happen. Instead of establishing yet an other closed group, I wanted the general user base to engage with nostr developers, express their thoughts and ideas. After all, designers don’t have all the answers, all the time.
People are asking great, and very important questions that could impact a large number of people coming into the space.
Designers are providing useful feedback to improve popular clients. I hope to see more designers get involved and chime in with their ideas!
Going forward, I would like to continue using the hashtag to encourage more participation.
Ask:
Developers - don’t hesitate to ask for feedback often. Just add #nostrdesign to your notes.
Designers - your UX ideas and design expertise are needed to make the best experiences possible. Please drop in and chime in with your feedback when possible.
Everyone - you all use the apps and your feedback is priceless! Complain as much as necessary, this is how we learn. Just tag #nostrdesign so we can come up with better solutions to existing issues.
Client Reviews & Feedback
The following is a list of clients I have provided feedback for, designed parts of, or put forth major design proposals during the first quarter (I am currently uploading recordings to a YouTube channel to make them accessible to everyone):
- Lume - onboarding review and some minor design mockups. Reya (Lume developer) said he implemented the recommendations, but I need to review again (on my to-do list). Video recording.
- Damus - home page design idea
- Stargazr - full client review, recommendations and the start of a re-designed client.
- Pinstr - provided actionable feedback for @Sepehr.
- Listr - @JeffG asked for feedback several times and I reviewed the client before and after feedback, providing further recommendations. (Round 1, Round 2 feedback)
- Slidestr - provided feedback and designed what I would consider to be the ideal experience.
- Swarmstr - @pitunited asked for feedback and I reviewed the entire client.
- Current (iOS) - egge asked for feedback and I created an issue in their GitHub, along with a video.
- 0xChat - water asked for feedback. I reviewed the client on video and made recommendations.
- Nostree - provided feedback and design ideas
- Primal - some design ideas which may or may not make it into production, we’ll see!
- noStrudel - minor feedback and designing some ideas for @hzrd149
- Habla (work in progress). I have provided some styling and UX feedback and I’m currently working on designing the changes.
- Spring - Artur approached me about the idea behind Spring and needed some help shaping his vision. I designed the product experience (Figma file) and he implemented it on Android, perhaps with his own ideas mixed in.
- Yana - Yana asked for a full review and I provided a recording of my initial experience and recommendations.
- Nosta - Christoph asked me to review the client, and I did so in full, providing my experience, ideas and recommendations. Christoph is now implementing some of the ideas / recommendations!
- Vendata - Pablo asked me to look at the current state of the (proposed?) redesign and I chimed in with my thoughts.
- NostrNet.work - I really liked the project and pitched an unsolicited design idea.
- PlebeianMarket - @Chiefmonkey asked for feedback on PM. I provided a recording of my thoughts.
- Snort - snort has seen many improvements in features. Kieran and I are working closely to shape the client. I redesigned Snort for version 2 that he managed to ship not long ago. This was a major project. I also updated Snort’s CSS, both dark and light mode and improved some of the UX directly through a pull request.
- Zap.stream - I am also working with Kieran on a continuous basis to improve zap.stream. Due to Snort V2 being in the works at that time, we didn’t have as much time to work on zap.stream but we managed to add a new onboarding flow which I designed. Roland did a lot of the work on development side. I am currently engaging Kieran to see what needs to be done next.
Design Help
The following is a list of clients I was involved with, ranging from major contributions to minor enhancement proposals:
- Snort (major)
- zap.stream (major)
- Damus (minor)
- Spring (major)
- NostrNet.work (somewhere in between)
- Primal (minor)
- Habla (major initially, now minor)
- Nostree (none initially, major design mockups currently)
- Pinstr (design ideas mockups)
- Slidstr (design ideas mockups)
- Stargazr (none initially, major design mockups currently)
Nostr Design Guide
In Q1
I’ve made substantial progress in content, including reference designs. The bulk of the time on the guide is in reference designs.
The guide still needs additional examples, and some of the content is missing (like Accessibility). This is a work in progress.
The reference components are ongoing endeavor. I’d like to cover all the basic use cases, desktop and mobile and provide guidance on any new questions that come up (such as mute words).
Since the launch of the guide I have seen a lot of positive feedback with people frequently referencing the website (even on live streams). I am humbled by this and hope to make the resource even more useful.
Next Quarter Plan
In the following quarter, I plan on allocating my time as follows:
- Rounding out the nostr design guide with examples.
- Reference components for nostr design guide - especially the crucial parts that are asked about the most.
- Following up on the feedback I have provided for various clients and devs to see if they are acting on it, why not if not, and if there’s anything I can do to help them make progress.
- Providing Quality Assurance reviews on the work that was implemented.
- Improving existing clients with better UX ideas.
- Engaging with the nostr community to find better ways of doing things, learning about what’s working and what’s not working.
- Exploring UI / UX improvements on new ideas put forward by developers and the general nostr community.
- Helping clients think about growth and monetization strategies. I have already outlined some ideas for Snort (informal ideas) and Zap.stream
Got feedback?
Clients, designs, business ideas, personal, any feedback you have, I am all ears! You can leave comments right on this note, DM me, or email karnage@opensats.org. I take note of all the feedback and consider individually, so you’ll always be heard. Thank you!