Designing Onchain

Captured from a Discussion with ChatGPT-o1

Five years into designing for onchain tools, products, and services, I still ask myself: why is this so hard? Onchain design remains messy, misunderstood, and underestimated. The best design talent? Most of them are chasing AI. And blockchain? It's left with duct-taped UX and branding that barely scratches the surface.

B bubbles burst, and bubbles pump. And right now blockchain is gaining attention again. Another wave of builders is coming, and with them, the chance to fix what’s broken or double down on the mistakes. Great design isn’t just a luxury good; it’s what separates noise from signal.

For me there are three pillars: identity, experience, and strategy. This isn’t just theory—it’s what I’ve learned the hard way.

Design is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the world. For too many, it’s just visuals—logos, color palettes, and pretty landing pages. But visuals without intention are noise.

The real power of design isn’t making things look good. It’s about creating clarity—clarity for teams, for communities, and for anyone engaging with what you’ve built. Design fails because if it skips this foundational work.

I wish it would be the time to stop thinking of design as decoration and start using it to align vision, focus, and outcomes.

A brand is not your logo, colors, or even your website. It’s an identity—a compass for your team and community. Without a clear identity, you’re just another project with no direction.

• Internal Alignment: A brand isn’t just for users—it’s for your team. Does it make them proud? Would they wear it on a hoodie without irony? A strong brand unites the people building it. At last you want to get the best, you need to feel there like you are among the best.

• Community Connection: A great brand doesn’t just look good—it feels like home for the entire community or cult. Make your identity adaptable and accessible so your community can make it their own. When people play with your brand, they embody your values.

• Toolkits, Not Assets: Logos are "easy"; building toolkits is the work. Your brand needs to include templates, guides, and principles that anyone on your team or in your cult / community can use to extend its mission and vision.

AI can churn out infinite logos in seconds, but brands built with intention and adaptability will for now still stand out. (But please use genAI! It will radically change what you can do and even more what you can imagine.)

Onchain UX is still frankly quite a bit of a disaster. Not because designers or developers don’t care, but because blockchains are messy, interconnected beasts. Every small change ripples across the system, creating chaos. Designing for onchain means working within constraints most designers aren’t trained for.

• Collaborate Early: Designers need to understand the tech beneath; developers need to respect the craft (please 🙏). When these worlds meet early, better products emerge.

• Plan Realistically: Onchain complexity explodes quickly. A small UX tweak might require a backend overhaul. Understand the technical reality before committing to features. That goes both ways, a technical limitation, might require entire redesign. (been there done that multiple times)

• In-Person > Async: For early-stage work, there’s no substitute for face-to-face collaboration. Two days together can save weeks of iteration.

Onchain products aren’t standalone—they’re systems. Designing them requires systems thinking, from network effects to behavioral incentives. (You need to get fluid in all tech, economics, ...)

Design isn’t just the result—it’s the process. The best teams use design as a tool to align vision, explore possibilities, and clarify strategy.

• Know Your Audience: Are you building for crypto-natives, newcomers, agents, or even something entirely else? Each group speaks a different language, has different needs and affordances, and your design needs to meet them where they are.

• Incentives Are "THE" Design: Blockchains, protocol, anything that looks and feels like a market runs on incentives. They shape user behavior more than UI or Brand ever will. Consider these incentives carefully—they can make or break you.

• Simulate Futures: With incentives at play don’t just design for what exists today. Use design to prototype the behaviors and dynamics you want to create. Play out scenarios before you commit to building.

Onchain products don’t live in isolation. They’re shaped by the markets, communities, and incentives around them. Good design accounts for these dynamics.

1. Visuals are Cheap; Meaning is Expensive. AI makes it easy to look good. Intention is what makes you memorable.

2. Good UX Requires Collaboration. Designers and developers need to work together, not in silos.

3. Incentives > Interfaces. Incentives shape behavior more than your UI/Brand ever will. And their are designed too.

4. Think in Systems. Onchain products aren’t standalone. They’re part of living, breathing ecosystems.

5. Design is Strategy. Use it to clarify, align, and unlock your vision early.

The price of visuals has plummeted, but the value of intention has skyrocketed.

• For Designers: Learn the tech. Work with developers. Think like a systems architect / gardener.

• For Projects: Treat design as foundational, not decorative. Invest early. Focus on details.

When everything else is instant, intention wins.