The launch of Shiboshis – the Shiba Inu generated Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) – showed once again the importance of usability in crypto projects.
What was not clear for some users is that after approving the use of LEASH (one of the Shiba tokens) using Ethereum (ETH) on MetaMask wallet, users had to start minting as well.
Some users thought that confirming Ethereum gas fees on the wallet screen was all it takes to get the desired NFT. Finding out later that they just paid for the gas fees without getting any Shiboshis.
Speaking from my 10+ years of experience in the UX field, this problem could have been avoided by running a simple usability test with 5 users before the launch. This test would have probably revealed that design needs to be improved from the clarity perspective, making the approving and minting stages understandable for the user.
Let’s look at some of the issues that I as a UX/UI designer spotted
After connecting your wallet to the Shiboshis website (you can see your wallet address top right). I have edited the wallet address for privacy reasons to 0x0000…112233 on the screenshot.
And from this section below you might get an impression that you need only to approve the LEASH using your wallet and you are done. This is because you see your LEASH balance on the screen.
The next step would be to approve the use of LEASH using Ethereum in your wallet. I don’t have a screenshot for that. But If you have used the MetaMask wallet, this is the same pop-up you are used to getting while using their plugin in the Chrome browser.
Now the tricky part comes here. After users confirmed the use of LEASH paying $100 – $300 worth of ETH or even more for the gas fees it was not clear that they need to come back and press the “START MINTING” button to actually get an NFT (see below).
It is very unfortunate that many people lost a decent amount of money because of poor usability.
If we want to make blockchain mainstream, we need to strive for a better user experience for everyone.
As the Shiba community is growing with more updates to be released in the future, I hope this post will help the next launches to be more user-friendly.
