Making Products People Love. Podcast Key Takeaways. 

Product design is a crucial element of any project, as it determines whether or not users will be enthusiastic about interacting with it. In today’s episode, we meet Mateusz Bryk, Aleph Zero’s Product Design Lead, to discuss how the team ensures user engagement.  

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TL;DL

Too Long; Didn’t Listen 

• Mateusz Bryk was responsible for creating the Aleph Zero logo and branding. 
• Currently, Mateusz Bryk is working on Common, the flagship DEX of the Aleph Zero Ecosystem.
• Good brand marks should be simple enough for a child to be able to draw it while also being highly unique. 
• The Aleph Zero logo was inspired by security, speed, and openness. The first letter of the Latin alphabet was used as the basis to show these three concepts. 
• According to Mateusz, one of the most significant weaknesses of the Web3 space is the lack of standardization in terminology and adopting user-friendly solutions.
• When building Web3 products, it is important to remain inspired by the solutions we observe in other industries or projects, but mindlessly copying someone else’s design is not an option. The product design of whatever we are building should be customized for our product and the user’s needs. 
• There is a tradeoff between delivering on market demands, user demands, and the resources at hand. Revolutionary products take time; but users want them as fast as possible. 
• Mateusz’s key advice for people working on their products is testing to ensure usability while developing a product. If you are not in a position to make elaborate testing schemes, start wtih a corridor test and ask friends and co-workers for their opinion. 

Meet Mateusz Bryk, Aleph Zero’s Product Design Lead

Although an architect by education, Mateusz Bryk made a natural transition into product design, having worked in an agency for brands such as Porsche, Mazda, and Leroy-Merlin, and even ran his own clothing brand. His involvement with Aleph Zero goes back to the project’s beginnings, as he created the Aleph Zero logo and branding. After several years, he returned to Aleph Zero to design Aleph Zero’s native products, most notably the flagship DEX of the Aleph Zero Ecosystem known as Common. His philosophy for design can be summed up in creating works that combine simplicity and uniqueness. This credo is fully displayed when observing the Aleph Zero logo, representing security, speed, and openness both aesthetically and memorably. 

Pet Peeves of Web3 

One of the areas for improvement of the Web3 space observed by Mateusz Bryk is the need for more standardization. Due to a deficit in this area, we can notice situations where applications across various platforms and chains use different terminology for the same concepts. This creates confusion and alienates users, further stifling Web3 adoption. Adopting a unified pool of terms and meanings would do wonders for the space. Additionally, many Web3 applications need more documentation, tutorials, intuitive user interfaces, or wizards. 

Tips on Building Web3 Better 

One way to improve product design is to draw inspiration from existing solutions. There are better ways to go than just copying someone’s plan, but looking at what works for others is the first step to ensuring our products have similar functionalities. Whatever products we are building should be customized for our user base. Finally, testing is what separates good products from those that are a pain to use. Builders should allow testing groups to try the product before release and receive feedback that will allow changes to be made before launch. Relying on one’s gut intuition regarding what users want from an application is a one-way street to damaging the project and repurposing resources to correct mistakes that should have been caught earlier in the development process.