Recently elevateUX worked on improving the user experience (UX) of the Ardor Lite Wallet behind the scenes. The Lite wallet is a stripped back mobile wallet that enables users to send and receive and also interact with the Chain Gateway. This article will allow me to share my opinion on the UX of the Ardor Lite application whilst also highlighting a few of the changes that we decided to make as a result of last months Expert Product Review.
But first, what is Ardor?
“Ardor is an advanced blockchain platform ready to use, build and host the most inspired decentralized applications.”
“Ardor is a blockchain-as-a-service multi-chain platform that evolved from the time-tested and energy efficient Nxt blockchain. The Ardor mainnet launched on 01 January 2018. ”
The User Experience
Generate a new account
Creating an account on the Ardor mobile wallet for the first time is a user friendly process. The amount of steps are minimal and the content makes the user journey extremely clear. There is a layer of validation as the user cannot continue without setting a pin which I think contributes to a good user experience as otherwise the user would have to type the 12 word passphrase every time they would like to log in or complete a transaction. Originally saving the passphrase to the device and creating a pin was not worded clearly at this point so it’s great to see that a change has been made here. The only recommendation I would suggest here is adding validation on the character size of the pin as it currently accepts a one-digit pin.
When confirming your passphrase, I enjoy being able to reorder the words on the screen rather than having to type each word individually as this can become time consuming and frustrating with every typo that you make. The word pool also includes extra words that are not included in your passphrase to add an additional layer of security. Only 12 of the 18 words will be included in your passphrase that you will have written down by this point.
The Homepage
What I like about the homepage is that the three core pieces of functionality are what the homepage is designed around. Viewing transactions, sending funds and the receiving tabs are clearly visible and labelled appropriately. The transactions tab is exactly what I would expect with nothing over complicated and users will see a simple list of transactions with the basic details of the transaction. Clicking on the transaction itself will show more advanced details but it is initially hidden from users who are not interested which creates an organised user interface.
The send tab is equally as simple with the mandatory fields such as the address and amount all clearly labelled and more importantly, all fields are kept above the fold. Minimal scrolling creates a better user experience and this page requires zero scrolling. Rather than typing in the passphrase at the bottom to confirm your transaction, you can simply click the second icon on the right and use your pin although I think this icon could be made slightly more prominent for the user.
Finally, the receive tab ticks all the boxes. Above the fold, really simple and could not be labelled any clearer. We discussed how adding simple content to this page is often under appreciated. Stating in black and white “Your address is” and “Your account’s QR code is” ensures that absolutely no users can be confused by this page and contributes to a page that is user friendly for most, if not all.
Contacts
I enjoy seeing a contacts page on any wallet as I think it is especially important for those users who make regular transactions. Adding a contact saves a huge amount of time for people rather than having to copy and paste addresses or scan QR codes on a regular basis. Adding a contact is a user friendly process as you just need to input a name and the address. The contact list is automatically sorted into A-Z which adds an extra level of organisation to the page.
It is also great to see validation on the address field as the user must input a minimum amount of characters. This will reduce the amount of users who make mistakes and as a results of this will also reduce the amount of support tickets and emails for the team. I think the next step would be to introduce further validation which only accepts valid Ardor addresses but I’m sure this will be introduced in a future version.
Chain Gateway
The Chain Gateway option on the menu is where you can swap Ardor tokens for other tokens that are on the Ardor child chain such as IGNIS and BitSwift. The best feature of the Chain Gateway for me is that you don’t have to sign up to anything, you aren’t forwarded to a 3rd party as the full process is completed via the mobile app itself. Users are often left frustrated when they are redirected to a 3rd party as it becomes a much more long winded process. Completing the transaction in the Ardor mobile wallet keeps the user journey smooth and makes it much more appealing for users to actually use!
To add to the user experience, the transaction fees on the ARDR chain are extremely cheap and quick. The only issue that I can see when using the Chain Gateway is around liquidity which is something that will only come with an increase of users.
Settings
My personal favourite feature in the settings is the night mode option. Something that I have appreciated much more since joining the cryptocurrency space! During the Expert Product Review, we spoke about some changes to the night mode design to offer a more consistent and professional look to the night mode styling and the developers have done really well in implementing that.
I also think that offering a line of support for users who could be struggling to use the app is extremely important so I am glad to see that an email address has been added after our discussions. The next step for me would be adding more social options such as the community Discord and Twitter page which will give the users more methods of contact but will also reduce the amount of emails and therefore result in less time reading emails for the team.
Conclusion
It’s great to see so many of the changes made by the team that we recommended and discussed during the Expert Product Review. Although many were small tweaks around content, design and security, it all contributes to the users overall experience and should always be taken seriously. Without any users, your product is essentially useless!
The core functionality of the app works perfectly which many would argue is most important but it’s great to see a team in the blockchain space take user experience seriously and understand the importance of it. I am looking forward to seeing further development of the Ardor Lite mobile wallet in the future.
Find out more and download the mobile wallet here.
This article has been brought to you by elevateUX.
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Disclaimers
- This was a sponsored article.
- All opinions and views within this article are my own.
- All screenshots were completed on demo accounts for the purpose of this article.
- This review was wrote on the Ardor Lite Mobile Wallet version 2.2.19.
