Hey everyone! It’s Nandini, product designer (still in college, by the way!) here, and wow, what a ride it’s been this summer. I’m buzzing with excitement to share my journey as a mentee in Summer of Bitcoin (SoB) — seriously, if you’re a young designer with a spark for innovation, you have to check this out next year!

Saving Satoshi — My Web3 design journey

My SoB Journey: A Rollercoaster of Emotions

Getting into Summer of Bitcoin was a journey in itself, and honestly, it started with a classic “me” moment of minor panic and clumsy attitude! Before even getting to the proposal stage, we had a couple of assignments to learn about Design in Bitcoin.

My first assignment was all about diving deep into wallet analysis, and you can check out my work here:

Assignment 1: Wallet Analysis

Then came Assignment 2 , where I continued exploring the Bitcoin design landscape with Electrum:

Assignment 2: Summer of Bitcoin Week 2

Now, for the “oops!” moment. After submitting Assignment 1,

I got this email… a rejection!

My heart sank. Turns out, I had forked the repository and created a pull request to submit my work, which is standard practice in open-source, right? But for SoB, they wanted a direct submission. A quick reach-out to the admin, and thankfully, it was all sorted. But trust me, that rejection mail was a scary moment! It just goes to show, sometimes it’s the little things, but don’t let them deter you from reaching out and clarifying!

The Interview Marathon & Landing Saving Satoshi

After surviving the assignment round, it was time for proposals. I poured my heart into two proposals, and guess what? I got interviewed for both of them! Talk about a confidence boost after that initial scare.

My proposals were:

• Saving Satoshi Proposal
• Bitcoin Orbis Proposal

Ultimately, I got selected for Saving Satoshi , which I was absolutely thrilled about! The project description instantly hooked me:

Saving Satoshi — an educational bitcoin RPG

Saving Satoshi is a light-hearted, interactive role-playing game (RPG) about bitcoin tech. While it’s been a great success, there has been some drop off where users lose interest and stop playing, particularly after chapter 3, when the game begins to incorporate more coding exercises. For this project, I’d be putting on my detective hat to find specific places in the game where user drop off is occurring and why. My goal? To design** research-based improvements** that,by the end of summer , will be fully integrated and** live in the production environment** .

This wasn’t just about designing; it was about understanding user behavior, solving real problems, and making Bitcoin education more accessible and engaging.

As a product designer, that’s exactly where my passion lies!

Diving Deep: My Work So Far on Saving Satoshi

My journey with Saving Satoshi has been incredibly fulfilling. Before SoB, I was already pretty active in the Bitcoin design community , contributing by writing a research plan for the Dana Wallet and even making some UIs for the Bitcoin Core app. This background gave me a solid foundation for what was to come.

My main focus this summer has been tackling the user drop-off after Chapter 3 in Saving Satoshi. This is where the game introduces more coding, and naturally, some users hit a wall. My mentors, Lee Gordon and Deeksha Satapathy , have been phenomenal, guiding me every step of the way. And of course Stacie always there to guide, support and encourage my ideas.

To continue working onChristoph’s work was an honor in itself as him being an experienced designer for mor than decades unlike me a newbie compared of him.

I got connected with the first product manager, ecurrencyhodler(Andrew), and gathered his point of view on the project.

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve been up to:

User Research, My Way: I’ve been on a mission to understand why users are dropping off. This involved extensive user interviews with a diverse group of participants. You can see some of the raw insights I’ve gathered and analyzed using tools like Claude AI for pattern recognition in my User Interview Documents (Tejas Ashri, Rashi Jyotishi, Shivansh Bhatnagar, Ayush Bansal, Anoushka Jha, Eshaan Aggarwal, Saumya). It’s been an eye-opening experience, truly putting myself in the users’ shoes.

Crafting Research Tools: I designed dynamic survey forms on Survey JS to gather quantitative data and structured interview questions to delve into qualitative insights.

Here’s a peek at one of the dynamic survey forms I created: DynamicSurvey Form

Problem Identification: Through detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis, I’ve identified several key pain points. These include:

• Steep difficulty spikes after Chapter 3.
• Unclear instructions and ambiguous pseudocode in coding challenges.
• Insufficient and hard-to-find hints.
• Lack of visual interaction and engaging storytelling in later chapters.
• Technical barriers like unclear error messages and progress not being saved.
• And yes, those pesky UI/UX navigation issues where users couldn’t easily find buttons or hints!
• Brainstorming Solutions: Based on the research, I’ve been brainstorming and proposing a ton of solutions. We’re talking about:
• Scaffolded learning pathways to ease the difficulty curve.
• A redesigned hint system with tiered, progressive hints that are actually discoverable.
• Enriched documentation and code examples to make learning smoother.
• Adding more visuals and storyline elements to keep the RPG vibe alive in later chapters.
• Improvements to error handling and ensuring progress is always saved.
• And of course, general UI/UX optimizations to make the whole experience seamless.

You can see a detailed breakdown of these findings and proposed solutions in my Saving Satoshi Chapter 4 UX Research Report. (This is where the Claude artifact comes in! I used it to organize and tag my research findings, making it super efficient: Dashboard)

Collaboration and Mentorship: This entire experience has been a masterclass in collaboration. Working with the Saving Satoshi team and my mentors has not only honed my design skills but also my communication and problem-solving abilities. It’s a true testament to the power of open-source and community-driven development.

What’s Next for This Bitcoin Design Enthusiast?

The summer is far from over, and my brain is overflowing with ideas! My immediate future plans involve taking all the research and insights from the report and actively applying them to design improvements for Saving Satoshi. This means:

• Implementing Designs: The next two months of my mentorship will be all about bringing these research-backed designs to life in Figma, creating tangible solutions for the pain points we’ve identified.
• A/B Testing & Iteration: I’m super excited to conduct A/B tests on the new designs to see their real-world impact on user retention and engagement. It’s all about data-driven design, right? And iterating based on what we learn.
• Knowledge Sharing: I’m committed to continually documenting all my ideas, whether they’re “crazy” or conventional, into a central file. This will serve as a valuable resource for future iterations and for anyone looking to contribute to Saving Satoshi. It’s all about paying it forward and building a stronger design community!
• Encouraging Young Talent: I genuinely believe that Summer of Bitcoin is an incredible platform for budding designers, especially those interested in the fascinating world of Bitcoin. If you’re a product designer in college like me, don’t hesitate to apply next year. The experience, the mentorship, and the chance to contribute to impactful projects are truly invaluable.

My journey with Summer of Bitcoin has reinforced my belief in the power of design to solve complex problems and make a real difference. The Bitcoin space is ripe for talented designers, and I can’t wait to see what we build together!

Stay curious, keep designing, and maybe I’ll see you in the Bitcoin design community!