Bitcoin is a grass routes movement built on the permissionless access that only an open source community can provide. Anyone can get involved in the bitcoin network, be it in the core aspect of the network like running a node, providing security by mining, providing utility by creating software that communicates with the network and more.
While many of the early bitcoin applications are focusing on making sure their applications are reliable, secure and robust, it often means that design and user interfaces suffer as they are not a focal point at the moment. Getting high-quality designers and UI researchers to ensure the application experience is as easy to use as possible can be costly, too, further adding to the lack of good app experiences.
One project aiming to tackle the lack of user-facing design is the team at Bitcoin Design, an open source design project helping applications leverage the talents of bitcoin plebs from around the world.
As bitcoin’s popularity continues to rise, it reaches more people, and with that, we need the best experience possible to onboard them and keep them in bitcoin. If a user has a bad bitcoin experience, they may be turned off and not bother to learn more about it.
Helping make bitcoin more intuitive and accessible
Bitcoin design believes everyone must be able to participate in this new economy regardless of technical expertise or geography. That can only happen if creators everywhere have the resources and community necessary to foster better bitcoin experiences.
If you’re a designer or UI expert who is frustrated with the current state of bitcoin applications or would like to get some experience in the sector to add to your portfolio, then finding open source projects to work on is a great way to get involved.
The Bitcoin Design Community and its Slack Channel make it easy to access is an open space to discuss and explore everything bitcoin and design. Open standards are part of our foundation, so all our work can also be found on Github.
The bitcoin design guide
Their pioneer first community project, the Bitcoin Design Guide, is a free, open-source repository for anyone building non-custodial bitcoin products. The guide will eventually cover consumer wallets, merchant interactions, financial applications, and more.
If you’d like to help by providing feedback, submitting ideas, or creating content, check out the list of current issues or join us on Slack.
Alternatively, you can find applications looking for feedback and contributions, all listed on their website, which you can apply to and get involved.
How to contribute to bitcoin design?
Depending on your skills and interest, you can help in several ways. We design, illustrate, write copy and code, do technical research, discuss and answer questions, run workshops and community calls, and more. Design is a multidisciplinary activity, and there are many ways to be part of this community and help improve how we interact with the bitcoin protocol.
How to get involved in the community
- Join the community on Slack and say hi in the #introductions channel
- Subscribe to the newsletter and follow on Twitter to stay up-to-date
- Subscribe and watch recordings of calls we organized on BitcoinTV and YouTube
- Read up on our project life cycle
- Subscribe to our calendar for calls and events we organize
- Browse issues for upcoming calls and discussions around process and coordination
How to get involved in projects
- See the projects we are either involved in or recommend on the projects page
- Browse issues labelled as collaborations
- Browse the various Slack channels to see what projects are being discussed and chime in. Open-source relies on pro-active contributions.
- Contribute to the Bitcoin Design Guide
Get involved in bitcoin
There you have it, another way to get involved in the bitcoin space and provide your talents to the cause with this grass routes movement. All contributions help improve bitcoin applications and directly help onboard new users onto the network.
If you’d like to learn more about the app or give it a try, check out the links below.
Are you a bitcoin open source contributor?
Are you contributing to any bitcoin open source projects? Which project is your favourite? Do you have one you’d like us to cover? Let us know in the comments down below.
