Casestudy
TL:DR;
Wadaage
Gave a Nostr client the UX equivalent of a shower, haircut, and therapy session.
Because “functional” isn’t the same as “usable,” and someone had to stage an intervention.
Stage 1: Identification – Or, How a Casual Conversation Turned into a Full-Blown UX Rescue Mission for the Nostr Universe
It all began the way most of my projects do: accidentally.
A casual convo. A weird new term. And the five fateful words that trigger every designer’s descent into madness:
“Have you heard of Nostr?”
Cue rabbit hole.
My friend Aziza, AI enthusiast, chaos connoisseur, and magnet for broken platforms, had been using Nostr clients like Amethyst, Iris, and Damus.
Technically functional, but emotionally scarring. Think: Twitter, but coded in the dark, during a thunderstorm, on a stolen VPN from 2004.
She said, “Let’s build something better. Something usable. Something that doesn’t make you question your life choices.”
And just like that, Wedaage was born: the client app that would do what the others didn’t (in short an app that works), but without the digital trauma.
The Mission Brief: Build a Nostr Client That Doesn’t Feel Like a Vibe Coded Slob
Here’s what we weren’t going to do:
Ship another half-baked, migraine-inducing app that crashes harder than your weekend plans.
Our actual goal?
Cherry-pick the best parts from existing Nostr apps (yes, even the ones held together by duct tape).
Design an experience that respects your eyeballs and your patience.
Make it work on both iOS and Android, because exclusivity is cute until Android users revolt.
Listen to actual users. Like, early. Often. Obsessively.
And finally: make Wedaage the one Nostr client people install and keep.
No rage-quits. No uninstall regrets. Just good vibes and great UX.
Stage 2: The Selection Phase, AKA, Research, Roasts, and Reckonings
Before even opening Figma, it was time to face the music:
Why does every Nostr client feel like Craigslist circa 2007? Why do they all either crash, confuse, or ghost the user like a bad Tinder date?
So I asked the real questions:
What do users actually want?
What are they sick of?
Can we fix this without making it feel like a Frankensteined hackathon project?
Here’s What I Hypothesized:
If we design something that doesn’t suck, users will notice (and stay).
If we support both iOS and Android, no one’s left out.
If we stop pretending we know better than users, we might actually build something people enjoy.
So, we interviewed. We tested. We got brutally honest feedback:
Iris was so minimalist it disappeared.
Amethyst ran on vibes, bugs, and occasional crashes.
Damus? Smooth, but only if you’re in the iOS gated community.
Users? “Just give us a normal app, please.”
Conclusion:
Nostr needed a serious UX detox.
Wedaage wouldn’t just be another option. It’d be the spa day these users didn’t know they needed.
Stage 3: The Engagement Phase... Two Weeks, One Design, and a Mild Case of Sleep Deprivation
Welcome to the MVP sprint, or as I like to call it:
“What if we did everything… immediately?”
Week One: ✨ Crickets.
No designs. Just panic and Post-its.
Week Two:
✅ One solid, actually-usable design
✅ Real validation from real humans (not just my reflection)
✅ Eye twitching from 72 hours of prototyping
The Method Behind the Madness:
🔥 Focus on one high-quality design
🔁 Iterate like a designer on espresso
📣 Gather feedback from every corner of the internet (and my friends' inboxes)
We borrowed:
Damus’s sleek interface
Amethyst’s concept (minus the chaos)
Iris’s minimalist vibes (but gave them substance)
Wedaage finally felt like a product. Not a half-baked crypto side hustle. Not a beta graveyard.
A real app that’s clean, functional, and dangerously close to being delightful.
Stage 4: Feedback & Validation ... Where Chaos Meets Compliments (and Nobody Rage-Quits)
Was it all worth it? ✅ Yes.
Was it built in a storm of uncertainty, sleep deprivation, and over-caffeinated decisions? Also ✅ Yes.
The Results:
Users actually liked it. Even the snarkiest early testers gave it a thumbs up. (A miracle. Or witchcraft. 🤷🏽)
The UI felt like a place you’d want to be in, not just tolerate while sobbing softly.
Aziza went full hype mode and started implementation like she just discovered coding at age 13.
Bottom line? Wedaage wasn’t just “not bad” ... it was actually good. Which, for a Nostr client? Practically revolutionary.
Preview My Mental Breakdown …
What I Learned (The Hard Way): Where Deadlines, Delusion, and Design Collide
This one came with battle scars, and solid takeaways:
Designer-dev sync is underrated sorcery. When both sides embrace the chaos and the craft? You get actual progress (and fewer nervous breakdowns).
Time is a illusion. Plans are cute, but the real gold shows up when you're winging it at 2am with Figma and blind faith.
A/B testing was the one that got away. We didn’t have time for it, but next time, we’re bringing data to the design duel.
Crafted with ❤️, fueled by a ton of coffee ☕ and not enough 💤... (Believe me)