Ubiquity is your bridge to blockchain data. A great user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) are the keystones of this bridge. 

The experience of our self-service node flow is equally important to delivering an enjoyable customer journey. The experience must be smooth, before, during and after a node is spun-up. 

We have long recognized that a great UX is vital for customer success. The best product features in the world come up short without this principle in mind. The gap between good and bad UX is vast, and between it lies either user satisfaction or dissatisfaction. 

To this end, we constantly strive to improve how users interact with Ubiquity and the self-service node flow. These iterations make the web app platform easier, smoother and more enjoyable to use. 

Recently, our design team has launched a major refresh of the user interface. This was crafted with a customer-first approach as our North Star. In this post, we’ll be outlining the spur towards this update, the features improved and the benefits to users. 

Ubiquity: The Journey to Data

Ubiquity generalizes blockchain content into a common format. Our clients use a single API to pull data from several major blockchains. Ubiquity closes the gap between users and on-chain data, across accounts, blocks, transactions and more.  

Our Ubiquity UI prior to this app refresh had been relatively simple. We previously dedicated more resources to building out the core functionality than the design. 

Our renewed focus on Ubiquity’s UI brings major improvements. The user journey is now an extension of Ubiquity’s identity. The enhanced design reflects the quality of the product. Any user, from a white-glove client to a freelance blockchain developer, now enjoys the same high-quality standard. 

The Web App UI Refresh: A Customer Centric Approach

A great UI experience helps clients get the most out of Ubiquity and our self-service node flow. To build a winning UI, our team of developers and designers looked at the product through our clients’ perspective. 

This approach helped answer the fundamental question, “what matters most to our users?” 

This led to the question, “how do we make our web app’s features as easy-as-possible to use?” 

The design team re-imagined the app through the lens of our users with this question in mind. 

By adopting this customer-centric approach, the team built-out a radical refresh of the web app UI. They have imbued the UI and UX with state-of-the-art, modern design principles. This is a significant departure from the previous version. 

New and Improved Features 

The improvements to the updated, customer-centric web app are as follows: 

1. Enhanced Ubiquity UI 

Our team overhauled the UI of the Blockchain Access section of the app. This includes both nodes and API. Some of these improvements included:

• Adding some helpful text about API keys.
• Including a new model for adding API keys.

• Building a new API access landing page. This shows the breakdown of plans with detailed info on each.

2. Structured Data for the Self-Service Node Flow

We have re-organized vital data to become much clearer for the user. To structure this data effectively, we have introduced tabs. These tabs organize data on both the node and API pages. Previously, data was crammed together into a single page. Information was jumbled and unorganized. With tabs, information is much easier to access. 

3. Clearer Metrics for the Self-Service Node Flow

The design team has radically improved how data is visualized. Node metrics have become clearer for the user. Specifically, we ensure that only timely, relevant data is shown before a node is running. 

Before, we had shown node connectivity info for nodes not yet live. If a node spin-up failed for any reason, this data would have disappeared. We did away with health checks for nodes that were not yet live. 

For live nodes, we enhanced health check charts. These are updated to show more data. Previously, no metrics were shown on the X and Y axes. Now, they are. 

Wrap-Up

Our team’s updates to the Blockdaemon platform are the next step in our user centered design approach. This philosophy improves both visual design and usability. Our design team, led by Ari, was instrumental in reinventing the app experience with empathy for our users. 

Through delivering a combination of a winning UI and an industry-leading feature set, Ubiquity took the next step in its exciting journey of revolutionizing accessibility to blockchain data. 

Similarly, our self-service node flow has entered into an exciting new stage of development, ushering in a more positive user experience.