User Perspectives on Blockchain Technology: User-Centered Evaluation and Design Strategies for DApps

Emerging technologies have played an important role in driving major changes in human society. However, the advent of most technologies is typically initially accompanied by confusion; this is often because technology developers overlook the user perspective. This study was conducted to systematically determine the fundamental causes of problems that users encounter when they interact with blockchain technology, one of the promising emerging technologies today, and to suggest relevant design strategies. To this end, usability evaluation was conducted for the KDEX decentralized exchange application. To ensure the effective identification of the significant usability problems, heuristic evaluation with four experts and usability testing with 23 experimental participants were carried out. The results obtained show that more user-centered design is necessary to enable the widespread use of decentralized applications. Based on the experimental findings, actionable design strategies that facilitate the effective utilization of emerging technologies are suggested. The proposed strategies are expected to enable users to easily understand and navigate applications based on these technologies.