UX Feedback

[pinheadmz]

I installed for macos, configured for super light mode, added BTC and bought a name in an auction with no other bidders.

UX notes:

1. wallet should be encrypted. Current "back up" button saves private key descriptor in plaintext in an Untitled.json file
   a. The private key is also stored unencrypted in wallets/default/wallet.json
   b. onboarding should require a password and encrypt the wallet and backups, this will be familiar to crypto users
2. When I opened the app for the first time I didn't choose a wallet -- out of curiosity I clicked "settings" first - then apparently I had a wallet already, that was unexpected since I didn't complete the onboarding process.
3. The app says syncing chain (99%) but then also says syncing headers (0%).
4. It would be nice to see a block height somewhere in the UI so I could verify sync height against another source like a block explorer
5. The balance says 0 sat while catching up after a few days of the app not being open. I see my actual balance once its synced but depending on the amount of money in the wallet thats a brief heart-attack moment
6. "Start Auction" should be disabled before the open transaction confirms so you don't double spend. There might be a safety for that already, I didn't actually try double spending my auction open because I was afraid of losing money or burning the name
7. "Commit" transaction created seven ~600-sat outputs in addition to the change output. I understand this is a coin control feature but I think it needs some work:

Coin control / 8 change outputs

• Very unexpected behavior
• Why ~600 sats per output? That's double the dust limit for taproot i guess?
• I think wallet coin pool health could be a separate thing, like a notice or warning that your wallet only has 1 spendable output, and what the risks are with that, then offer the user to improve wallet health. This is a general thing for bitcoin not just spaces and could use some interaction/feedback from the design community in general, not just for coin control but "wallet health".

I recommend joining the bitcoin design community, its free and open and has a great community of designers that are great at UI and UX, you mine as well get their help in wallet design. For example heres the design guide page for backing up descriptors which i think Akron could benefit from.

[buffrr]

Excellent feedback thanks!

wallet should be encrypted. Current "back up" button saves private key descriptor in plaintext in an Untitled.json file

There's a lot of room for improvement here indeed. Ideally, we should keep the wallet in watch-only mode most of the time with only public descriptors loaded in memory. When a user needs to sign a transaction, we decrypt the private key, sign the transaction, and wipe it from memory

When I opened the app for the first time I didn't choose a wallet -- out of curiosity I clicked "settings" first - then apparently I had a wallet already, that was unexpected since I didn't complete the onboarding process.

Agreed. This should work like a typical wallet e.g. show seed phrase in the onboarding process and make sure the user backed it up.

The app says syncing chain (99%) but then also says syncing headers (0%).

The progress bar is a little bit glitchy. Should be an easy fix.

The balance says 0 sat while catching up after a few days of the app not being open. I see my actual balance once its synced but depending on the amount of money in the wallet thats a brief heart-attack moment

That's something i have noticed as well. It can be scary to see the balance showing 0 haha.

"Start Auction" should be disabled before the open transaction confirms so you don't double spend. There might be a safety for that already, I didn't actually try double spending my auction open because I was afraid of losing money or burning the name

Good point.

"Commit" transaction created seven ~600-sat outputs in addition to the change output. I understand this is a coin control feature but I think it needs some work:

We haven't optimized this yet - we chose a quick default that's too implicit and suboptimal. The UX requires more thought. I like the idea of asking users if they want to pre-create UTXOs for bids to save on future fees, but this should be completely explicit.

Why ~600 sats per output? That's double the dust limit for taproot i guess?

Yeah but this will change soon to make it less likely to get refunded dust on low bid auctions, and we also default to a higher minimum bid.