Blog 7 – Yiwei Han

THE UX OF FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | BLOG 07

Final Brief & First Prototype

14/07/21 – 25/11/21 (about 3 months - excluding summer holidays)

Design Brief: Materialise the obscurity and complexity of the Blockchain System.

Project Member: Yiwei(David) Han, Sue Heeyeon An.

Design Phase

Solidify the Design Brief

Our Final Design Brief (Made by Group)

"In short, blockchain-based systems are socio-technological assem blages which are made up not only of code, but also of a large variety of actors, including miners, validators, programmers, crypto currency and token holders, end-users, and, to a lesser extent, regulators. Having confidence in the system ultimately means trusting the whole assemblage of actors associated with that network." - De Filippi, Mannan and Reijers, 2020

Mapping Out Blockchain

Based on last week's feedback and reflection, this week we positioned our design to materialise the complexity and obscurity in the blockchain. And decided to study the underlying logic of the blockchain thoroughly (with a focus on the Bitcoin blockchain) and list out its components and operations. In addition to this, I gained more knowledge about blockchain by watching a blockchain course at Peking University. We then summarised all the features we had learnt and thought about which features we wanted to prioritise that we should materialise.

Sue's Map of Blockchain (Made by Sue).

David's Map of Blockchain (Made by David).

Grouop Discussion trough drawing (Courstey of Sue).

Our Findings - The Structure of Blockchain

We find that there is a structure to the blockchain system, where each layer has its own key role in ensuring the various characteristics of the blockchain and involving different actors. We exclude the contract and incentive layers because we do not believe they are generalizable or a key feature of blockchains.

The First Layer of the blockchain is the Application Layer, i.e. the interface (either a website platform, or an app, plugin, etc.) through which the blockchain user (cryptocurrency purchaser, NFT trader, blockchain application user) talks to the blockchain and through which the user can activate and trigger the blockchain system. — Actors: Users, Token holders, Cryptocurrency buyers.
The Second Layer of the blockchain is the Data Layer/Encryption Layer, where the user's actions (e.g. purchase transactions) are encrypted into a hash number and stored in a new block with other users' actions (after being encrypted). — Actors: Miners, Validators, Programmers.
The Third Layer is the Consensus Layer, where the new block is created and then checked by other nodes in the blockchain network. If there is a problem with the content of the new block, it will not be passed and a new block will need to be generated, otherwise it will be passed. — Actors: Miners, Validators.
The Fourth Layer is the Network Layer, i.e. the new block will be broadcasted by the node that created it and other nodes will synchronise this information until the whole network is updated with this new information and the transactions in the block are considered to be officially written or recorded in the blockchain. — Actors: Users, Token holders, Cryptocurrency buyers, Miners, Validators, Programmers, Regulators.

Architecture of blockchain system with Human actors (Made by David).

Our Drawer Model Idea about revealing invisible Blockchain's Layers (Courtesy of David).

We also found that of these layers of the blockchain, all but the first one are almost invisible. How can we devise a way to externalise these invisible layers without losing the wholeness? We came up with the idea of a drawer structure, which reveals the internal layers of the blockchain by pulling open the drawer. So Sue and I set about modelling our first concept prototype based on this idea.

Modelling Blockchain

We then began to think about how to metaphorically represent these various layers of the blockchain by using suitable physical models. We tried to start with simple materials and metaphors. So we made our first generation of physical models in our exploration.

Metaphors in our first physical prototype:

Application Layer: A small ball that can be dropped into a pipe. This is a metaphor for any action in the blockchain application interface that can activate the blockchain (e.g. buying confidential currency, NFT, etc.).
Consensus Layer: None, because we did not decide at that time which consensus mechanism to choose.
Network Layer: A platform with many sequins placed on it and a cardboard wall with many striped gaps cut out on both sides. When a flashlight or spotlight shines from the outside of the structure to the inside, the illuminated sequins will glow, while the striped shadows of the cardboard wall will cover the sequins, visually creating the impression that the striped shadows connect the sequins. When the light moves and sways, the glitter of the sequins will be seen passing and spreading, and the shadow grid is changing. This is a metaphor for the spread and synchronisation of blockchain networks
Data Layer: A slip of paper with a code written on it is drawn from the pipe. This is a metaphor for the fact that information about transactions in the blockchain will be encrypted.

Making our first model (Courtesy of David).

Testing Application Layer (Courtesy of David).

Testing Network Layer (Courtesy of David).

Testing Network Layer (Courtesy of David).

First Prototype (Courtesy of Sue).

The structure of the model corresponds to the structure of the blockchain (Made by David).

Feedback Session

We demonstrated our first prototype model and its experience flow to the designers and tutors. There are some valuable feedback:

Thinking further about the scale of the model, what if it were table-sized? What if it were the size of a computer? What would be the practical size for human experience and interaction?
The vertical structural metaphor makes more sense as it corresponds to Benjamin Bratton's concept of the Stack.
Can we add some criticality inside each layer?

Inspiration on how to upgrade our model (Made by Group).

Reference

Bratton, B.H. (2016). The Stack : on Software and Sovereignty. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Mit Press.

De Filippi, P., Mannan, M. and Reijers, W. (2020). Blockchain as a Confidence machine: the Problem of Trust & Challenges of Governance. Technology in Society, [online] 62, p.101284. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X20303067#sec4 [Accessed 26 Oct. 2021].

Koshik Raj (2019). Foundations of blockchain : the pathway to cryptocurrencies and decentralized blockchain applications. Birmingham, Uk: Packt Publishing.

Whitaker, A. (2019). Art and Blockchain: A Primer, History, and Taxonomy of Blockchain Use Cases in the Arts. Artivate: A Journal of Enterprise in the Arts, pp.21–47.