Designing NOVA: a bridge to better EOS Experience
Tags: Dapp, Eos, Eosys, En, Nova

Designing NOVA: a bridge to better EOS Experience

Interview with Wizard Works

What makes a service handy and easy-to-use? How could it be designed when there aren’t that many best practices to refer to? We tried to find the answer to these questions from a recent best practice, NOVA.

NOVA wallet is developed by Wizard Works, who believes UX can make a difference in mass adoption of EOS blockchain. In this regard, EOSYS team interviewed Changheok, the product lead of Wizard Works.

1. Why did Wizard Works name the product NOVA Wallet?

NOVA is the feminine form of the Latin word Novus, meaning ‘’New’. In the past, when people saw stars brightening up rapidly, they thought it was the birth of a new star, which became the origin of the word ‘Nova’. To us, it means our vision, “brightening the EOS ecosystem”. We named our product to reflect our pure intention.

2. What does NOVA pursue ultimately?

A Wallet that serves as a gateway for the development of the EOS ecosystem. Further explaining, ① ID certification for the use of DApps/ ② service support for air drops or air grabs / ③ participation in ICOs through the NOVA wallet to enable participation in the ecosystem, and through the NOVA wallet for the collective development of the EOS ecosystem as a whole.

3. What do you consider to be NOVA’s edge?

Token holder experience, which includes maintaining the same level of usability throughout different operating systems, introducing design concept that is easy to grasp for normal end-users.

4. Which aspects of the user experience (UX) did you focus most on?

‘Easy’ and ‘convenient’ were the two keywords we had in mind. When using existing Ethereum-based wallets, it was difficult to understand the usage and composition of the Wallet, so users took time to learn how to use the wallet. Thus, we focused on solving the complexity of the EOS related features. We asked ourselves a simple question, “how can users play with the wallet as if it’s a normal mobile banking application?” For accessibility, we’ve developed iOS version first to give handy token-holding experience. We have put the token list on the main page and decreased graphical components intentionally to pursue simplicity.

5. What is the design philosophy behind NOVA wallet?

Our design philosophy values simplicity, and security. No matter how well an app is developed, if it’s difficult to use, user retention will be low. Therefore, we would like to make it easier for holders to use the functions provided by the NOVA Wallet.

Our wallet is technically supported by EOSYS. Although we can’t open our code due to legal issues, we can assure users of security. Private keys are saved in encrypted DB, and its sandbox structure makes it safer. The encrypted private key is not accessible unless he/she uses the phone abnormally such as jailbreak and routing. In case of emergency, Nova automatically shuts down the access of jailbreaked and routed phones.

In addition to the structured solution, we enhanced security by adding biometric features for permission. NOVA prevents 3rd party breach under unusual situations using the authentication methods supported by the device such as fingerprint and face recognition.

6. What are some of the things you had in mind when designing UI/UX?

The first and imperative aspect to consider was constructing a product identity. So we first thought of the concept through the name, NOVA. We tried to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere by selecting the connection between NOVA and EOS’ concept as the goddess of the dawn. We picked the mysterious and neutral index purple as the key color and dissolved the soft color that was seen on the planet through graduation, as Nova’s identity. Also, since it supports multi operating systems, we designed it in a way that does not harm the usability of each OS. In addition to usability, we have always tried to solve the problem by thinking about the characteristics of the users who found NOVA and how to easily depict the service goals that NOVA intends to obtain.

7. Last words for users?

NOVA Wallet internally maintains a list of possible ways to improve the service, as well as specific updates. We look forward to receiving user feedbacks & questions so that we could improve EOS experience! That said, what we promise is that we’ll keep our design philosophy, and will not stop improving UX!

We look forward to the future steps of Wizard Works. Also, NOVA is now gathering a beta tester now, and we are inviting android users to join!

[NOVA Wallet]

Android Beta test: https://bit.ly/2NT1Q3q

iOS Download: https://apple.co/2M7MzuK

Telegram : http://bit.ly/2L6fRxu

Homepage : http://bit.ly/2Lj7Bdu